Why America is Not a New Rome - Hardcover

Smil, Vaclav

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0262195933 ISBN 13: 9780262195935

Verlag: MIT Press, 2010

Inhaltsangabe

Book by Smil Vaclav

Über diesen Titel

Críticas:

[T]his book is both a polemic and a work of scholarship. -- Daniel Headrick, Technology and Culture Smil (Univ. of Manitoba, Canada) has written an entertaining response to authors who have compared the US to the Roman Empire... -- S. Prisco III, CHOICE

Reseña del editor:

America's post--Cold War strategic dominance and its pre-recession affluence inspired pundits to make celebratory comparisons to ancient Rome at its most powerful. Now, with America no longer perceived as invulnerable, engaged in protracted fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan, and suffering the worst economic downturn since the Great Depression, comparisons are to the bloated, decadent, ineffectual later Empire. In Why America Is Not a New Rome, Vaclav Smil looks at these comparisons in detail, going deeper than the facile analogy-making of talk shows and glossy magazine articles. He finds profound differences. Smil, a scientist and a lifelong student of Roman history, focuses on several fundamental concerns: the very meaning of empire; the actual extent and nature of Roman and American power; the role of knowledge and innovation; and demographic and economic basics--population dynamics, illness, death, wealth, and misery. America is not a latter-day Rome, Smil finds, and we need to understand this in order to look ahead without the burden of counterproductive analogies. Superficial similarities do not imply long-term political, demographic, or economic outcomes identical to Rome's.

Über diese Auflage

• Verlag: MIT Press
• Erscheinungsdatum: 2010
• ISBN 10: 0262195933
• ISBN 13: 9780262195935
• Einband: Tapa dura
• Anzahl der Seiten: 240