1. I stumbled into my quarantine project by accident, b/c of a strong, pre-alarm suggestion from an old friend and deeply read lawyer Steve Thames. B/c of @SenTomCotton I had been broadcasting from 1/20 on about the peril but FMH and I were still hosting guest in Feb.

2. That’s when Steve told me, w/ a quite un-Steve like passion, that I had to read a book by an English historian, @holland_tom whom, I admit, I’d never heard of. @aroberts_andrew, @nfergus, Sir Martin Gilbert (and the great man himself of course) —British historians yes.

3. But not @holland_tom. So per Steve’s pushing I ordered the audible version of “Dominion: How the Christian Revolution Remade the World” https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/1549154966/ref=tmm_abk_title_0?ie=UTF8&qid=&sr= and was dazzled. A lifelong serial enthusiast I then got the paperback of what seemed the next best from Holland.

4. I wasn’t disappointed. “Rubcion: The Last Years of the Roman Republic” reignited an old love for the tragic story of fall of the great republic which both modeled and haunts our own. https://www.amazon.com/Rubicon-Tom-Holland/dp/1400078970. I moved on down “Holland Tunnel.”

5 “Dynasty: The Rise and Fall of the House of Caesar” https://www.amazon.com/Dynasty-Rise-Fall-House-Caesar/dp/B01639ARZOwas followed and, again, deserves its place at the summit of popular history. I listened to “Dynasty” since the quarantine has provided lots of walking/running/trundling time, and it made the miles fly by.

6. At that moment arrived in the mail as a gift a near perfect companion to these three Holland books (and fourth, about which more in a moment): @profntwright has written “History and Eschatology: Jesus and the promise of natural theology,” https://www.amazon.com/History-Eschatology-Promise-Natural-Theology/dp/1481309625.

7. Professor Wright’s book is about history and faith, and both consumes and is consumed by Holland’s work. Wright’s book is beautiful but dense, and has to be read, not listened to, and with a willingness to stop and look up many things for this book assumes much of the reader.

8. At the same time, I needed something for the hours on the roads/walkways of the Beltway. Here @holland_tom came to my rescue again with “In the Shadow of the Sword: The Birth of Islam and the Rise of the Global Arab Empire” https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B00WXYLN4I/ref=tmm_aud_title_0?ie=UTF8&qid=&sr= I am only 1/4th in but, wow

9. I’ve had a chance to interview @holland_tom twice. Part one, about “Dominion” is here: Part two, on Ancient Rome, here: In this second interview we talk about @profntwright and his project, and Holland’s, which are so different.

10. When I have finished “In the Shadow of the Sword,” I hope @holland_tom will return to chat (I hope he becomes a regular in fact, as he reminds me and the audience of the late and much missed Hitch, whose 70 appearances on the show are collected here: http://hughandhitch.com ).

11. The project on to which I stumbled by accident was getting the whole of the West’s long drama somewhat organized in my head by @holland_tom and then having, by happy accident, perhaps the era’s greatest theologian arrive with a serious study of how it all fits w/faith.

12. @holland_tom makes it a joy to get the history down —though I wish I’d listened to “Dominion” third, after “Rubicon” and “Dynasty”— and then @profntwright provides the scholarly, organizing principle for why Christianity doesn’t need to fear either history or science.

13. A baker’s dozen of tweets and five books summarize the bright part of a dark time. Like T.S. White counseled, learning something is the only certain cure for grief and sorrow. @holland_tom and @profntwright have both provided quite a lot of terrific cure.

ERP. *T. H. White.