The Renaissance is one of the most studied and celebrated eras of history. Spanning the …
Witty and somehow relatable
5 stars
It feels kind of weird to suggest that a book about how history has kind of invented this period in time called the Renaissance is relatable, but this book ended up being extremely relatable. I ended up listening to the audiobook (a whopping 30-hour beast) and regularly found myself smiling and chuckling along as I did my daily commute even though I knew and still mostly nothing about the time period or really anything about Italy. I genuinely had never heard of most of the people who were talked about in this book, which I think is a pretty clear indication about how interestingly the information is laid out--though it would certainly be a nightmare for anyone who requires events in time to be explained in chronological order.
More than that though, I think what was really great about this book and something I wasn't expecting was about how hopeful …
It feels kind of weird to suggest that a book about how history has kind of invented this period in time called the Renaissance is relatable, but this book ended up being extremely relatable. I ended up listening to the audiobook (a whopping 30-hour beast) and regularly found myself smiling and chuckling along as I did my daily commute even though I knew and still mostly nothing about the time period or really anything about Italy. I genuinely had never heard of most of the people who were talked about in this book, which I think is a pretty clear indication about how interestingly the information is laid out--though it would certainly be a nightmare for anyone who requires events in time to be explained in chronological order.
More than that though, I think what was really great about this book and something I wasn't expecting was about how hopeful it is for our now. Many of the things the author brought up are struggles that we continue to have in different ways. Palmer spends a lot of time actually telling us not to push our own current values into time periods where those values didn't exist. At the same time though, we're also reminded that time isn't static. The people living then struggled just as we do now. We have progressed, but that doesn't necessarily guarantee that everything is improved and superior. But the hopeful bit is that progress is an ongoing and never ending thing. The scary of our now doesn't have to be forever and in fact almost certainly will not be.
