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Chargement... How Rome Fell: Death of a Superpower (2009)par Adrian Goldsworthy
Chargement...
Inscrivez-vous à LibraryThing pour découvrir si vous aimerez ce livre Actuellement, il n'y a pas de discussions au sujet de ce livre. En el año 476 d.C. Rómulo Augusto, el último emperador que gobernó en Roma, fue depuesto, sin oposición, por el bárbaro Odoacro. Este hito marcó el final definitivo, e incluso silencioso, de cinco siglos de dominación imperial. Fue la muerte anunciada por una larga decadencia que había empezado con Marco Aurelio, tres siglos antes, cuando Roma era aún la mayor superpotencia del mundo. Ultimately unsatisfying narrative of the decline of the western Roman Empire. The author does a better job than most in admitting the various uncertainties and gaps in the sources, but Goldsworthy seems to decide in the end we can’t really say how the Empire fell because there is too little we actually know. This is unsatisfactory, no matter how correct, for a book entitled How Rome Fell. He actually forms a pretty good argument for the empire disintegrating due to internal strife but fails to nail it. There are a couple of useless chapters that try to draw a parallel (or non-parallel) to America. Interestingly he states that since the Civil War, America was never subject to an armed insurrection. I guess this was true at the time. Complaints that the middle section reads like a list of names is unfair since the Empire after Marcus Aurelius was more or less a revolving door of emperors and usurpers for 300 years. Read Gibbon, still the best history of the Roman Empire, and you’ll get the same impression at times.
This is not a book that I could use in the classroom--too thick, too well-written, and perhaps most dangerously, too clear. Portraying history in such simplistic terms, however, fails to explain that governing the Late Roman Empire was a complex business. But since this is not what Goldsworthy set out to do, such criticism is unfair. By design, this is the sort of book that politicians, school teachers, and my colleagues in the Department of Physics will read, sucked in by the blurb on the dust jacket.
In AD 200, the Roman Empire seemed unassailable. Its vast territory accounted for most of the known world.By the end of the fifth century, Roman rule had vanished in western Europe and much of northern Africa, and only a shrunken Eastern Empire remained.What accounts for this improbable decline? Here, Adrian Goldsworthy applies the scholarship, perspective, and narrative skill that defined his monumental Caesar to address perhaps the greatest of all historical question show Rome fell.It was a period of remarkable personalities, from the philosopher-emperor Marcus Aurelius to emperors like Diocletian, who portrayed themselves as tough, even brutal, soldiers.It was a time of revolutionary ideas, especially in religion, as Christianity went from persecuted sect to the religion of state and emperors. Goldsworthy pays particular attention to the willingness of Roman soldiers to fight and kill each other. Ultimately, this is the story of how an empire without a serious rival rotted from within, its rulers and institutions putting short-term ambition and personal survival over the wider good of the state.How Rome Fell is a brilliant successor to Goldsworthy's "monumental" (The Atlantic) Caesar. Aucune description trouvée dans une bibliothèque |
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Google Books — Chargement... GenresClassification décimale de Melvil (CDD)937.09History and Geography Ancient World Italian Peninsula to 476 and adjacent territories to 476 Italian Peninsula to 476 and adjacent territories to 476 Division of empire 395-476 A.D.Classification de la Bibliothèque du CongrèsÉvaluationMoyenne:
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In order to better understand the merits of this new treatise on the fall of Roman Empire, it only makes sense to contrast it with Gibbon’s piece de resistance, which arguably has remained eminent even after 250 years.
Where Gibbon’s detached, neutral style anticipated in many ways modern scientific writing, his interspersed moralism was reminiscent of the great ancient historians.
Conforming to contemporary practice, Goldsworthy’s work is devoid of aphorisms and moral lessons.
However, what matters most is that How Rome Fell -Death of a Superpower can be seen as an important addition to Gibbons work.
Goldsworthy’s work injects many up-to-date facts and ideas from newly gathered archeological data but never claims the data to be complete. Therefore, even though Goldsworthy has a clearly defined thesis, he is always realistic enough to point at optional interpretations of the limited data available. In the end, this reader realizes that we know much less about certain eras of history than we have been led to believe. Adrian Goldsworthy’s work, unlike others, does not veil this very important fact, and it manages to make careful and very educated extrapolations utilizing a blend of common sense, awareness of human nature and the accumulated archeological discoveries since Gibbons era. ( )