‘The Reopening of the Western Mind’ Review: Old Ideas, New Dawn

Some books may fairly be called intimidating. They seem to attest to their own authority and almost defy the reader to question their judgments. Such a work is “The Reopening of the Western Mind” by the English historian Charles Freeman, an account of European ideas from the fourth to the 17th centuries. Its 745 glossy pages of text are adorned with scores of images—portraits, photographs, maps and frontispieces, each illustrating the myriad books, authors, artists, architects and historical events discussed in its 32 chapters. Mr. Freeman writes with ease about a dizzying array of topics: theological debates of the fifth and sixth centuries, Renaissance cartography and architecture, late medieval explorers’ contact with indigenous peoples of the New World, early modern political philosophy, and much else besides.

In its polymathic range, omniscient voice and sundry illustrations, Mr. Freeman’s tome—the word seems applicable to a book weighing 4½ pounds—puts one in mind of Kenneth Clark’s “Civilisation,” the book based on the 1969 BBC series.