Preface
1. See https://en.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/human_nature.
2. Visit www.warsintheworld.com or do your own online searches, and you’ll see what I mean.
Introduction
1. John Glubb, The Fate of Empires and Search for Survival (Edinburgh: William Blackwood & Sons, 1976, 1977), http://people.uncw.edu/kozloffm/glubb.pdf.
2. Cal Thomas, What Works: Common Sense Solutions for a Stronger America (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2014).
3. Glubb, The Fate of Empires, 24.
4. Ibid.
5. Ibid.
6. Ibid.
7. Ibid.
8. In his address to Western ambassadors on November 8, 1956, in the Polish embassy in Moscow.
9. Joe Carter, “Canadian Supreme Court Ruling Has Implications for Christian Witness,” Gospel Coalition (March 6, 2013), www.thegospelcoalition.org/article/canadian-supreme-court-ruling-has-implications-for-christian-witness/.
Chapter 1: The Persian Empire: Today a Shell of Its Great Past
1. See 2 Chronicles 36:22–23 as well as Ezra 1.
2. “Greco-Persian Wars,” Encyclopaedia Britannica (last updated March 18, 2019), www.britannica.com/event/Greco-Persian-Wars.
3. Peter Davidson, “Achaemenid Empire,” Ancient History Encyclopedia (February 11, 2011), www.ancient.eu/Achaemenid_Empire/.
4. Ibid.
5. Mehrdad Kia, The Persian Empire: A Historical Encyclopedia (Santa Barbara: ABC-CLIO, 2016), 127.
6. Modern totalitarian societies, notably Communist ones, have done the same, but their military mostly keep a lid on the people so any protest, not to mention a revolt, is quickly and brutally extinguished. Recall the Tiananmen Square student demonstration for freedom in June 1989, which was rapidly and violently put down by the Beijing government.
7. 1 Timothy 6:10.
8. Matthew 7:12.
9. Original copies were distributed in China, long before the days of digital publishing and Amazon.com. China Books and Periodicals released an edition available in the US market in 1990, called Quotations from Chairman Mao Tse-Tung.
10. Howard Butt, The Velvet Covered Brick: Christian Leadership in an Age of Rebellion (New York: Harper and Row, 1963).
Chapter 2: The Roman Empires: Yes, It Really Burned
1. A contemporary of Jesus of Nazareth, and his name is recorded in Scripture.
2. Joshua J. Mark, “Roman Empire,” Ancient History Encyclopedia (March 22, 2018), www.ancient.eu/Roman_Empire/.
3. “Roman Republic,” Encyclopaedia Britannica (last updated April 3, 2018), www.britannica.com/place/Roman-Republic.
4. Erin Wayman, “The Secrets of Ancient Rome’s Buildings,” Smithsonian (November 16, 2011), www.smithsonianmag.com/history/the-secrets-of-ancient-romes-buildings-234992/.
5. Mark Cartwright, “Trade in the Roman World,” Ancient History Encyclopedia (April 12, 2018), www.ancient.eu/article/638/trade-in-the-roman-world/.
6. Adrienne Bernhard, “Ancient Rome’s Sinful City at the Bottom of the Sea,” BBC (January 5, 2018), www.bbc.com/travel/story/20180104-ancient-romes-sinful-city-at-the-bottom-of-the-sea.
7. Nick Squires, “What Led to the Fall of the Roman Empire?” Telegraph (April 8, 2011), www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/italy/8438599/What-led-to-the-fal-of-the-Roman-Empire.html.
8. You can access Gibbon’s work for free online in various places, including www.historyguide.org/intellect/gibbon_decline.html.
Chapter 3: The Byzantine Empire: Officially Christian
1. Timothy E. Gregory, A History of Byzantium, 2nd ed. (Blackwell, 2010), 57–59.
2. “5 Major Accomplishments of Justinian,” HRF (n.d.), https://healthresearchfunding.org/5-major-accomplishments-of-justinian/.
3. Ibid.
4. Ibid.
5. Barbara J. Ilie, “Libraries and Book Culture of the Byzantine Empire,” Medievalists.net (n.d.), www.medievalists.net/2012/04/libraries-and-book-culture-of-the-byzantine-empire/.
