AND THE ABYSS
GAZES BACK
A History of the Victor–Vanquished Synthesis
by Josh Luberisse
"Whoever fights monsters should see to it that in the process he does not become a monster…"Preorder Now
Victory changes the victor
Every empire, revolution, and ideology inherits the DNA of what it destroys.
And the Abyss Gazes Back traces the recurring pattern through history — from Rome's conversion to Christianity and the Mongols' sinicization, to the Cold War and America's postwar moral transformations.
It is not a book of judgment or prescription, but of observation — a chronicle of how the defeated live on within the victors who absorb them.
Inside the Abyss
The Historical Arc
Rome and Greece
The Captive Who Captured
Rome conquered Greece militarily, yet Greek philosophy, art, and culture conquered Roman civilization.
Conflict
Military conquest
Victory
Roman dominance
Absorption
Greek culture, philosophy, art
Consequence
Roman elite spoke Greek, adopted Greek gods
Irony
The conqueror became culturally Greek
About the Author
Josh Luberisse is a geopolitical analyst and historian specializing in the study of power dynamics, ideological transformation, and the unintended consequences of conflict.
Drawing on extensive research in defense studies and historical systems thinking, Luberisse examines how civilizations, empires, and movements are shaped by the very forces they seek to overcome.
And the Abyss Gazes Back represents years of archival research and comparative analysis across centuries of human conflict.