The Fate of Rome, Kyle Harper
The Fate of Rome, Kyle Harper
3 Rating(s)
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The Fate of Rome
Climate, Disease, and the End of an Empire

Author: Kyle Harper

Narrator: Andrew Garman

Unabridged: 15 hr 20 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Publisher: Recorded Books

Published: 10/24/2017


Synopsis

How devastating viruses, pandemics, and other natural catastrophes swept through the far-flung Roman Empire and helped to bring down one of the mightiest civilizations of the ancient world

Here is the monumental retelling of one of the most consequential chapters of human history: the fall of the Roman Empire. The Fate of Rome is the first book to examine the catastrophic role that climate change and infectious diseases played in the collapse of Rome’s power—a story of nature’s triumph over human ambition. Interweaving a grand historical narrative with cutting-edge climate science and genetic discoveries, Kyle Harper traces how the fate of Rome was decided not just by emperors, soldiers, and barbarians but also by volcanic eruptions, solar cycles, climate instability, and devastating viruses and bacteria. The Fate of Rome is a sweeping account of how one of history’s greatest civilizations encountered and endured, yet ultimately succumbed to, the cumulative burden of nature’s violence.

Reviews

Goodreads review by Dominic

Kyle Harper's "The Fate of Rome" is the intellectual heir to Jared Diamond's Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed. Where Diamond looked at how environmental change led to the collapse of several smaller civilizations around the world, Harper argues that climate change and disease helped......more

Goodreads review by David

Rome was once the biggest empire in the world. Why did it end? I had always been under the impression that the root cause was insurrections, revolts, and invasions by surrounding tribes. Well, yes, but why were these enemies so successful, against the biggest, baddest armies of the Roman empire? The......more