(Note that this list does not include essays, articles, online resources, etc.)
Currently Reading
Life in the Trinity: An Introduction to Theology with the Help of the Church Fathers, by Donald Fairbairn
Previously Read (in order)
2023
Contagion: How Commerce Has Spread Disease, by Mark Harrison
What Makes Civilization?: The Ancient Near East and the Future of the West, by David Wengrow
Violence and Social Orders: A Conceptual Framework for Interpreting Recorded Human History, by Douglass C. North et al.
Enemies of Civilization: Attitudes toward Foreigners in Ancient Mesopotamia, Egypt, and China, by Mu-Chou Po
Against the Grain: A Deep History of the Earliest States, by James C. Scott
2022
The Patient Ferment of the Early Church: The Improbable Rise of Christianity in the Roman Empire, by Alan Krieder
Christian Antioch: A Study of Early Christian Thought in the East, by D.S. Wallace-Hadrill
From Modernity to Cosmodernity: Science, Culture, and Spirituality, by Basarab Nicolescu
The Upside of Down: Catastrophe, Creativity, and the Renewal of Civilization, by Thomas Homer-Dixon
Greco-Roman Culture and the Galilee of Jesus, by Mark A. Chancey
Seafaring and Civilisation: Maritime Perspectives on World History, by Philip de Souza
Technics and Human Development (Vol. I of Myth of the Machine), by Lewis Mumford
The Theory of Social Revolutions, by Brooks Adams
Carthage: A Biography, by Dexter Hoyos
Mediterranean Anarchy, Interstate War, and the Rise of Rome, by Arthur M. Eckstein
Rome Enters the Greek East: From Anarchy to Hierarchy in the Hellenistic Mediterranean, 230-170 BC, by Arthur M. Eckstein
Myth, Cosmos, and Society: Indo-European Themes of Creation and Destruction, by Bruce Lincoln
Empires and Barbarians: The Fall of Rome and the Birth of Europe, by Peter Heather
2021
St. Athanasius on the Incarnation: The Treatise De Incarnatione Verbi Dei
The War of the Three Gods: Romans, Persians, and the Rise of Islam, by Peter Crawford
The Roman Empire and the Silk Routes: The Ancient World Economy and the Empires of Parthia, Central Asia, and Han China, by Raoul McLaughlin
The Roman Empire and the Indian Ocean: The Ancient World Economy & the Kingdoms of Africa, Arabia, & India, by Raoul McLaughlin
The Open Sea: The Economic Life of the Ancient Mediterranean World from the Iron Age to the Rise of Rome, by J.G. Manning
Archaeology and Language: The Puzzle of Indo-European Origins, by Colin Renfrew
The War of the Gods: The Social Code in Indo-European Mythology, by Jarich G. Oosten
Militarism and the Indo-Europeanizing of Europe, by Robert Drews
Selections from Ante-Nicene Fathers, Vol VII, Ed. Philip Schaff – Lactantius’ Divine Institutes
Scripture as Real Presence: Sacramental Exegesis in the Early Church, by Hans Boersma
Deification in the Latin Patristic Tradition, Ed. Jared Ortiz
Ecclesiology and Theosis in the Gospel of John, by Andrew J. Byers
Elect in the Son – A Study in the Doctrine of Election, by R. Shank
After Collapse – The Regeneration of Complex Societies, Eds. G.M. Schwartz and J.J. Nichols
The Speed of Light: Constancy and Cosmos, by David A. Grandy
The Frankish Kingdoms Under the Carolingians, 751-987, by Rosamond McKitterick
Selections from Ante-Nicene Fathers, Vol I, Ed. Philip Schaff – Irenaeus’ Against Heresies
2020
Philip II and Alexander the Great: Father and Son, Lives and Afterlives, Eds. Elizabeth Carney and Daniel Ogden
By the Spear: Philip II, Alexander the Great, and the Rise and Fall of the Macedonian Empire, by Ian Worthington
Lysimachus: A Study in Early Hellenistic Kingship, by Helen S. Lund
War in the Hellenistic World: A Social and Cultural History, by Angelos Chaniotis
The Aristocratic Temper of Greek Civilization, by Chester G. Starr
