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brandonpytel 's review for:
The Fate of Rome: Climate, Disease, and the End of an Empire
by Kyle Harper
The Fate of Rome presents a complementary theory on the fall of Rome: Not just due to its strategic decisions or civil wars or failing fiscal system, or simply crumbling under its own weight but also “equally decided by bacteria and viruses, volcanoes and solar cycles.”
The story of Rome is also a global environmental history, a time of global connectivity, of man over nature, as well as an evolutionary history of germs, where climate change and emerging infectious diseases are an integral part of the human story, Kyle Harper argues.
With its rapid expansion, Rome not only conquered the world — it created a network in which diseases could spread rapidly, leading to a number of pandemics that would cripple and eventually topple the great empire: “The empire’s fetid cities were petri dishes for low-level intestinal parasites. The empire’s violence against the landscape called forth scourges like malaria. The empire’s thick webs of connection let chronic diseases diffuse across the empire.” The influence of climate, meanwhile, was another wildcard in the deck of fate.
In great, yet accessible, detail, Harper offers his own version of the Roman empire, cataloging its rise, longevity, and ultimate fall through four phases: pandemic disease; drought, pestilence, and political challenge; the dismemberment and decline of the empire; and the double blow of the bubonic plague and little ice age. It was this “combination of war, plague, and climate change [that] proved overwhelming,” near the end of the empire, contributing to its eventual breaking point.
But notably, and perhaps why this deserves somewhere between a four and five star, Rome’s irresistible story in Harper’s eyes provides one of caution, especially in our global world that is battling its own pandemics and climate disasters.
“The Romans lived at a fateful juncture in the human story, and the civilization they built was, in ways the Romans could not have imagined, the victims of both its own success and the caprice of the environment,” writes Harper. “The long, intertwined story of humanity and nature is full of paradox, surprise, and blind chance… Our story, and the story of the planet, are inseparable.”
The story of Rome is also a global environmental history, a time of global connectivity, of man over nature, as well as an evolutionary history of germs, where climate change and emerging infectious diseases are an integral part of the human story, Kyle Harper argues.
With its rapid expansion, Rome not only conquered the world — it created a network in which diseases could spread rapidly, leading to a number of pandemics that would cripple and eventually topple the great empire: “The empire’s fetid cities were petri dishes for low-level intestinal parasites. The empire’s violence against the landscape called forth scourges like malaria. The empire’s thick webs of connection let chronic diseases diffuse across the empire.” The influence of climate, meanwhile, was another wildcard in the deck of fate.
In great, yet accessible, detail, Harper offers his own version of the Roman empire, cataloging its rise, longevity, and ultimate fall through four phases: pandemic disease; drought, pestilence, and political challenge; the dismemberment and decline of the empire; and the double blow of the bubonic plague and little ice age. It was this “combination of war, plague, and climate change [that] proved overwhelming,” near the end of the empire, contributing to its eventual breaking point.
But notably, and perhaps why this deserves somewhere between a four and five star, Rome’s irresistible story in Harper’s eyes provides one of caution, especially in our global world that is battling its own pandemics and climate disasters.
“The Romans lived at a fateful juncture in the human story, and the civilization they built was, in ways the Romans could not have imagined, the victims of both its own success and the caprice of the environment,” writes Harper. “The long, intertwined story of humanity and nature is full of paradox, surprise, and blind chance… Our story, and the story of the planet, are inseparable.”