Analysis Of 'How The West Won'

Rodney Stark argues in his book How the West Won that although in the early Roman and Greek world there were many advancements and innovations, there were also many problems. As a Christian historian, he delves more into how Christianity was treated in this time period and how those who believed in God actually brought more advancements to early Western civilization. As any good author, Stark begins his book by explaining his main points and what he hopes to convey in terms of historical importance. He stresses that as Americans, we are becoming more and more ignorant of how the Western world came to be. We are slowly letting Western civilization classes fall out of our educational systems, causing a lack of knowledge about the modern world.

Greek civilization spurred the modern Western world but the empires before this were lacking, causing a need for the “Greek miracle”. Stark claims that after a period of stagnation and lack of progress, the Greek society brought forth an era of “intellectual and artistic as well as technological” progress (13). The Greeks helped contribute to modern democracy, literature, entertainment, and even warfare. Stark argues that even though the Greeks spent a large majority of their time pondering the meaning of life and how the world around them came into being, they did not believe in God. However, Stark argues that Plato believed in a higher power, but did not specifically name Christ or God. Finally, Stark ends this chapter with the idea that even though the Greeks were eventually destroyed due to the rise of Rome, their ideas and beliefs lived

His argument that the Roman empire was not actually progressive but rather stagnant was a very interesting idea that I had never encountered before but I strongly agree with his arguments. In fact, several of his unique perspectives are backed up by sound logic and evidence. This helped aid his credibility and kept me, as the reader, very intrigued and