From Samarkand to Sardis: A New Approach to the Seleucid Empire, by Susan Sherwin-White and Amelie Kuhrt
Dividing the Spoils: The War for Alexander the Great’s Empire, by Robin Waterford
Hellenism in the East: The Interaction of Greek and Non-Greek Civilizations from Syria to Central Asia After Alexander, Eds. Amelie Kuhrt and Susan Sherwin-White
From Alexander to Cleopatra: The Hellenistic World, by Michael Grant
The Betrayal of Tradition: Essays on the Spiritual Crisis of Modernity, Ed. Harry Oldmeadow
God and Work: Aspects of Art and Tradition, Ed. Brian Keeble
The Seneca Effect: Why Growth is Slow but Collapse is Rapid, by Ugo Bardi
Alfred the Great: War, Kingship and Culture in Anglo-Saxon England, by Richard Abels
Saxon Identities, 150 – 900 AD, by Robert Flierman
The Doctrine of Deification in the Greek Patristic Tradition, by Norman Russell
Britons in Anglo-Saxon England, Ed. Nick Higham
Kings and Kingdoms of Early Anglo-Saxon England, by Barbara Yorke
2019
Saxons, Vikings, and Celts: The Genetic Roots of Britain and Ireland, by Bryan Sikes
Badon and the Early Wars for Wessex, circa 500 to 710, by David Cooper
The Scotch-Irish: A Social History, by James G. Leyburn
War and Peace and War: The Rise and Fall of Empires, by Peter Turchin
Strangers Within the Realm: Cultural Margins of the First British Empire, Eds. B. Bailyn and P.D. Morgan
The Gift: The Form and Reason for Exchange in Archaic Societies, by Marcel Mauss
Secular Cycles, by Peter Turchin and Sergey Nefedov
Missing 411: Eastern United States, by David Paulides
Colonial Encounters in Ancient Iberia, Eds. Michael Dietler and Carolina Lopez-Ruiz
Indo-European Poetry and Myth, by M.L. West
Out of the Dark, by David Weber
Empires of the Silk Road: A History of Central Eurasia from the Bronze Age to the Present, by Christopher Beckwith
The Trojans and Their Neighbors, by Trevor Bryce
Celtic Britain, by John Rhys (1904)
The Domination of the Draka quadrilogy (Marching through Georgia, Under the Yoke, The Stone Dogs, and Drakon), by S.M. Stirling
Languages from the World of the Bible, Ed. Holger Gzella
Priests, Warriors, and Cattle: A Study in the Ecology of Religions, by Bruce Lincoln
Heaven, Heroes, and Happiness: The Indo-European Roots of Western Ideology, by Shan M.M. Winn
1177 B.C.: The Year Civilization Collapsed, by Eric H. Cline
Commercial Republicanism in the Dutch Golden Age: The Political Thought of Johan and Pieter de la Court, by Arthur Weststeijn
Old English and Its Closest Relatives, by Orrin W. Robinson
2018
An Inquiry into the Heresies of the Apostolic Age, by Edward Burton
Lectures upon the Ecclesiastical History of the First Three Centuries, Vols. I and II, by Edward Burton
The Sons of Vulcan: The Story of Metals, by Thomas Hibben
Selections from Ante-Nicene Fathers, Vol I, Ed. Philip Schaff – Justin Martyr
The Barbarian Conversion: From Paganism to Christianity, by Richard Fletcher
Historical Dynamics: Why States Rise and Fall, by Peter Turchin
Homer’s Odyssey and the Near East, by Bruce Louden
On the Trinity, by Novatian
2017
The Coming of the Greeks: Indo-European Conquests in the Aegean and the Near East, by Robert Drews
Retrieving Nicaea: The Development and Meaning of Trinitarian Doctrine, by Khaled Anatolios
On Heroes, Hero Worship, and the Heroic in History, by Thomas Carlyle
In Search of the Indo-Europeans: Language, Archaeology, and Myth, by J.P. Mallory
The City in History: Its Origins, Its Transformations, and Its Prospects, by Lewis Mumford
Selections from Ante-Nicene Fathers, Vols I and II, Ed. Philip Schaff – Clement of Rome, Mathetes, Polycarp, Ignatius of Antioch, Barnabas, fragments of Papias, Pastor of Hermas, Tatian, Theophilus of Antioch, and Athenagoras
