Take a photo of a barcode or cover
4.08 AVERAGE
4.08 AVERAGE
Brutally dull. I'm guessing this is an excellent academic tome, but it couldn't hold my interest.
informative
reflective
medium-paced
This was required reading for a course I was taking at the time on the decline and fall of the Roman Empire. Compared to the other books I had to read for the class this is the only one I read in its entirety. This was also the most unique. There’s a lot of discourse over the Roman Empire’s fall due to religion, invasions, and politics. But Kyle Harper focuses on the climate and environmental factors to answer the question of how the Roman Empire fell.
Harper did convince me of his argument by the end. I also found that this topic was unexplored which is a bit odd considering how much discourse there is about the fall of the Roman Empire. So he gets more points there for keeping my attention.
My biggest criticism of this book was how repetitive it felt. I found myself skim-reading a lot of the sections. In my opinion it could’ve been trimmed just a little bit.
Not sure who to recommend this for as this is required reading. I guess for those of you obsessed with the Roman Empire and its decline?
Harper did convince me of his argument by the end. I also found that this topic was unexplored which is a bit odd considering how much discourse there is about the fall of the Roman Empire. So he gets more points there for keeping my attention.
My biggest criticism of this book was how repetitive it felt. I found myself skim-reading a lot of the sections. In my opinion it could’ve been trimmed just a little bit.
Not sure who to recommend this for as this is required reading. I guess for those of you obsessed with the Roman Empire and its decline?
Enjoyed this one, very interesting and relevant point of view nowadays - not too dense, -1 because my brother in christ please use footnotes
The Fate of Rome is an excellent, modern, cross-disciplinary analysis of the end of the Roman Empire that takes the perspective that climate change and disease played a much larger role in the end of both the Western and Eastern Empires. Despite the sense that global warming and pandemic ended Rome might seem like pseudoscientific drek in 2021, it’s rigorously researched and in the historical orthodox.
Harper starts with a discussion of Rome’s rise coinciding with the Roman Climate Optimum (RCO), a multi-century span when the cooling trend of the Holocene was interrupted. Foreshadowing the effects that would make the 540s so horrible, the RCO had a combination of moist weather, a high energy output Sun cycle, and no major global volcanic activity. During the RCO, Rome exploded in the Iron Age world and became the largest empire the world had ever seen.
Disease was of course nothing new to premodern societies. But Harper points out that Romans and settled practitioners of agriculture and city-dwellers were significantly undernourished. The Petri dishes of Classical Era cities, the lack of nutrition, and globalization of Roman trade routes led to the terrible new phenomenon of pandemic. Starting with the Antonine Plague, Roman plagues ceased being local affairs, and now swept all of the Empire.
The end of the RCO meant the edges of the Empire underwent dramatic climatic changes in a short period of time. The Empire-wide food trade networks were disrupted by changes in weather: aridification in some areas, flooding in others, all bad for agriculture. Climate change also triggered massive “barbarian” migrations from the North and East, under whose pressure the West famously collapsed.
Unlike many histories of Rome, I appreciate that Harper continues with the Eastern Empire through the reign of Justinian. The East famously flourished after the official end of the West through the rise of Islam. I think the ending note is very interesting: Harper describes the religions of the Empire (Christianity, Judaism, and finally Islam) as eschatological (that is, doomsday) faiths. The medieval philosophy that the world has only been decaying since the Garden of Eden became mainstream in the face of the disease, famine, and death Romans experienced. That judgement day was soon nigh has to be understandable and is shared across the Abrahamic faiths.
What an excellent history of Rome, and one that doesn’t try to dumb-down the concepts or vocabulary. It’s accessible to non-historians, but is also a valid piece of writing. Harper represents the latest in our understanding of the end of Rome. Infamously, there are over 200 factors to the end of the Empire. But in our day in age, with the latest cross-disciplinary research available, it’s time the climate and disease get their fair credit as the top factors.
Harper starts with a discussion of Rome’s rise coinciding with the Roman Climate Optimum (RCO), a multi-century span when the cooling trend of the Holocene was interrupted. Foreshadowing the effects that would make the 540s so horrible, the RCO had a combination of moist weather, a high energy output Sun cycle, and no major global volcanic activity. During the RCO, Rome exploded in the Iron Age world and became the largest empire the world had ever seen.
Disease was of course nothing new to premodern societies. But Harper points out that Romans and settled practitioners of agriculture and city-dwellers were significantly undernourished. The Petri dishes of Classical Era cities, the lack of nutrition, and globalization of Roman trade routes led to the terrible new phenomenon of pandemic. Starting with the Antonine Plague, Roman plagues ceased being local affairs, and now swept all of the Empire.
The end of the RCO meant the edges of the Empire underwent dramatic climatic changes in a short period of time. The Empire-wide food trade networks were disrupted by changes in weather: aridification in some areas, flooding in others, all bad for agriculture. Climate change also triggered massive “barbarian” migrations from the North and East, under whose pressure the West famously collapsed.
Unlike many histories of Rome, I appreciate that Harper continues with the Eastern Empire through the reign of Justinian. The East famously flourished after the official end of the West through the rise of Islam. I think the ending note is very interesting: Harper describes the religions of the Empire (Christianity, Judaism, and finally Islam) as eschatological (that is, doomsday) faiths. The medieval philosophy that the world has only been decaying since the Garden of Eden became mainstream in the face of the disease, famine, and death Romans experienced. That judgement day was soon nigh has to be understandable and is shared across the Abrahamic faiths.