6. “How Hagia Sophia Was Built,” Medievalists.net (n.d.), www.medievalists.net/2015/08/how-hagia-sophia-was-built/.
7. John Bagnel Bury, A History of the Later Roman Empire from Arcadius to Irene (Adamant Media Corporation, 2005), 251.
Chapter 4: The Arab Empire: Muhammad’s Followers
1. Michael Ray, “Battle of Tours,” Encyclopaedia Britannica (last updated June 13, 2019), www.britannica.com/event/Battle-of-Tours-732.
2. Elizabeth Williams, “Trade and Commercial Activity in the Byzantine and Early Islamic Middle East,” The Met (May 2012), www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/coin/hd_coin.htm.
3. Mohamed Elmasry, “Ink of a Scholar Is More Holier Than the Blood of a Martyr,” IslamiCity (October 29, 2015), www.islamicity.org/3137/ink-of-a-scholar-is-more-holier-than-the-blood-of-a-martyr/.
4. Ian Frazier, “Invaders,” New Yorker (April 25, 2005), www.newyorker.com/magazine/2005/04/25/invaders-3.
5. Dennis Overbye, “How Islam Won and Lost the Lead in Science,” New York Times (October 30, 2001), www.nytimes.com/2001/10/30/science/how-islam-won-and-lost-the-lead-in-science.html.
6. Hillel Ofek, “Why the Arabic World Turned Away from Science,” New Atlantis (Winter 2011), www.thenewatlantis.com/publications/why-the-arabic-world-turned-away-from-science.
Chapter 5: The Spanish Empire: How the Mighty Doth Fall
1. “Ferdinand Magellan,” Mariners’ Museum and Park (n.d.), http://exploration.marinersmuseum.org/subject/ferdinand-magelan/.
2. Haley Crum, “The Man Who Sailed the World,” Smithsonian.com (May 31, 2007), www.smithsonianmag.com/history/the-man-who-sailed-the-world-155994800/.
3. “Ferdinand Magellan,” Mariners’ Museum and Park.
4. R. R. Palmer, Joel Colton, and Lloyd S. Kramer, A History of the Modern World, 9th ed. (Boston: McGraw-Hill, 2002).
5. “Philip II,” Encyclopaedia Britannica (last updated July 21, 2019), www.britannica.com/place/Spain/Philip-II#ref70403.
6. “Spain in 1600,” Encyclopaedia Britannica (last updated July 21, 2019), www.britannica.com/place/Spain/Spain-in-1600#ref70407.
7. “Senator Everett McKinley Dirksen Dies,” United States Senate (September 7, 1969), www.senate.gov/artandhistory/history/minute/Senator_Everett_Mckinley_Dirksen_Dies.htm.
8. “Culture,” Dictionary.com (n.d.), www.dictionary.com/browse/culture.
9. Ibid.
10. “Philip IV’s Reign,” Encyclopaedia Britannica (last updated July 21, 2019), www.britannica.com/place/Spain/Philip-IVs-reign.
11. Bernard Moses, “The Economic Condition of Spain in the Sixteenth Century,” Journal of Political Economy 1, no. 4 (September 1893): 531–34.
Chapter 6: The Ottoman Empire: Winners and Losers
1. Suzan Yalman, “The Age of Süleyman ‘the Magnificent’ (r. 1520–1566)” (based on original work by Linda Komaroff), The Met (October 2002), www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/suly/hd_suly.htm.
2. “Magnificent No More,” Economist (January 27, 2011), www.economist.com/node/18013830.
3. “Suleiman the Magnificent’s Tomb Believed to Have Been Found in Hungary,” Guardian (December 9, 2015), www.theguardian.com/science/2015/dec/09/suleiman-the-magnificent-tomb-hungary.
4. “Cultural Life,” Encyclopaedia Britannica (last updated July 19, 2019), www.britannica.com/place/Macedonia/Cultural-life#ref42800.
5. Thomas Madden, “The Real History of the Crusades,” CatholiCity (April 1, 2002), www.catholicity.com/commentary/madden/03463.html.
