History is Awesome!

Why were the Chinese able to rebuild their civilization and the West unable to do the same? I've always been puzzled that the Chinese went from Qin to Han and then after the Han imploded that a dynastic cycle could go into effect....but in the West, when Roman rule implodes, it does so permanently. In the West, the Roman Empire was never revived. In the East, the Ottomans continued to use the title after taking over the Byzantines, which in a way means the thing never really fell there. But in China, the dynasties really did fall and yet the Han people came back again and again to reconstruct their society from the ashes. Why were Qin Shi Huang's heirs able to reconstruct his ambitions, but Caesar Augustus's unable to do likewise?

Newsletter time! I've decided to go every-other-week for the time being.

( Discussion Posts )
( Book Reviews )
( Interesting History-related Communities on Dreamwidth )
( Interesting Hiistory-related Communities on Livejournal )
( History-related Feeds on Dreamwidth )
( Off-Journal Links )
( List of Primary Source Resources (long) )
( Events I'm Aware Of [US & UK] )
( History Carnivals )

Please feel free to email me (anna@annaoverseas.com), leave me a comment, PM, or otherwise to include any links next time you find interesting or relevant!

Please don't hesitate to post links or discussions in the community - this is just a round-up of things I think are interesting.

Enjoy!