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| Are We Rome?: The Fall of an Empire and the Fate of America | 
 enlarge | Author: Cullen Murphy
Publisher: Mariner Books
Category: Book
List Price: $14.95
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Avg. Customer Rating:  38 reviews
Sales Rank: 9611
Media: Paperback
Edition: 1
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 272
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.1
Dimensions (in): 8.1 x 5.4 x 0.5
ISBN: 0547052103
Dewey Decimal Number: 970.01
EAN: 9780547052106
ASIN: 0547052103
Publication Date: May 5, 2008
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Product Description
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 warning of imminent collapse. In Are We Rome? the esteemed editor and author Cullen Murphy reveals a wide array of similarities between the two empires: the blinkered, insular culture of our capitals; the debilitating effect of bribery in public life; the paradoxical issue of borders; and the weakening of the body politic through various forms of privatization. Murphy 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 must be changed if we are to avoid Rome's fate.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 33 more reviews...
 An Impressive and Elegant Warning June 7, 2007
67 out of 72 found this review helpful
Are We Rome? is a short but highly important examination of the fall of the Roman Empire and its implications for the twenty-first century United States. Cullen Murphy begins by acknowledging that many parallels between Rome and America have been drawn over the years. The similarities and differences he draws, however, differ from those made by other writers and historians in that he focuses on the moods and attitudes of the two empires at their apogees.
Here Murphy finds much which will alarm concerned Americans today. He notes that both Rome and the US have had similar beliefs in their own exceptionalism, that somehow both Romans and Americans are superior to the rest of the world and thus need take little notice of the opinions of others. He observes that both empires saw foreigners as being inferior and somewhat contemptible, fearing their influence while at the same time coming to rely on them more and more. Most interestingly, Murphy sees in both societies a reluctance to take part in public life and to adequately finance public services.
While Murphy sees much over which to be concerned in modern America, he is not completely pessimistic. He calls for Americans to take a greater interest in the outside world while at the same time taking the problems we face within our society more seriously.
Throughout this short (206 pages plus notes) work Murphy writes with a wit and flair that, despite the somber nature of most of the material, helps to inspire his readers. It is a breath of fresh air to read such trenchant observations amidst the obfuscation and blame-throwing which unfortunately has come to characterize political debate today.
too close for comfort June 13, 2007
41 out of 43 found this review helpful
Comparisons between Rome and America are as old as our founding fathers, and thus the picture of Horatio Greenough's marble statue of George Washington on the cover of this book; he looks like a Roman caesar in his toga. Today "triumphalists" celebrate the comparison and want to export America as a model to the world, while "declinists" lament the similarities and warn about over-extension, arrogance and fall. But are we Rome? Murphy, former managing editor of the Atlantic Monthly for twenty years and currently editor at large for Vanity Fair, stakes a middle ground: "In a thousand specific ways, the answer is obviously no. In a handful of important ways, the answer is certainly yes" (p. 197).
After a short prologue, Murphy devotes one chapter each to six parallels of "direct relevance" between ancient Rome and modern America. Both empires exhibit the symptoms of solipsism-- an exaggerated self-identity, the isolating effects of exceptionalism, ignorance of others, the presumptions of privilege, and sheer arrogance. Militarism characterizes both societies. Today America has 700 bases in 60 countries, and in any one year will conduct "operations" of some sort in 170 countries. Murphy suggests that our military is both "too large to be affordable, and too small to do everything it is asked to do." He then turns to how America has blurred the distinctions between the private and public (government) sectors, "the deflection of public purpose by private interest." Outsourcing government responsibilities might be effective and even necessary, but selling the public good for private profit isn't. The fourth parallel between Rome and America is the disdain with which both view outsiders ("barbarians") as inferior. Fifth, Murphy explores the complex notion of borders, both literal (eg, immigration) and figurative. Finally, in his epilogue he examines the "inherent complexity" of large empires like Rome and America. Are they ungovernable?
Rome's empire lasted for a thousand years, and in many obvious ways its "decline and fall" did not mean it simply disappeared. When I have traveled to places like Egypt or China that have had continuous civilizations for thousands of years, and consider that America is just 200 years old--barely a blip on the graph of historical time--I resonate with historically-minded intellectuals like Murphy and their "brutal reminder of impermanence." I find it hard to imagine what America might look like a mere thousand years from now. For his part, Murphy is not overly pessimistic; he urges the country to be more rather than less like the America our founders imagined.
From Republic to Empire? June 19, 2007
31 out of 33 found this review helpful
This is a highly provocative book that provides the reader with a good deal to ponder. Its basic premises is that parallels exist between selected phenomena found in the U.S. today and analogous phenomena in what is called ancient Rome. Yet Cullen Murphy is too careful a writer not to set some implicit or explicit ground rules for comparing the U.S. and Ancient Rome. First, Rome as a geo-political entity was not a nation state in the 21st Century meaning of the term. Second, Rome like most geo-political entities was constantly evolving from its foundation until its eventual evolution into a religious center. Third, any comparisons between ancient Rome and the modern U.S. must begin by establishing want phase of evolutionary Rome is being used to compare with the current U.S. situation. And finally, it should be obvious that any comparison between ancient Rome and the U.S. must be based on broad issues and trends and not on specific details. Using these ground rules as a framework, it really is possible to build an analogy between the current U.S. and Ancient Rome.
