Are We Rome?: The Fall of an Empire and the Fate of America

Cullen Murphy

Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2007 - 262 Seiten

The rise and fall of ancient Rome has been on American minds from the beginning of our republic. Today we focus less on the Roman Republic than on the empire that took its place. Depending on who's doing the talking, the history of Rome serves as either a triumphal call to action or a dire warming of imminent collapse.

The esteemed editor and author Cullen Murphy ventures past the pundits' rhetoric to draw nuanced lessons about how America might avoid Rome's demise. Working on a canvas that extends far beyond the issue of an overstretched military, Murphy reveals a wide array of similarities between the two empires: the blinkered, insular culture of our capitals; the debilitating effect of venality in public life; the paradoxical issue of borders; and the weakening of the body politic though various forms of privatization. He persuasively argues that we most resemble Rome in the burgeoning corruption of our government and in our arrogant ignorance of the world outside -- two things that are in our power to change.

In lively, richly detailed historical stories based on the latest scholarship, the ancient world leaps to life and casts our own contemporary world in a provocative new light.

Was andere dazu sagen

LibraryThing Review

Nutzerbericht  - NickHowes - LibraryThing

America's top parlor game, is America mimicking the Roman Empire in its rise and fall? And we in the decline? The author makes many good points but you can take heart in his final conclusion. Despite ...

LibraryThing Review

Nutzerbericht  - Cheryl_in_CC_NV - LibraryThing

Looks really promising, is very easy and enjoyable to read and seems excellently researched, is concise rather than wordy - but I just had to give up because I just don't know enough classical history ...

Inhalt

• The Eagle in the Mirror: 1
• THE CAPITALS Where Republic Meets Empire: 24
• THE LEGIONS When Power Meets Reality: 59
• THE FIXERS When Public Good Meets Private Opportunity: 91
• THE OUTSIDERS When People Like Us Meet People Like Them: 121
• THE BORDERS Where the Present Meets the Future: 152
• There Once Was a Great City: 185
• Acknowledgments: 207
• Notes: 209
• Bibliography: 251

Über den Autor

Cullen Murphy is the editor at large at Vanity Fair and the former managing editor of the Atlantic Monthly. He is the author of The Word According to Eve, about women and the Bible, and the essay collection Just Curious. Murphy lives in Boston, Massachusetts.

Bibliografische Informationen

• Titel: Are We Rome?: The Fall of an Empire and the Fate of America
• Autor: Cullen Murphy
• Verlag: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2007
• ISBN: 0618742220, 9780618742226
• Länge: 262 Seiten