Why America is Not a New Rome

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. On the surface, the vision of America as the new Rome has resonance. There are obvious, intriguing parallels and amusing--even disconcerting--similarities. The America-Rome analogy deserves a closer look, and this is what Smil, a scientist and a lifelong student of Roman history, offers. He does this by focusing 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 in the two states and the importance of machines and energy sources; 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.

ISBN 0262195933   Pages 240 ISBN13 9780262195935 (What's this?)   Weight (grammes) 612 Publisher MIT Press Ltd   Published in Cambridge, Mass. Imprint MIT Press   Height (mm) 229 Format Hardback   Width (mm) 178 Publication date 22 Jan 2010   Spine width (mm) 14 DEWEY 973.9   Academic level Professional / Scholarly DEWEY edition DC22

Pt. 1		America as a New Rome?		1
I		Nihil Novi Sub Sale		3
		Exempla Trahunt		3
		Imperium Americanum		11
		Intentio Libri		26
Pt. 2		Why America Is Not a New Rome		31
II		Empires, Powers, Limits		35
		What Is an Empire?		42
		Roman Reach: Hyperboles and Realities		54
		America's Peculiar Hegemony		64
III		Knowledge, Machines, Energy		79
		Inventing New Worlds		81
		Power of Machines		98
		Energy Sources		105
IV		Life, Death, Wealth		115
		Population Dynamics		117
		Illness and Death		126
		Wealth and Misery		135
Pt. 3		Why Comparisons Fail		147
V		Historical Analogies and Their (Lack of) Meaning		149
		Common Shortcomings		149
		Fundamental Differences		158
		One World		163
		Notes		173
		References		197
		Name Index		217
		Subject Index		221

"[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

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