"The Golden Thread speaks in two singular voices. Volume I of this history is entirely the work of James Hankins, except for the introduction, which was written with Allen C. Guelzo. An earlier version of the introduction was published in the September 2021 issue of the New Criterion. Volume II is the work of Allen C. Guelzo."--from the Notes about the Book section, page xli

Marius, Sulla, and the Mithridatic Wars ; Sulla's "New Republic" and his reign of terror ; Pompey saves the Empire ; The Republican ship tries to right itself: Pompey and Cicero ; The reform of provincial government ; The So-Called First Triumvirate ; Caesar's Supremacy ; The Second Triumvirate and the Rise of Octavian ; Review -- The Roman Empire from Augustus to Constantine: Augustus and the Second Founding of Rome ; The Golden Age, the Pax Romana, and the limits of empire ; Golden Age literature -- Roman literature and education during the Later Principate ; Architecture, engineering, and urban design ; After Augustus: Bad emperors and good ; The Five Good Emperors ; The Classical Age of Roman jurisprudence ; The Severans ; The Crisis of the Third Century and the "First Fall of Rome" ; Toward the Dominate ; Toward the Christian Empire ; The Conversion of Constantine ; Gratitude to the Romans ; Review -- Jewish and Christian Antiquity: Ancient Israel ; Exile and return ; The Judaism of the Second Temple ; Jewish revolts ; A Fifth Philosophy: Jesus of Nazareth ; The beginnings of the "Jesus Movement" ; Pauline Christianity ; Johannine Christianity and Christian Platonism ; The struggle for unity ; Toward the Roman Imperial Church ; Review -- Christendom: The Christianization of Rome: The rise of Confessional States ; New Rome ; Theodosius I and the End of Paganism ; The moral revolution of Christianity ; The Christian Reform of Classical Paideia ; Monasticism and the Holy Man ; Spiritual and Material Hierarchies ; Review -- From the Fall of the Western Empire to the Sixth Century: The Barbarians and the End of Imperial Rule in the Latin West ; The Confessional State and the Church ; St. Augustine and the Roman State ; Theoderic the Great and the Ostrogothic Kingdom ; Justinian and the Reconquest of the Western Mediterranean ; The Catholic Reconquest of the Arian West ; St. Benedict and Benedictine Monasticism ; Review

Contents: [Chapter contents] ; [List of] Chronologies [listed by chapter and page number within each chapter] -- [List of] Biographies [listed by chapter and page number within each chapter] -- [List of] Threads [inset boxes with small articles within each chapter listed by chapter and page number] -- [List of] Primary Sources [inset boxes with small articles within each chapter listed by chapter and page number] -- [List of] Maps [list by chapter and page number within each chapter] -- Introduction: Civilization ; Tradition ; What is the Western Tradition? ; Barbarism ; Modernity and Modernism ; Notes about the book -- Antiquity: The Archaic and Classical Ages of Greece: The Battle of Marathon ; Who were the Greeks? ; Dark Age and recovery ; The Archaic Age ; The Greek City-State ; Citizenship ; Slavery ; Ideals of citizen participation and the problem of Factionalism ; Solutions to Factionalism: Tyrants and City-State Constitutions ; Oligarchy: Sparta ; Lycurgus's Constitution ; The emergence of Athenian Democracy ; Cleisthenes and the Mature Athenian Democracy ; The Persian Wars ; The Delian League and the Athenian Empire ; The Golden Age of Athens ; The Peloponnesian War and its aftermath ; Review -- The Fourth Century, Alexander, and the Hellenistic Kingdoms: The rise of political philosophy ; The Schools of Philosophy ; The struggle for hegemony and the formation of Federal States ; The rise of Macedon ; The Conquests of Alexander the Great ; The legacy of Alexander the Great ; The Hellenistic Monarchies ; Hellenistic cultural achievements ; Hellenistic philosophy ; Gratitude to the Greeks ; Review -- Rome: The Early Kings and the Republic: Legends of Early Rome ; The Roman Constitution ; The rise of political liberty ; The conflict of the orders ; The Romans conquer the Mediterranean ; How the Romans won ; The morality of conquest ; Hellenization ; The Crisis of the Roman World-State ; The Gracchi and Populist Reform ; Factionalized foreign policy

"Where do the threads that form the Western tradition originate, and how were they woven together over the two and a half milennia before 1500? What are the sources of our modern ideas about science, freedom, equality, law, good government, and virtue? These are the questions explore in The Golden Thread, Volume I: The Ancient World and Christendom, written by James Hankins. The story begins with the seminal culture of the classical Greeks and moves through the Hellenization of the East following the conquests of Alexander the Great. Hankins then narrates the rise and dominance of Rome and the fusion of Greco-Roman and Judeo-Christian cultures in the Christian empire of the fourth century AD. The volume follows the history of Christendom from the fall of the Western Roman empire, charts its centuries-long rivalry with the Islamic world, and culminates in the emergence of European civilization in the Middle Age and Renaissance. Volume I examines how the foundations were laid for the West's political and economic dominance in the modern era, illuminating the deep roots of the ideas, arts, and institutions that continue to shape our world."--from the back cover

The Middle Age of Christendom: From the Islamic Conquests to the Rise of Europe: The Middle Age ; The military rivalry with the Islamic World ; Survival and revival: The Seventh adn Eighth Centuries ; The Islamic Conquests ; Why the Islamic Revolution happened ; Holy War and Martyrdom in Battle ; The Islamic Conquest of Spain and the Invasion of the Franklands ; The Rise of the Carolingians ; Charlemagne's Conquests ; The Revival of the Roman Empire in the West ; The Carolingian Renaissance ; The Failure of Carolingian Government ; Disintegration in the West, Recovery in the East ; A Renaissance in Byzantium ; The struggle for survival in Latin Christendom ; Christianity as a civilizing influence: The example of Kievan Rus' ; Review -- The Birth of Europe: Toward the West ; The collapse of East Rome ; The expansion of Latin Christendom ; The Norman Conquests ; The Normans and the causes of European Dynamism ; The transformation of the European Family and Primogeniture ; The Gregorian Reform ; The Imperial Papacy ; The Apogee of Papal Power ; The Inquisition ; The failure of the Holy Roman Empire ; Frederick I "Barbarossa" and the rise of the Italian City-Republics ; Frederick II versus the Papacy: A case of mutually assured destruction ; Emperor Frederick II and the Liber Augustalis ; Review -- Early European Civilization: Renaissance and Renascences ; The Crusades ; Chivalry and courtly love ; Abelard and Scholasticism ; The rise of Universities ; The Franciscans and the moral economy ; New political ideals: Self-governing city-republics ; New political ideals: Constitutional monarchy and Representative institutions ; The Crisis of the Fourteenth Century ; Petrarch and the Renaissance of Classical Antiquity ; The revival of Classical Latin literature ; The transfer of the Greek tradition to the Latin West ; The revival of Platonism ; The Renaissance of the arts: Leon Battista Alberti ; Renaissance political thought: Machiavelli and Thomas More ; Gratitude to Christendom ; Review

In English

Appendix -- Notes -- Bibliography -- Acknowledgments -- Illustration credits ; Index