Escape from Rome, Walter Scheidel
Escape from Rome, Walter Scheidel
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Escape from Rome
The Failure of Empire and the Road to Prosperity

Author: Walter Scheidel

Narrator: Daniel Henning

Unabridged: 21 hr 36 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Publisher: Recorded Books

Published: 10/15/2019


Synopsis

The gripping story of how the end of the Roman Empire was the beginning of the modern world The fall of the Roman Empire has long been considered one of the greatest disasters in history. But in this groundbreaking book, Walter Scheidel argues that Rome's dramatic collapse was actually the best thing that ever happened, clearing the path for Europe's economic rise and the creation of the modern age. Ranging across the entire premodern world, Escape from Rome offers new answers to some of the biggest questions in history: Why did the Roman Empire appear? Why did nothing like it ever return to Europe? And, above all, why did Europeans come to dominate the world? In an absorbing narrative that begins with ancient Rome but stretches far beyond it, from Byzantium to China and from Genghis Khan to Napoleon, Scheidel shows how the demise of Rome and the enduring failure of empire-building on European soil ensured competitive fragmentation between and within states. This rich diversity encouraged political, economic, scientific, and technological breakthroughs that allowed Europe to surge ahead while other parts of the world lagged behind, burdened as they were by traditional empires and predatory regimes that lived by conquest. It wasn't until Europe "escaped" from Rome that it launched an economic transformation that changed the continent and ultimately the world. What has the Roman Empire ever done for us? Fall and go away.

About Walter Scheidel

Walter Scheidel is the Dickason Professor in the Humanities, Professor of Classics and History, and a Kennedy-Grossman Fellow in Human Biology at Stanford University. The author or editor of over fifteen books, he has published widely on premodern social and economic history, demography, and comparative history. He lives in Palo Alto, California.


Reviews

Goodreads review by Jacopo

I initially expected 'Escape from Rome' to offer yet-another account on the collapse of the Roman Empire, only this time with a title and cover in clever homage to John Carpenter's sci-fi classic 'Escape from New York.' To my surprise and sublime delight, Prof. Walter Scheidel of Stanford University......more

Goodreads review by Clif

This book examines what it refers to as “two great divergences” in the history of civilization; (1) Why did the Roman Empire fail to survive while the Chinese Empire—and similar empires in other regions—continued to survive in various forms, and (2) Why did the scientific revolution and modern econo......more

Goodreads review by Adam

the Roman empire made modern development possible by going away and never coming back Fascinating stuff but I found the counterfactual arguments really aggravating because I tend to switch back and forth from being a determinist (it could only have happened this way) and whatever you call the opposit......more

Goodreads review by Vidur

Escape from Rome has to be one of the most ambitious books ever written. Erudite and exhilarating, it guides the reader through 3000 years of world history, all to spotlight what the author, Walter Scheidel, posits to be the (very) long road to prosperity. Scheidel has little to say on the debate ab......more