Los Angeles Times Festival of Books: History: Laws of Nature, Laws of Man panel

Festival Art

As mentioned in my earlier posts on the Los Angeles Times Festival of Books, the 2-day festival ranks as one of my premier Los Angeles events of each year. I just love it.

My sixth panel discussion was titled "History: Laws of Nature, Laws of Man." There were three panelists.

The following short biographies were taken from the LA Times Festival of Books website:

(Winifred) Mary Beard is a professor of classics at the University of Cambridge. She is also the classics editor of The Times Literary Supplement and writes for the New York Review of Books, Times Literary Supplement and London Review of Books. She has made several TV series on ancient Rome for the BBC and is author of “Confronting the Classics,” ”Fires of Vesuvius,” “Laughter in Ancient Rome” and “SPQR: A History of Ancient Rome,” which is a 2015 finalist for the L.A. Times Book Prize in History.

Mark Molesky is associate professor of history at Seton Hall University. He received his PhD from Harvard. He is the recipient of numerous awards and grants and has contributed to The Wall Street Journal and many academic publications. He has written two books, the most recent of which is “This Gulf of Fire: The Destruction of Lisbon, or Apocalypse in the Age of Science and Reason,” a 2015 L.A. Times Book Prize finalist in History.

Michael Schuman is an author and journalist based in Asia. His new book, “Confucius and the World He Created,” was published in 2015. He is also the author of “The Miracle: The Epic Story of Asia’s Quest for Wealth.” Schuman has been a correspondent for Time magazine and The Wall Street Journal and has contributed to Businessweek, Bloomberg View and the New York Times.

The following are my notes from the panel discussion. There are potential misinterpretations to what I heard so take that into consideration.

Schuman. How is teaching of Confucius impacting China? He is a guy who wrote 2,500 years ago and is influencing today. He spent time talking about good governance being more important than science. Really smart people were supposed to read poetry and not look into science. Was Confucius to blame for China's move from science technology? 

Now with the economy stumbling is he still a problem? Can you have a society that innovates and yet follows Confucius. This can impact China's future. 

Is Confucius over inflated? It is a way for the West to understand the East. The fact that there is a written record of Confucius shows how important he was to China.

The West learned of him when Jesuits arrived in China. 

Beard. There is something in your face about Rome. You still see the ruins. Why is the UK capital in such a stupid place? Because the Romans put it there for their convenience. 

Is the UK the inheritance of Rome or of the rebels. A statue of someone who rebelled against Rome has a quote about how UK will have a greater empire than Rome. 

American audiences focus on Rome's community, debates, their senate. What is it to be a citizen? At what point does security offset the need for liberty. We discuss this in the language of Rome. 

It took five weeks to get info from Rome to UK. The Roman empire saw itself as connected by roads. Christianity was first religion that used these connections of empire to expand. Even though counter culture, Christianity couldn't have grown without Roman roads. 

We have to remember that there were 2 Roman empires. We must look at the East and West to determine why the empire collapsed. The East lasted for a long time. As for the West, it couldn't manage the violence. It split into micro Romes. It got pressured from the outside and lost political unity.  

Molesky. The Lisbon earthquake was one of greatest natural disasters in world history. It caused a rare Atlantic tsunami. The earthquake was an 8.2 magnitude and was felt as far away as Norway. The earthquake started at 9:45 a.m. The center of city was destroyed. Half an hour later the tsunami hit and then a fire storm. Many felt this was Revelations, the last day. 

The king gave Marquess of Pombal power to deal with the situation. Martial law was declared. People were executed. He took revenge on his enemies: political and the Jesuits. This happened for 20 years. 

The country's infrastructure was destroyed. This caused the decline of the Portugal empire. 

Ripples of the earthquake were felt in many areas. Ships were prevented from leaving the Lisbon harbor. It took a while for the news to reach London, but when it arrived the stock market was shut down. There was chaos among British merchants. The UK king asked for a day of fasting. Everyone closed up shop, except for the Quakers.

There was a debate regarding the earthquake: was it caused by God or science? Scientists and religious leaders tried to come up with theories. Scientists argued there were fires beneath the earth that caused earthquakes. We have to remember that we didn't even know what caused earthquakes until the 1950s. Religious leaders used it as proof that God didn't just step back, but took an active role. 

It took a month for news to get to Brazil. There was concern about what was left in Lisbon. Lisbon downplayed the situation. Brazil was asked to pay a 4% tariff to help rebuilt Lisbon. There was eagerness to help, but at some point asked when would the tariff end.