A Brief History of History

Sailing from Byzantium

A Nickel Tour of Byzantium
A layperson's overview of Byzantium and Byzantine history for those who enjoyed my book, Sailing from Byzantium.

Contact Colin Wells
Titles available at amazon:
NEW! A Brief History of History

Sailing from Byzantium

The Complete Idiot's Guide to Understanding Saudi Arabia

Stick Like Glue

The Mystery of Socrates'
Last Words
The death of Socrates is a cultural icon that lies at the heart of Western civilization. But his mysterious last words have kept us from fully understanding its meaning. My explanation of them is simple, even obvious, and has been hiding in plain sight for 2,400 years. It was published recently in Arion, Boston University's journal of classics and the humanities.

The Longest War: The Epic Clash of Faith and Reason, from Abraham to Zygotes
If you've read my other books, you know that the historical relationship between faith and reason is a central interest of mine. Here's a link to my current project, a book that tells that story from the beginning.

Joseph Needham's Big Question The New York Review of Books (December 18, 2008)
Here's a link to a letter I wrote recently that was published in The New York Review of Books on the question "Why Didn't Science Rise in China?

Reviews by Colin Wells:
Yehuda Nevo and Judith Koren's Crossroads to Islam: The Origins of the Arab Religion and the Arab State (Prometheus, 2003)
This might interest you if you have been following the current debate over Islam.

Kathryn Ringrose's The Perfect Servant: Eunuchs and the Social Construction of Gender in Byzantium (U of Chicago, 2003)
This might interest you if you follow gender studies, or if you are into Byzantine history and culture.

Opinions:
Impeachment Is Not About Iraq
Here's an opinion piece I wrote for my local paper, The Plattsburgh Press-Republican, calling for the impeachment of President Bush. All elected officials swear an oath to support the Constitution, and the president has systematically attacked the Constitution. I argue here that any public official who does not support impeachment has failed to honor his or her oath of office.

Terra Daily http://www.terradaily.com
Terra Daily offers a wide range of informed and well written stories on breaking news in science, especially earth and environmental sciences, but also biology, physics, cosmology, and everything else.

Open Democracy http://www.opendemocracy.net/home/index.jsp
Offers original articles of mostly high quality on a wide range of subjects in international politics and culture. Especially good on women's issues in the developing world. Plus, Fred Halliday, a professor of international relations at the London School of Economics and perhaps the sanest person writing about the Middle East, has a regular column here.

Arts and Literature Daily http://www.aldaily.com
A valuable selection of articles from leading papers and journals in the English-speaking world.

signsandsights.com http://www.signandsight.com
Collects articles on the European and American press and intellectual scene. Check out the idiotic controversy over Ian Buruma's and Timothy Garton Ash's spot-on critiques of Ayaan Hirsi Ali (click on "the multicultural issue").

Truthdig.com http://www.truthdig.com
Veteran journalist Robert Scheer edits this excellent political site.

Max Tegmark's website http://space.mit.edu/home/tegmark/index.html
For science buffs. This brilliant physicist will blow your mind with parallel universes and other quantum cosmological paradoxes.