The founding fathers were clearly thinking of their creation as sort of a new and better Roman Republic with all its citizens having equal responsibilities and privileges. To the extent that anybody today has ever heard of the Roman Republic it is still the model which the U.S. would like to follow. Murphy however sees the present day U.S. more like the more grandiose Roman Empire as it was under say the Antonines (CE 138-192) when the Roman Empire was at its zenith. This was of course right before the calamitous Third Century caused Rome to evolve in yet another direction.
Well how accurate is Murphy's comparison? On the whole in terms of broad trends and attitudes it appears Murphy is much on the mark. For example, the general arrogance, ignorance, and lack of insight that seems characteristic of the Washington D.C. power establishment certainly seems to mirror the characteristics of the movers and shakers of the Roman Empire. Yet as Murphy is quick to warn such analogies can be carried too far. A set of similarities between two political entities widely separated by time and culture really is a vary unreliable way to predict the future of one based on the historical example of the other.
Smart and alert analysis May 18, 2007
29 out of 64 found this review helpful
Cullen Murphy's book on how our American and Roman empires overlap and don't overlap, and what we might be able to learn from this, explores territory that's been explored in this country since we were a country. What makes the question more urgent today, of course, is the war in Iraq, Islamic terrorism, and a set of political leaders that most of us don't find competent or trustworthy, according to all polls. This book is no simplistic jeremiad, however. In fact, what distinguishes Murphy's take on the subject, and what made this book a delight to read, is his own delight in searching out what's interesting and complex, instead of what's dull and simple to say. His voice in this book is a voice I can only compare to that of your favorite college lecturer: smart, alert, and provoking. (Murphy has written humor in his past life, and it shows.)
I finished this book feeling not just educated but fairly hopeful, which in these times is pretty good value for the money (particularly the fairly hopeful part). I found Murphy's take on the first-century Roman wars in comparison with our Iraqi adventure particularly interesting, though Murphy is careful to maintain that in spite of the clear comparisons (such as the use of "outsourcing" to supply infrastructure and security) you can't just say that we've got the same bad habits that ultimately reduced Rome from an empire to a city that earns a good living from its ruins.
P.S. I was surprised to see this morning that Adam Kirsch, a book reviewer for the New York Sun--a newspaper less likely to be sympathetic to Murphy's take on contemporary U.S, foreign policy than, say, the Times--liked "Are we Rome?" and called it "pithy [and] provocative" and other good things. That's my point about leaning back with this book and hearing your favorite college professor go at it for an hour. Kirsch's review, by the way, is at (...)
 Helpful but not totally satisfying September 2, 2007
21 out of 23 found this review helpful
To recap some of the salient points already made -- it is short, pithy, and an enjoyable read, the erudition is clearly there, but it doesn't overwhelm the reader. Mr. Murphy focuses mostly on the comparison between the Rome of the 1st - 4th century AD to the U.S. in drawing his six analogies. He has a bit of a liberal bias, but not crazy liberal, and it is a shame that he doesn't include maps and pictures for our ADD-driven, multimedia culture. So far so good.
What I liked about the book is that it is clearly a subject that is close to the bone for the author. He's visited Hadrian's wall and Rome, he's walked the halls of Congress and among the ruins of the Capitoline Hill. He's read his Gibbon, Appian, Livy, Tacitus, etc. Even the casual student of Roman history will acknowledge the author's fluency in the classical materials. I learned some things I didn't know about Roman archaeology and current Roman studies. (Oddly, I didn't have the feeling that he was as well-versed in American political thought.)
I also liked the provocative questions that he raised about our hubris, our military-industrial complex, our borders, our culture etc. because in the end, a book like this isn't about Rome at all, it's about us, who are we? where are we going? what are we doing? how can we have a little more self-knowledge?
But, I don't think he went far enough or even that he chose the right era. I'm going to be writing about all of this soon, but let's just put it this way -- within 100 years of the third Punic War and the fall of Carthage, Rome went from being a republic with a dominant oligarchy and free lower middle class with a near-universal commitment to public service to the dictatorship of Julius Caesar, and a city where a third of the inhabitants were on the dole.
This is the era where I believe the parallels are truly striking, and where a truly profound study would have begun -- with the increasing separation of the military from the populace, the increasing gridlock and crisis affecting political office-holders, the electoral degradation, the moral degradation of the elite aristocracy, the decline of a sense of public purpose.
So you see, the purpose of the author isn't really about holding up a mirror to us about ourselves as a regime, he is interested in holding up a mirror to us about how we come across vis-a-vis others -- whether immigrants, Iraqis, or sophisticated, liberally-educated Europeans.
This is why my conclusion is that this is a helpful, interesting, and yes, provocative, book, but why it is ultimately not totally satisfying. Definitely worth reading however.
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