What an excellent history of Rome, and one that doesn’t try to dumb-down the concepts or vocabulary. It’s accessible to non-historians, but is also a valid piece of writing. Harper represents the latest in our understanding of the end of Rome. Infamously, there are over 200 factors to the end of the Empire. But in our day in age, with the latest cross-disciplinary research available, it’s time the climate and disease get their fair credit as the top factors.
4.5. Can't be read in isolation (unless you're a Romaboo) as it doesn't cover the political history in much detail, but a thorough, interesting, and utterly compelling addition to the story of the fall of the Roman Empire.
while this book was interesting it was quite wordy and lazily organized
Rome didn't fall on one day as well as it was not build on one.
There were many factors that led in the end to the decline of the Roman Empire. Many of them the Romans couldn't really influence, a sort of tragedy in many acts.
The author writes in a decent language, easy to understand but not to simple. In that way the scientific content can be presented to a wide public without limiting the complexity of the topic.
There were many factors that led in the end to the decline of the Roman Empire. Many of them the Romans couldn't really influence, a sort of tragedy in many acts.
The author writes in a decent language, easy to understand but not to simple. In that way the scientific content can be presented to a wide public without limiting the complexity of the topic.
A mix of Ancient history, Climate science on the Ancient Mediterranean world. The Roman empire collapse was a matter of political economy no doubt but the climate changes of the Roman Warm period going into a different colder climate weakened the support system of the empire in agriculture which exacerbated demographic factors like population through famines, plagues, warfare, and death some familiar horsemen that visit empires from time to time and do them in. The population declined from the highs of the principate of Augustus and food became insecure a weakened population was less able to resist famine and plague, manpower shortages in the legions weakened the defenses at frontiers and using barbarian mercenaries to fill the gap lead to problems of loyalty. Currency and inflation due to fewer goods to meet demand in an agrarian economy and fewer slaves to grow the food make for a daunting and ever-worsening condition for empire over time and unrest. I am surprised the empire held out so long in the face of these factors.
2 likes · Like ∙ flag
following reviews
READING PROGRESS
August 6, 2020 – Started Reading
August 6, 2020 – Finished Reading
January 28, 2021 – Shelved as: african-history
January 28, 2021 – Shelved
January 28, 2021 – Shelved as: ancient-history
January 28, 2021 – Shelved as: biology
January 28, 2021 – Shelved as: early-twenty-first-century
January 28, 2021 – Shelved as: economics
January 28, 2021 – Shelved as: european-history
January 28, 2021 – Shelved as: general-science
January 28, 2021 – Shelved as: geopolitics
January 28, 2021 – Shelved as: middle-east
January 28, 2021 – Shelved as: religion-or-not
January 28, 2021 – Shelved as: politics
January 28, 2021 – Shelved as: warfare
January 28, 2021 – Shelved as: sociology
2 likes · Like ∙ flag
following reviews
READING PROGRESS
August 6, 2020 – Started Reading
August 6, 2020 – Finished Reading
January 28, 2021 – Shelved as: african-history
January 28, 2021 – Shelved
January 28, 2021 – Shelved as: ancient-history
January 28, 2021 – Shelved as: biology
January 28, 2021 – Shelved as: early-twenty-first-century
January 28, 2021 – Shelved as: economics
January 28, 2021 – Shelved as: european-history
January 28, 2021 – Shelved as: general-science
January 28, 2021 – Shelved as: geopolitics
January 28, 2021 – Shelved as: middle-east
January 28, 2021 – Shelved as: religion-or-not
January 28, 2021 – Shelved as: politics
January 28, 2021 – Shelved as: warfare
January 28, 2021 – Shelved as: sociology
Harper's book doesn't replace other books on the collapse of the Roman Empire (or Empires), but supplements them usefully. While other historians emphasise certain social or political conditions that underlay the collapses of the Roman polities, or the impact of certain decisions or events, Harper puts all these in a environmental context that shows how variations in climate, waves of pandemics and the economic impacts of both formed the rolling waves on which the micro-level events rode. By marrying recent modern climate science data and medical knowledge of disease vectors, he is able to map archaeology and a new perspective on the sources to give political events and social changes a wider context.
This will probably not sit well with those who have ideological needs to attribute Rome's rise to more abstract forces (e.g. admirable values like fortitude and constancy) or its fall to sinister outside influences (Christianity or an influx of "foreigners"). It definitely won't sit well with those who have a misty eyed and romantic view of the Romans shaped by Hollywood images of pristine, white marble cities with baths and running water - Harper takes some delight in making it clear exactly how dirty, smelly and disease-ridden major Roman cities actually were. But it makes for a fresh new way of reading about the political ups and downs.
] Readers looking for a narrative history with entertaining anecdotes will be disappointed, as a lot of the book is technical and goes into great detail on the underpinning science. But those of us who like to look at familiar events from a new angle will find this book an eye-opener.
This will probably not sit well with those who have ideological needs to attribute Rome's rise to more abstract forces (e.g. admirable values like fortitude and constancy) or its fall to sinister outside influences (Christianity or an influx of "foreigners"). It definitely won't sit well with those who have a misty eyed and romantic view of the Romans shaped by Hollywood images of pristine, white marble cities with baths and running water - Harper takes some delight in making it clear exactly how dirty, smelly and disease-ridden major Roman cities actually were. But it makes for a fresh new way of reading about the political ups and downs.
] Readers looking for a narrative history with entertaining anecdotes will be disappointed, as a lot of the book is technical and goes into great detail on the underpinning science. But those of us who like to look at familiar events from a new angle will find this book an eye-opener.