The Last Book I Read

I'm r4eally torn about this book, Lost to the West by Lars Brownworth. On the one hand I picked it up because I know little about the Byzantine Empire that kept the glory of Rome alive for centuries after the collapse of its western counterpart, and found out a fair amount of information. On the other hand, I don't feel like I really know much of anything beyond the fact that there were a bunch of good emperors, and a bunch of bad; a number of effective generals beloved by their troops, and some who were abject failures despised by everyone. Brownworth's style of history is a throwback to the old school, where the only people who mattered were those who wore crowns or led armies, and frankly, that's ultimately a very superficial style of history. It doesn't help that he tends to describe them in terms that signal his admiration for the great ones and disdain for those who fell short of immortal status. There's no complexity to this story, which makes it difficult to really understand why some of these leaders were successful and others were not-- it is hardly sufficient to suggest it was all a matter of their individual fortitude and cunning, but that is the impression with which Brownworth leaves the reader. There is minimal attention to those elements of the society and culture (even economics) that no doubt contributed mightily to the fortunes of those leaders, nor any sense of the contributions made by cities in the empire aside from Constantinople. Passing references to, for example, Philadelphia and Antioch suggest they played a much more significant role than is described here. But Brownworth is so wrapped up in his "great man" explanation for everything that transpires that he tacitly renders everything else inconsequential, which is unfortunate. He's a mostly engaging writer, but I wish he had looked beyond the throne, even just to acknowledge if not explain how other factors shaped the great empire.