Prager University – How Dark Were the Dark Ages?
It turns out the ‘Dark Ages’ weren’t as dark as you might think.
Check out this fascinating new Prager University video hosted by Professor Anthony Esolen of Providence College.
Here’s more information.
Course Description
Were the Middle Ages, also known as the Dark Ages, characterized by oppression, ignorance, and backwardness in areas like human rights, science, health, and the arts? Or were they marked by progress and tolerance? Anthony Esolen, an English Literature professor at Providence College, explains.
0
0
Comments
Well done, Dr. Esolen. I enjoyed reading this.
Curious. I don’t believe I’ve ever seen anyone try to conflate the Dark Ages and the Middle Ages before. They’re more generally considered distinct periods. And with good reason, although there’s no definite historical event which marks a transition date. But he’s right in that they both get bum raps from today’s barbarians. The Dark Ages were only “dark” in the sense that they were relatively unknown to early modern scholarship, since few written records had survived, at least compared to the Classical or Medieval periods.
Frankly, as a history teacher and avid reader in the subject, I’ve come to the conclusion that the terms “Renaissance” and “Enlightenment” are boasts rather than accurate descriptions of anything. Had Constantinople fallen to the Turks in 753 A.D. instead of 1453 A.D., I’m sure the flow of Greek scholars and manuscripts to the West would’ve been welcomed then as well as later.
Large-scale global warming in 1000 CE? Wheat crops on the coast of Greenland? The man must be mad! Everyone knows that global warming on that scale is a recent phenomena, caused by humans, not something that might run in cycles. Next he’ll be trying to tell us it kept on cooling and lead to a Little Ice Age!
Oh, wait …