6. Stephen Starr, “Istanbul’s Hagia Sophia Is at the Centre of a Battle for Turkey’s Soul,” Irish Times (January 2, 2018), www.irishtimes.com/news/world/europe/istanbul-s-hagia-sophia-is-at-the-centre-of-a-battle-for-turkey-s-soul-1.3342259.
7. Ibid.
8. “The Resurgence of Islam: The Response of the Church,” LightSource (n.d.), www.lightsource.com/ministry/running-to-win/articles/the-resurgence-of-islam-the-response-of-the-church--16530.html.
9. Ibid.
10. Dimitrie Cantemir, The History of the Growth and Decay of the Othman Empire (London: J. J. and P. Knapton, 1734), 252.
Chapter 7: The British Empire: Where the Sun Never Sets
1. John Glubb, The Fate of Empires and Search for Survival (Edinburgh: William Blackwood & Sons, 1976, 1977), 6.
2. Ibid., 4.
3. Richard North Patterson, “The Vision of George H. W. Bush,” HuffPost (December 29, 2015), www.huffingtonpost.com/richard-north-patterson/the-vision-of-george-hw-b_b_8868536.html.
4. Martin Kettle, “David Cameron Is Wise to Want to Be the New Stanley Baldwin,” Guardian (February 12, 2014), www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/feb/12/david-cameron-new-stanley-baldwin-tory.
5. Anne Perkins, “Theresa May’s Paralysis on the Big Issues Has Echoes in History,” Guardian (August 2, 2017), www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2017/aug/02/theresa-may-stanley-baldwin.
6. Victor Davis Hanson, “Obama Is America’s Version of Stanley Baldwin,” National Review (April 13, 2017), www.nationalreview.com/article/446688/obama-foreign-policy-trumps-situation-resemble-britain-wwii.
7. Jude T. Wanniski, Financial Analysts Journal (January/February 1980): 20.
8. Ibid.
9. Approximately 1837–1901, the years of Queen Victoria’s reign.
10. Donna Loftus, “The Rise of the Victorian Middle Class,” BBC (last updated February 17, 2011), www.bbc.co.uk/history/british/victorians/middle_classes_01.shtml.
11. Martha Kirby, “Too Much of a Good Thing? Society, Affluence and Obesity in Britain, 1940–1970,” eSharp (2012), www.gla.ac.uk/media/media_228377_en.pdf.
12. Dominic Sandbrook, “Is Europe Committing Suicide?” Daily Mail (May 20, 2017), www.pressreader.com/uk/daily-mail/20170520/283347587124920.
13. Ibid.
14. Ibid.
15. Guy Adams, “Inside Britain’s Sharia Courts,” Daily Mail (December 13, 2015), www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3358625/Inside-Britain-s-Sharia-courts-EIGHTY-FIVE-Islamic-courts-dispensing-justice-UK-special-investigation-really-goes-doors-shock-core.html.
16. Ibid.
17. The full text is available for free online in numerous places, including www.telegraph.co.uk/comment/3643826/Enoch-Powells-Rivers-of-Blood-speech.html.
18. Consider Deuteronomy 10:19, as well as Leviticus 19:34, Matthew 25:35, and Hebrews 13:2.
Chapter 8: The Russian Empire: From Orthodoxy to Communism
1. John L. H. Keep, “Nicholas II: Tsar of Russia,” Encyclopaedia Britannica (last updated July 13, 2019), www.britannica.com/biography/Nicholas-II-tsar-of-Russia.
2. Chris Banescu, “Men Have Forgotten God: Alexander Soltzhenitsyn,” Orthodox Christianity (July 18, 2011), http://orthochristian.com/47643.html.
3. Ibid., emphasis in original.
4. “Catherine II,” Biography (last updated June 21, 2019), www.biography.com/people/catherine-ii-9241622.
5. Ibid.
Chapter 9: The United States: 1776–?
1. Richard Heilman, “A Plea for Intolerance by Venerable Fulton J. Sheen,” Roman Catholic Man (April 9, 2016), www.romancatholicman.com/a-plea-for-intolerance-by-venerable-fulton-j-sheen/.
