America as the New Rome
This very long, very deep article is several things. It is on the face a review of three books that have recently come out comparing America to Rome. Each of them is polemical (some more than others).
However, the great part of this article is the examination of many theories related to the Fall of Rome (or in many theories that there was actually no fall but a melting into feudalism). Obvioulsy, Gibbon's Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire receives major billing, but many others are there as well. It also articulates how conscious the Founding Fathers were of the Roman Republic contra the Empire, Cicero and Cato (heroes to the Founders) vs a Caesar.
The author concludes that there are many factors that contributed to the Fall and that no exact analogies can be found with America. However, the "rot from within" theory seems to offer much explanatory potential and is ironic given the prominence in our day of notably left leaning intelligentsia who, according to the author, clamor for America to Fall in order to obtain the bitter fruits of its historical injustices.
Whatever one thinks, this article offers a good challenge to a major question that does haunt America.
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