Lost to the West

The Forgotten Byzantine Empire That Rescued Western Civilization

By: Lars Brownworth

Narrated by: Lars Brownworth

Length: 10 hrs and 3 mins

Publisher's summary

Filled with unforgettable stories of emperors, generals, and religious patriarchs, as well as fascinating glimpses into the life of the ordinary citizen, Lost to the West reveals how much we owe to the Byzantine Empire that was the equal of any in its achievements, appetites, and enduring legacy. For more than a millennium, Byzantium reigned as the glittering seat of Christian civilization.

When Europe fell into the Dark Ages, Byzantium held fast against Muslim expansion, keeping Christianity alive. Streams of wealth flowed into Constantinople, making possible unprecedented wonders of art and architecture. And the emperors who ruled Byzantium enacted a saga of political intrigue and conquest as astonishing as anything in recorded history. Lost to the West is replete with stories of assassination, mass mutilation and execution, sexual scheming, ruthless grasping for power, and clashing armies that soaked battlefields with the blood of slain warriors numbering in the tens of thousands.

©2009 Lars Brownworth (P)2009 Random House

Critic reviews

"Captivating…In Lost to the West Lars Brownworth shows a novelist’s eye for character, bringing to life some of the most fascinating — and yet little known -- figures of the Byzantine era. But it is as a researcher into the obscurities of palace intrigue, treachery, and battlefield carnage that Lars really shines. With dry humor and a palette of vivid images, he recounts the dizzying game of musical chairs that placed one usurper after another on the Byzantine throne, only to be pitched off in a gaudily macabre way. In the end, one is left agog by the irony that the upshot of this centuries-long scrum was the preservation of nearly all that the Greeks have bequeathed to us.”—Steven Pressfield, author of Gates of Fire

“Rome never fell -- it simply moved five hundred miles East -- to Byzantium. For over a thousand years the Byzantines commanded one of the most visceral and vivid empires the world has ever known. And yet their achievements are consistently underplayed; written out of history. Lars Brownworth is a rare talent. His contagious passion brings murderous empresses, conniving eunuchs, lost Greek texts and Byzantine treasures of fairy-tale proportions blinking back into the light. Confidently striding through time and across the mountains and plains of the Eastern Mediterranean, Brownworth puts this theocratic superstate slap-bang in the center of mankind's global story; back where it should be. The Byzantines made our world what it is today. Lars Brownworth matches their verve and brio in his seductive and gripping account.”—Bettany Hughes, PBS host and author of Helen of Troy

“This is history as it used to be, history as story-telling. In this fascinating account of the Byzantine empire, Lars Brownworth covers a thousand years of blood-letting, outrageous luxury, bitter religious disputes and vaulting ambition without giving the slightest impression of being rushed or crowded. The page turns unaided.”—Anthony Everitt, bestselling author of Augustus, Cicero and The First Emperor

Fantastic Overview of Byzantine History

The author does a fantastic job at providing readers with a clear and concise history of the Eastern Roman Empire from beginning to end. The author is the narrator and does a great job. Very easy to understand and follow.

Fantastic

Say what you may, for those who take offense.

One thing this book reinforces is to take pride in the history of the Byzantines.
The accomplishments are many and the west left the East hanging…. The Eastern Empire stood alone for the most part yet was the gateway into Europe from the Middle East. The emperors played their roles creating the history we learn, whether good or bad. It’s another reminder, to never forget.

A wonderful introduction…

This book serves as an all-too-brief introduction to a time period, geographical area, & culture that has been too often ignored by U.S. historical offerings. I wish it was 10 times as long, but that’s more a testament to its quality than due to any textual defect. This book ignited my love affair with the Byzantine world that I intend to feed with the more in-depth books on the topic. It’s a great gateway to a world I’ll explore for decades to come, & perhaps if it was much longer I would have been too daunted to take a look in the first place.

Lost to the West is told in the narrative style which I found immensely intriguing & engaging. I found myself actually caring for the historical figures covered, mourning for the shortcomings of the Eastern Empire, & even rooting for its triumph despite knowing its ultimately tragic end.

I found the author’s narration soothing & personable, even if I thought some of his pronunciations were off from time-to-time. As someone with the misfortune of constantly accidentally saying two different words at once, I suppose I found these instances more endearing than off-putting.

Chances are, if you came across this book it’s because you’re familiar with Mr Brownworth’s podcast, “12 Byzantine Rulers.” I loved that podcast. The bad news is that, if there’s more content in this book than the podcast, there’s not *much* more. That’s my main complaint; having access to the podcast for free, I didn’t get much more when I spent the equivalent of $16 on this audiobook.

Despite that, this book is absolutely worth the purchase/read, if just to act as encouragement for this sort of narrative historical gem-finding. Good on you, Lars.

An Impressive, Informative Work!

