Geography Is Destiny (Books to Read No. 6)

Benjamin Schwartz reviews Europe Between the Oceans by Barry Cunliffe in an Atlantic Monthly book review, "Geography Is Destiny." It is a book about archaeology, a subject which I recognize I should be interested in as a student of ancient peoples but have great difficulty enjoying. It was really hard to list this in my "Books to Read" category. I don't think I'm imaginative or patient enough to reap its rewards.

Schwarts acknowledges that most archaeological books are boring. That's why he's surprised to find the Cunliffe's book, "at once compelling and judicious, is an extraordinary book." (In fact, it's one of The Atlantic's top 6 books of 2008!) Basically, Cunliffe profiles Europe's history between 9000 BC and 1000 AD with special attention to the influence of geography and climate. He notes how the interactions of peoples were in some sense dictated by the earth they were given.

This is an unusual lens with which to view history. We are accustomed to historiography which majors on biography. Traditional history follows each era's villains and heroes, directing the world's future like Homer's demigods warring above the Trojan plains. We also read the so-called "People's History," a history of the masses. It's the democratic way to read history.

But Cunliffe offers a history which pays little attention to humans. Schwartz foresees that this will be difficult for most. "Cunliffe’s approach will jar readers accustomed to being informed of the epoch-making quality of every inauguration speech." Not so Cunliffe, who sees today's news as "the events and personalities flitting on the surface."

He summarizes the impact of such a reading:

These books contain hardly anything about the great deeds of Great Men, and none offers much to flatter our images of ourselves. But in their marriage of exactitude and far-reaching vision, they clarify the scale of the human enterprise and remind us that the events that seem so significant today are, as Braudel put it, little more than “surface disturbances, crests of foam that the tides of history carry on their strong backs ... we must learn to distrust them.”

This reading of history brings to mind biblical passages which emphasize God's control over creation. Indeed, the biblical rationale is often, 'God controls creation. Therefore, God controls everything, including you.' Proverbs 21:1 reads, "The king’s heart is a stream of water in the hand of the LORD; he turns it wherever he will." Cunliffe's findings help bring these truths home.