Hat Tip to Touchstone's Anthony Esolen for a promising "part one" on "How to Tell a Barbarian" and the sited Weekly Standard article by Charlotte Allen, "A Dark Age for Medievalists".
But a few generations ago the basic "darkness" of the middle ages was the complete absence of any knowledge about the Byzantine world. The misconception about the West was whether there really were any "dark ages" as the anti-Catholic Gibbons postulated. In our post-modern "enlightened" times, anything European, Christian, or Catholic is apparently open to any sort of opprobrium available.
For real history and objective analysis, I recommend:
How the Catholic Church Built Western Civilization by Thomas E. Woods Jr
The Victory of Reason: How Christianity Led to Freedom, Capitalism, and Western Success by Rodney Stark
Without Roots: The West, Relativism, Christianity, Islam by Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger & Marcello Pera (Previously lauded by yours truly)
Christianity and the Crisis of Cultures by Pope Benedict XVI & Marcello Pera (Also ramblingly lauded here)
and
What's So Great About Christianity by Dinesh D'Souza (This book might profitably be read in conjunction with How the Catholic Church Built Western Civilization as they are almost parallel projects in many ways.
UPDATE: Part II of the Barbarian Study is out.
Update Update: Part III of the Barbarian Study is now also out.
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