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Why Empires Fall

Rome, America and the Future of the West

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Why Empires Fall

By: John Rapley, Peter Heather
Narrated by: Sid Sagar
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About this listen

Brought to you by Penguin.

Over the last three centuries, the West rose to dominate the planet. Then, suddenly, around the turn of the millennium, history reversed. Faced with economic stagnation and internal political division, the West has found itself in freefall.

This is not the first time the global order has witnessed such a dramatic rise and fall. The Roman Empire followed a similar arc from dizzying power to disintegration - a fact that is more than a strange historical coincidence. In Why Empires Fall, historian Peter Heather and political economist John Rapley use this Roman past to think anew about the contemporary West, its state of crisis, and what paths we could take out of it.

In this exceptional, transformative intervention, Heather and Rapley explore the uncanny parallels - and productive differences - between the two cases, moving beyond the familiar tropes of invading barbarians and civilizational decay to learn new lessons from ancient history. From 399 to 1999, the life cycles of empires, they argue, sow the seeds of their inevitable destruction. The era of the West has reached its own end - so what comes next?

©2023 John Rapley and Peter Heather (P)2023 Penguin Audio Americas Ancient Civilization Politics & Government Rome United States World Imperialism Ancient History Latin American Socialism Taxation Africa Western Europe Capitalism

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Critic reviews

Two experienced scholars lucidly engage in contemporary debates about the future of the West and its parallels to the Roman Empire. This is comparative history done right. (David Potter, author of DISRUPTION: WHY THINGS CHANGE)
All stars
Most relevant
Informed analysis with historical perspective. Good narrator. A little on the shorter side, but I appreciated that it wasn't a slog. Well worth a listen.

informed analysis

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Putting out current western political mess in the context required to understand it. A helpful counter to our increasingly superficial and myopic news coverage.

Must read

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I was anticipating some more profound insights.
I had heard the authors talking about the book on Dan Snow's podcast.
The book added information but relatively little insight to the podcast discussion.
The book is, in my opinion, stronger on analysing the fall of the Western Roman Empire than it is on the decline of the contemporary West.

I was slightly disappointed with this book.

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I had hoped for this to be more fascinating. I have read Peter heather before and enjoyed

Not as exciting as I hoped

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…now that we all understand what is going on; let’s get on with it and eat the rich!

Wonderful

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