On Duties (De Officiis), by Marcus Tullius Cicero, Trans. Walter Miller
Atlantic Europe in the First Millennium BC: Crossing the Divide, Eds. T. Moore and X.-L. Armada
The Law of Civilisation and Decay, by Brooks Adams
Popular Government, by Henry Sumner Maine
Ancient Perceptions of Greek Ethnicity, Ed. Irad Malkin
Latter Day Pamphlets, by Thomas Carlyle
From Irenaeus to Grotius: A Sourcebook in Christian Political Thought, Ed. Oliver and Joan O’Donovan
The End of the Bronze Age: Changes in Warfare and the Catastrophe c. 1200 BC, by Robert Drews
The Horse, the Wheel, and Language: How Bronze-Age Riders from the Eurasian Steppes Shaped the Modern World, by David W. Anthony
Myth, Ritual, and the Warrior in Roman and Indo-European Antiquity, by Roger D. Woodard
The Peshawar Lancers, by S.M. Stirling
Revolt against the Modern World, by Julius Evola
History of the Venetian Republic, Vols. III and IV, by William Carew Hazlitt (1860)
The Technological Society, by Jacques Ellul
2016
History of the Venetian Republic, Vols. I and II, by William Carew Hazlitt (1860)
The English in the West Indies: Or, the Bow of Ulysses, by James Anthony Froude (1888)
The Conflict of Religions in the Early Roman Empire, by T.R. Glover
Modern Classic Short Novels of Science Fiction, Ed. Gardner Dozier
The Cousins’ Wars: Religion, Politics, and the Triumph of Anglo-America, by Kevin Phillips
Justinian’s Flea: Plague, Empire, and the Birth of Europe, by William Rosen
Mathematics in Western Culture, by Morris Kline
The Great Abuse of Musick, in Two Parts, by Arthur Bedford (1711)
The Irony of American History, by Reinhold Niebuhr
Lives of the Noble Grecians and Romans, by Plutarch, Trans. John Dryden
Capitalism and Progress: A Diagnosis of Western Society, by Bob Goudzwaard
The Western Way of War: Infantry Battle in Classical Greece, by Victor Davis Hanson
2015
Shields of Brass or Shields of Gold: Reestablishing a Standard of Excellence for the Church of the Lord Jesus Christ, by O.S. Hawkins
The Good New Stuff: Adventure SF in the Grand Tradition, Ed. Gardner Dozois
Forbidden Planets, Ed. Marvin Kaye
The Sixth Omni Book of Science Fiction, Ed. Ellen Datlow
2041: 12 Stories about the Future, Ed. Jane Yellen
What If? 2: Eminent Historians Imagine What Might Have Been, Ed. Robert Cowley
On Old Age (essay), by Cicero, Trans. E.S. Shuckburgh
The Mammoth Book of Mindblowing SF, Ed. Mike Ashley
A Meeting at Corvallis, by S.M. Stirling
The Protector’s War, by S.M. Stirling
Dies the Fire, by S.M. Stirling
Island in the Sea of Time, by S.M. Stirling
The Complete Works of Tacitus, Ed. Moses Hadad, Trans. A.J. Church and W.J. Brodribb
Millennium: A History of the Last Thousand Years, by Felipe Fernandez-Armesto
Romans Verse-by-Verse: A Classical Evangelical Commentary, by William R. Newell
Galactic Empires, Vols. I and II, Ed. Brian Aldiss
The Constitution of Liberty, by F.A. Hayek
Hitlerland: American Eyewitnesses to the Nazi Rise to Power, by Andrew Nagorski
2014
On the Laws and On the Republic (reread), by Marcus Tullius Cicero, Trans. David Fott
Political Complexity: Nonlinear Models of Politics, Ed. Diana E. Richards
The Nazis’ March to Chaos: The Hitler Era through the Lens of Chaos-Complexity Theory, by Roger Beaumont
The Meaning of Quantum Theory, by Jim Baggott
Complexity: The Emerging Science at the Edge of Chaos and Order, by M. Mitchell Waldrop
Before the Golden Age: A Science Fiction Anthology of the 1930s, Ed. Isaac Asimov
Pro, by Gordon R. Dickson
The Carolingian Empire: The Age of Charlemagne, by Heinrich Fichtenau
The Anglo-Saxon Age: c. 400 – 1042, by D.J.V. Fisher
The Secular Squeeze: Reclaiming Christian Depth in a Shallow World, by John F. Alexander
The Foundation Trilogy: Foundation, Foundation and Empire, and Second Foundation, by Isaac Asimov
