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brannigan 's review for:
The Fall of Rome: And the End of Civilization
by Bryan Ward-Perkins
This book chips away at a perceived veneer of political correctness that shrouds recent late-Roman scholarship, which is alright with me. Ward-Perkins' argument was convincing enough, despite the inclusion of two absurd graphs on p. 122 that purport to show a change in economic complexity over time yet making no attempt to quantify this change other than a vague "minimal economic complexity - considerable economic complexity" along the y axis. In fairness, the author does admit that that was a gross over-simplification, as well as acknowledging that his argument is overwhelmingly materialistic, so five stars for honesty really.
I also don't understand the hate in other reviews for bringing in the Roman Empire/European Union comparison toward the end - it's not absurd when you think about it, and it's certainly been touted by others before Ward-Perkins (including Boris Johnson, but let's not talk about that).
If I had to compose a graph to compare works of non-fiction in terms of "minimum readability, thoroughness of scholarship and honesty - considerable readability, thoroughness of scholarship and honesty", this book would most certainly rank highly.
I also don't understand the hate in other reviews for bringing in the Roman Empire/European Union comparison toward the end - it's not absurd when you think about it, and it's certainly been touted by others before Ward-Perkins (including Boris Johnson, but let's not talk about that).
If I had to compose a graph to compare works of non-fiction in terms of "minimum readability, thoroughness of scholarship and honesty - considerable readability, thoroughness of scholarship and honesty", this book would most certainly rank highly.