2. “Document: Speech on the 150th Anniversary of the Declaration of Independence,” Teaching American History (n.d.), http://teachingamericanhistory.org/library/document/speech-on-the-occasion-of-the-one-hundred-and-fiftieth-anniversary-of-the-declaration-of-independence/.
3. Charles Stanley, “A Passion to Serve Him,” InTouch Ministries (n.d.), www.intouch.org/listen/featured/a-passion-to-serve-him-part-1 and www.intouch.org/listen/featured/a-passion-to-serve-him-part-2.
4. Patrick J. Buchanan, “America’s 2nd Civil War,” WND (August 17, 2017), www.wnd.com/2017/08/americas-2nd-civil-war-2/.
5. Carl Henry, “The Crisis of Modern Learning,” Imprimis 13, no. 2 (February 1984), https://imprimis.hilsdale.edu/the-crisis-of-modern-learning/.
6. Ibid.
7. Scotty Smith, “Quotes from C. S. Lewis’ Screwtape Letters,” Gospel Coalition (July 13, 2008), www.thegospelcoalition.org/blogs/scotty-smith/quotes-from-c-s-lewis-screwtape-letters/.
8. Robert J. Samuelson, “Trump Is Not Destiny. Here’s What Is,” Washington Post (June 11, 2017), www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/trump-is-not-destiny-heres-what-is/2017/06/11/1dc9f7c6-4d33-11e7-9669-250d0b15f83b_story.html?utm_term=.928ebb06424b.
9. Ibid.
10. Carlos Lozada, “Will the West Survive Trump?” Washington Post (June 15, 2017), www.washingtonpost.com/news/book-party/wp/2017/06/15/wil-the-west-survive-trump/?utm_term=.86730f54cc76.
11. Jose A. DelReal and Scott Clement, “Rural Divide,” Washington Post (June 17, 2017), www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/2017/national/rural-america/?utm_term=.1304e4895295.
12. Ibid.
13. Rod Dreher, The Benedict Option (New York: Penguin Random House, 2017).
14. Rod Dreher, “Critics of the Benedict Option,” American Conservative (July 8, 2015), www.theamericanconservative.com/dreher/critics-of-the-benedict-option/.
15. Rod Dreher, “Trump Can’t Save American Christianity,” New York Times (August 2, 2017), www.nytimes.com/2017/08/02/opinion/trump-scaramucci-evangelical-christian.html.
16. R. Albert Mohler Jr., “Moralistic Therapeutic Deism—The New American Religion,” Christian Post (April 18, 2005), www.christianpost.com/news/moralistic-therapeutic-deism-the-new-american-religion-6266/.
17. Ibid.
18. Dreher, “Trump Can’t Save American Christianity.”
19. Alex Witchel, “Father Rabbit,” New York Times (November 22, 1992), www.nytimes.com/1992/11/22/style/father-rabbit.html.
20. “Direction of Country,” Real Clear Politics (n.d.), www.realclearpolitics.com/epolls/other/direction_of_country-902.html.
Appendix 1: Bonus Cameos
1. Alina Polyakova, “Europe’s Failing Dream,” American Interest (September 14, 2015), www.the-american-interest.com/2015/09/14/europes-failing-dream/.
2. “Has the German State Lost Control?” Spiegel Online (January 21, 2016), www.spiegel.de/international/germany/germans-ask-if-country-is-stil-safe-after-cologne-attacks-a-1073165.html.
Appendix 2: A Prophet Ignored
1. Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, “Godlessness: The First Step to the Gulag,” Templeton Prize Lecture, London (May 10, 1983), emphasis mine. This text appears by permission of the Aleksandr Soltzhenitsyn Estate. All rights reserved.
Appendix 3: The Prophet’s Second Warning
1. Alexandr Solzhenitsyn, “A World Split Apart,” Harvard University commencement address, delivered June 8, 1978, American Rhetoric (n.d.), www.americanrhetoric.com/speeches/alexandersolzhenitsynharvard.htm.
2. Ibid.
3. Ibid.
4. Ibid.
5. Ibid.
6. Ibid.