A Thousand Years of Private Life

Supporting Evidence

So when I logged in to do a negative case on this place my mom and I went to lunch the other day I realized all of my cases are negative, so I decided to do a positive one on a book I finished the other day called “A History of Private Life: From Pagan Rome to Byzantium.” I really like learning the history of life in Europe and this book gave me a historical look into what people’s lives really consisted of. Unlike most historical novels it wasn’t boring and filled with factual hobnob, but used specific stories about people that survived the years and used them to express the particular theme in the society it was focusing on, integrated with facts and pictures of artifacts. I was really brought to the reality of how socialized we are as Americans. What we think is disgusting or beautiful, right or wrong, socially acceptable or not, have all been taught to use through our upbringing and exposure to American culture. But we aren’t the only ones! Thousands of years ago they had a different set of views influenced by their current, or may I go so far as to say pop, culture.

I would suggest this book to anyone interested in history or cultural anthropology, it is an eye opener.

 

---