Extremely well researched and written, containing more information in one place than any other book I've listened to or read about the spectacular and doomed Byzantine Empire. A must for western history students. My only real critique is that the author was apparently so emotionally wed to his intellectual child that he couldn't allow anyone else to read it. I personally wish that he had reconsidered that choice and hired a voice actor, or at least someone who could replace the author's gentle monotone (I'm sorry) with the true vocal drama that this wonderful story of Byzantium deserved.

Good story

Good story with some entertaining vignettes.
Could have used an accompanying
PDF with maps and timelines.

EXTRAORDINARY, IF SAD ACCOUNT OF BIZANTINE HISTORY

Would you listen to Lost to the West again? Why?

Yes, it is an excellent sequel to lectures on Hebrew, Greek and Roman civilizations of antiquity (from Modern Scholar series) and this book is a great link from that to the end of the middle ages.

What was one of the most memorable moments of Lost to the West?

The final heroic fall of Constantinople in 1453 and the last emperor Constantine XI are incredibly sad but extraordinary accounts.

Which character – as performed by Lars Brownworth – was your favorite?

Belisarius, the amazing general and incredibly faithful follower of Emperor Justinian, who managed to reconquer almost the entire roman world for the Empire.

Was there a moment in the book that particularly moved you?

The fall of Constantinople to the Ottoman Turks in 1453

Any additional comments?

This book helps understand, sadly, the roots of the deep hatred that run among the peoples in the Balkans, and between them and Turkey. It also reminds us of the long history of atrocities committed in the name of faith.

A beautifully told history of Byzantium

An excellent starting point to rediscover the history of the Byzantine empire, told with the perfect ballance of detail and heart, conjuring up images of its splendor and its final moments, as well as its huge significance for European history. Highly recommended.

A surprising account of the end of Rome

I really loved this book, it made me fall in love with the Byzantium Empire. The end of the book was somewhat depressing after the riveting accounts of the empires success in the early part of the book.

Well written and achieves its purpose well

The Eastern Roman Empire lasted over 1000 years, so implicitly no author can cover it thoroughly in a relatively short book (to cover it completely, you need something excessively long like John Julius Norwich’s massive 3 book Byzantium anthology).

That said, Barnsworth did an excellent job covering the Eastern Roman Empire. His enthusiasm really makes the book. I’d argue he’s the most enthusiastic historian I’ve read and makes ~1,100 years of history come to life and easy to internalize. He excited me so much that I immediately read Cowley’s book on the Venitian Republic, Frankopan’s Silk Roads, and Graves’ historical fiction book on the Byzantine general Belisarius.

I had previously read several books that covered chunks of Byzantine history—so was already fairly familiar with some periods at the beginning and end of the Empire—but found this book filled in holes of knowledge that I had, tied different periods together and brought a handful of specific powerful facts, that randomly hadn’t heard before.

This is well written and flows well. More importantly, his enthusiasm is something else and makes the book. Unlike other histories that require extra attention to follow, this doesn’t. Given that this book covers over 1,100 years of history in ~10 hours made me respect how extremely well written it is and generally efficient it was. It flows well. Everything really digs in and easily to internalize.

That said, while this book does a great job introducing you to the Eastern Roman Empire, but isn’t perfect. This book should have been 10-15% longer. I wish Barnsworth included more about military history. A short book like this doesn’t have room to go in-depth on specific battles, but I wish he explained weaponry, tactics and how Byzantine warfare evolved. Specifically, how Belisarius revolutionized heavy cavalry, how Greek Fire was used, impact if crossbows, when the Byzantines turned to mercenaries instead of a standing army, decline of Byzantine navy, and more on the Varangian Guard.

I also wish Barnsworth focused more into trade and economic history given Constantinople’s capitalist dominance—what the trade routes were, high taxes, what was being traded. I was shocked he didn’t include the story of sneaking silk worms out of China given its economic impact and how it led to war between Justinian and the Persians. Likewise, how the economic fallout from the next Byzantine-Persian War led to Islam as a way to unite the Arab peoples (Frankopan did an excellent job here).

I also wish Barnsworth dug in more about health, lifestyle and domestic life—and how it evolved over a thousand years.

That all said, this book did an excellent job and achieved its goal of covering Byzantine history at a glance. More impressively is how it flows and brings this ancient and great civilization to life. He’s right in that it’s weird how Byzantine history is overlooked in American schools. He did a near perfect job addressing this gap in academia.

P.S. while I generally wish he was more analytical, he did have some specific points I’d never heard before. Specifically, I thought his point about Constantine implementing the guild system in the west was profoundly influential in creating the dark ages.

P.P.S. If you liked this, I highly recommend reading Frankopan’s Silk Roads book next.

Emotional history

An impressively captivating story. The tragedy of the historical narrative really hit my emotion hard. I nearly had tears in my eyes by the end.