“If you have a garden and a library, you have everything you need.”
~ Cicero (106 - 43 BC)
Joel Bowman with today’s Note From the End of the World: Buenos Aires, Argentina…
The rise and fall of great empires… the time and triumph of grand ideas… the collapse of currencies and countries…
There is precious little on this green earth that has not, in some form or another, gone before us. If history does not quite repeat, at least the times rhyme.
So whether we are examining The Greatest Political Experiment of Our Age, as we have taken to calling the passing parade down here at this End of the World… or observing the reliable folly of world leaders abroad, from DC to London, Toronto to Canberra and beyond… it is helpful to know that we have been here before, and that this, too, shall pass.
That in mind, we’re pleased to be a (small) part of a publishing enterprise that strives to keep the lessons and ideas of history alive… to, as the motto goes, “Bring Ancient Wisdom to Modern Minds.”
As longtime Notes readers well know, dear wifey runs the enormously popular Classical Wisdom Substack, which recently passed the 100,000 reader milestone. In part to commemorate this long-overdue comeback of the classics… and in part to ensure delivery in time for Christmas… we just launched the second edition of The Essential Classics, a 644-page hardback anthology of Greco-Roman literature.
From the Homeric epics to the writings of Marcus Aurelius… from the plays of Sophocles and Euripides to the political insights of Cicero and Pericles… to the philosophical musings of Aristotle, Xenophon and Lucretius… these are the texts that laid the foundation for Western Civilization, lately much maligned.
They are the writings that inspired the Founding Fathers… that shaped great republics… that helped us understand not only the petty squabbles of our species, but everything from the tiniest atoms to the grandeur of the cosmos around us.
As the above quoted statesman once said, “To be ignorant of what occurred before you were born is to remain always a child.”
Right now, you can order a copy of The Essential Classics – either for yourself or as a gift – and have it delivered in time for Christmas. But, as we are a small independent publisher, we can only guarantee timely print and mailing if you order this week. (After that, it’ll have to be a New Year’s Resolution gift!)
So before we get into your regular Notes from the End of the Week, below, take a moment to secure your copy of The Essential Classics and tick that one gift, to yourself or another, off the Christmas to-do list. You’ll be glad you did...
And now for your Notes From the End of the Week…
Final Notes…
No time for palaverous postscripts today, dear reader… we’re off to enjoy a very special concert this afternoon… along with 85,000 fellow rock and rollers… at the famed River Plate stadium right here in Buenos Aires.
If we don’t write to you next week, it’s because we’ve (finally) been invited to join the band.
Otherwise, stay tuned for more Notes From the End of the World…
Cheers,
Joel Bowman