The Early History of Rome (Books I-V), Livy, Trans. Aubrey de Selincourt
The Twelve Caesars, Seutonius, Trans. Robert Graves
Campaigns of Alexander, Arrian, Trans. Aubrey de Selincourt
The Empire of Isher, by A.E. van Vogt
The Fall of the Roman Republic, Plutarch, Trans. Rex Warner
The Anabasis, Xenophon, Trans. Rex Warner
The Peloponnesian War, Thucydides, Trans. Rex Warner
The Persian Wars, Herodotus, Trans. George Rawlinson
The Mother Tongue: English and How It Got That Way, by Bill Bryson
Empires of the Word: A Language History of the World, by Nicholas Ostler
Ancient Iraq, by Georges Roux
2013
The Hittites and Their Contemporaries in Asia Minor, by J.G. Macqueen
Romans on the Euphrates: The Story of a Frontier, by Freya Stark
Band of Brothers: E Company, 506th Regiment, 101st Airborne from Normandy to Hitler’s Eagle’s Nest, by Stephen Ambrose
The Guns of August, by Barbara W. Tuchman
Citizen Soldiers: The U.S. Army from the Normandy Beaches to the Bulge to the Surrender of Germany, by Stephen Ambrose
Atom: Journey Across the Subatomic Cosmos, by Isaac Asimov
The Years of Rice and Salt, by Kim Stanley Robinson
Sweet Psalms for God’s Saints: 15 Messages from Favorite Psalms, by Dr. Tom Malone
Faster than the Speed of Light: The Story of a Scientific Speculation, by Joao Magueijo
Triplanetary, by E.E. “Doc” Smith
Cities, by John Reader
The Aeneid, by Publius Vergilius Maro, Ed. Trans. Rolfe Humphries
Lectures to my Students, by Charles Haddon Spurgeon
The Metamorphoses, by Publius Ovidius Naso, Ed. Trans. Rolfe Humphries
The Odes of Horace and the Centennial Hymn, Quintus Horatius Flaccus, Ed. Trans. James Michie
A Canticle for Leibowitz, by Walter M. Miller, Jr.
Trusting God, Even When Life Hurts, by Jerry Bridges
The Celts: The People Who Came out of Darkness, by Gerhard Herm
Life in Roman Britain, by Anthony Birley
Romans and Aliens, by J.P.V.D. Balsdon
The Maker, by Wes Moore
The Pursuit of Holiness, by Jerry Bridges
On the Commonwealth, by Marcus Tullius Cicero, Ed. Trans. George Sabine and Stanley Smith
The Proud Tower: A Portrait of the World before the War, 1890-1914, by Barbara W. Tuchman
1776, by David McCullough
Cicero: The Life and Times of Rome’s Greatest Politician, by Anthony Everitt
Against Calvinism, by Roger E. Olson
2012
From Dawn to Decadence: 500 Years of Western Cultural Life, 1500 to the Present, by Jacques Barzun
Occidentalism: The West in the Eyes of Its Enemies, by Ian Buruma and Avishai Margalit
Greek Realities: Life and Thought in Ancient Greece, by Finley Hooper
Lester Roloff: Living by Faith, by Marie Brady Roloff
Tramp for the Lord, by Corrie ten Boom
The Hiding Place, by Corrie ten Boom
The Making of the Middle Ages, by R.W. Southern
Western Europe in the Middle Ages, by Joseph Strayer
The Fall of Rome and the End of Civilization, by Bryan Ward-Perkins
The Age of Total War: 1860-1945, by Jeremy Black
Constitutional Development in the South Atlantic States: 1776-1860, by Fletcher M. Green
How the Scots Invented the Modern World, by Arthur Herman
Chaos: Making a New Science, by James Glieck
Undaunted Courage: Meriwether Lewis, Thomas Jefferson, and the Opening of the American West, by Stephen E. Ambrose
Pathfinders: A Global History of Exploration, by Felipe Fernández-Armesto
The Far Southwest 1846-1912: A Territorial History, by Howard Roberts Lamar
The Roman Near East: 31 BC – AD 337, by Fergus Millar
The Soul of Battle: From Ancient Times to the Present Day, How Three Great Liberators Vanquished Tyranny, by Victor Davis Hanson
2011
Cathedral, Forge, and Waterwheel: Technology and Invention in the Middle Ages, by Frances and Joseph Gies
The Three Musketeers, by Alexandré Dumas
Evangelism in the Early Church, by Michael Green
