Welcome to another episode of Conversations with Coleman. My guest today is James Hankins.

James is an intellectual historian who's taught at Harvard for the past 20 years and focuses on the

Renaissance period. He's also the author of The Golden Thread, a history of the Western tradition.

In this episode, we talk about why James recently left Harvard. We talk about the

importance of learning the Western canon. We talk about whether monotheisms invented the concept

of objective morality. We talk about the relationship between Christianity and the Enlightenment.

We talk about why Christianity spread throughout the Roman Empire. We talk about whether Islam was

spread mostly through conquest or voluntary conversion. And finally, I ask James if he believes

China should teach the Western canon or the Chinese canon. Without further ado, James Hankins.

James Hankins. Thanks so much for coming on my show.

It's a pleasure. I'm a great admirer of yours.

Oh, thank you very much. Likewise.

So we're here today to discuss this tome, this doorstopper of a book called The Golden Thread, a history of the Western tradition. But before we do, we were chatting just

briefly, but we didn't get to finish a conversation. You play trombone. In fact, we both play trombone.

That's right, but I played orchestral trombone.

Although I did play in dance bands,

a great American songbook, that kind of thing,

but I was studying to be an orchestral trombonist

and composer at one time, but I reached the limits of my ability.

So I went back to classics, which is where I had started.

That's interesting. When I was 12 and 13, starting out on trombone, I was also into classical orchestral trombone. That was my initial obsession. And then I

pivoted to jazz around age 14, 15, and ended up going to the Juilliard Jazz program for less than a year.

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