China’s Imperial Past, by Charles O. Hucker
The Analects of Confucius, ed., trans. Simon Leys
God’s Smuggler, by Brother Andrew
What If? The World’s Foremost Military Historians Imagine What Might Have Been, Ed. Robert Cowley
Ancient Israel: Its Life and Institutions, by Roland de Vaux
The House of God, by William C. Hawkins
Biblical Peoples and Ethnicity: An Archaeological Study of Egyptians, Canaanites, Philistines, and Early Israel, 1300 – 1100 BC, by Ann E. Killibrew
Roman Britain, by I.A. Richmond
The God of Israel, by David L. Cooper
The Consolation of Philosophy, by Anicius Manlius Severinus Boethius, trans. Richard H. Green
Training Your Children To Turn out Right: A Biblical Guide for Christian Parents, by David Sorenson
Rock – Making Musical Choices, by Richard Peck
Huns, Vandals and the Fall of the Roman Empire, by Thomas Hodgkin
The Fall of the Roman Empire: A New History of Rome and the Barbarians, by Peter Heather
At the Heart of Christian Worship: Liturgical Essays of Yves Congar, by Yves Congar, trans. Paul Philibert
Barbarian Migrations and the Roman West: 376-568, by Guy Halsall
The Messiah in the Old Testament, by Walter C. Kaiser, Jr.
Kommando: German Special Forces in World War II, by James Lucas
The Etruscans, by Massimo Pallottino
The Face of Battle: A Study of Agincourt, Waterloo, and the Somme, by John Keegan
The Roman Way, by Edith Hamilton
2010
The Myth of Rome’s Fall, by Richard Mansfield Haywood
Rome, by Mikhail Rostovtseff
Ancient Rome, by Richard Mansfield Haywood
Gold, Glory, and the Gospel: The Adventurous Lives and Times of the Renaissance Explorers, by Louis B. Wright
Doniphan’s Epic March: The 1st Missouri Volunteers in the Mexican War, by Joseph C. Dawson
The English People on the Eve of Colonization, by Wallace Notestein
Understanding Pietism, by Dale W. Brown
Fatal Victories: History’s Most Tragic Military Triumphs and the High Cost of Victory, by William Weir
Albion’s Seed: Four British Folkways in America, by David Hackett Fischer
The Sword of the Republic: The United States Army on the Frontier, 1783-1846, by Francis Paul Prucha
A Planned Deception: The Staging of a New Age “Messiah”, by Constance E. Cumbey
Beyond Culture, by Edward T. Hall
The Decline of the West, by Oswald Spengler
Magister Ludi (The Glass Bead Game) , by Hermann Hesse
Coming of Age in the Milky Way, by Timothy Ferris
2009
Seeing Islam as Others Saw It: A Survey and Evaluation of Christian, Jewish, and Zoroastrian Writings on Early Islam, by Robert Hoyland (reread)
Hagarism: The Making of the Islamic World, by Patricia Crone and Michael Cook (reread)
Crossroads to Islam: The Origins of the Arab Religion and the Arab State, by Yehuda D. Nevo and Judith Koren (reread)
Europe of the Dictators: 1919-1945, by Elizabeth Wiskemann
Greek Religion: Archaic and Classical, by Walter Burkett
A Thirst for Wholeness: How to Gain Wisdom from the Book of James, by Jay Adams
The First Salute: A View of the American Revolution, by Barbara W. Tuchman
The Gnostic Religion, by Hans Jonas
The Stars Speak: Astronomy in the Bible, by Stewart Custer
Hellenistic Religions: An Introduction, by Luther H. Martin
Explorations: My Quest for Adventure and Discovery Under the Sea, by Robert D. Ballard
The Myth of the Eternal Return, by Mircea Eliade
The Sacred and the Profane: The Nature of Religion, by Mircea Eliade
Old Goriot, by Honoré de Balzac
The Eighth Day, by Thornton Wilder
The Unity of Philosophical Experience, by Etienne Gilson
Victorian England: Portrait of an Age, by G.M. Young
Physics and its Fifth Dimension: Society, by Dietrich Schröer
A Brief History of Time: From the Big Bang to Black Holes, by Stephen Hawking
Cities of Salt, by Abdelrahman Munif
The Neo-Ciceronian Times 