Nishanth Singaraju
Mr. Samuelson
Honors Civics
October 22, 2015
Book Analysis: Are we Rome? The Fall of an Empire and The Fate of America
In Cullen Murphy book , Are we Rome? The Fall of an Empire and the Fate of America, he states that “To America eyes, Rome is the eagle in the mirror” (Murphy Page. 6) . In the book the author describes many parallels between America and Rome and questions whether both share the same fate. Although there are stark differences between the time period and society of both America and Rome, there are also analogous similarities between both societies. But nethertheless, America and Rome do not have the same fate considering the fact that America has learned the lessons of the past, the country 's democratic ideals …show more content…
Each of the 6 chapters demonstrate disparate reasons that America may be following Rome footsteps. Murphy states “ Are we Rome? One way to answer the question is by assembling a crude ledger of comparisons”. And this is essentially what Murphy did in the prologue titled “The Eagle in the Mirror”. For example, Murphy compares the President and the Emperor, welfare and televised sports to “bread and circuses” and illegal immigrants to barbarian hordes. In addition, Murphy points out that American pop culture is saturated with references to the Roman Empire. In the book it states “Liam Neeson, the villain of Batman Begins, cites Roman Precedent to justify his destruction of Gotham”. Furthermore, Cullen specifies the relative sameness to both the Roman military power, global reach, and fragile borders and that of the United States. Lastly the author foreshadows the six parallels, that he will examine in their respective …show more content…
Murphy states that both societies ultimately underestimated the capabilities of outside forces, and holds a opinion of themselves as superior. To elaborate, the Romans saw themselves distinct and superior to, non Roman people. For example, outside the imperial frontier of Rome, people were considered barbarians. America however has a more idealistic perspective, assuming the job as the world’s superior force. In the book, Murphy states “ The idea of American exceptionalism extends powerfully through national psyche form the founding of the first colonies up to the more recent efforts to somehow force-feed democracy to the Middle East ( Murphy Page. 144)”. Ultimately, United States should be more considerate of outside forces. In Chapter 5, “Where the Present meets the Future”, the author starts by examining the abstract concept of borders; questioning what border essentially means. The author states “ A border can refer to a political jurisdiction, economic boundary, cultural or religious divide, or a psychological state-- or(rarely) all if these things neatly conjoined(Murphy Page. 157)”. The chapter also discusses the similarities between the Rio Grande boundary zone of America and the Rhine/Danube frontier in Roman times. Both the United States and Rme have a zone of interaction. Finally, the last chapter, “There Once Was a Great City”, discusses the complexity
Mr. Samuelson
Honors Civics
October 22, 2015
Book Analysis: Are we Rome? The Fall of an Empire and The Fate of America
In Cullen Murphy book , Are we Rome? The Fall of an Empire and the Fate of America, he states that “To America eyes, Rome is the eagle in the mirror” (Murphy Page. 6) . In the book the author describes many parallels between America and Rome and questions whether both share the same fate. Although there are stark differences between the time period and society of both America and Rome, there are also analogous similarities between both societies. But nethertheless, America and Rome do not have the same fate considering the fact that America has learned the lessons of the past, the country 's democratic ideals …show more content…
Each of the 6 chapters demonstrate disparate reasons that America may be following Rome footsteps. Murphy states “ Are we Rome? One way to answer the question is by assembling a crude ledger of comparisons”. And this is essentially what Murphy did in the prologue titled “The Eagle in the Mirror”. For example, Murphy compares the President and the Emperor, welfare and televised sports to “bread and circuses” and illegal immigrants to barbarian hordes. In addition, Murphy points out that American pop culture is saturated with references to the Roman Empire. In the book it states “Liam Neeson, the villain of Batman Begins, cites Roman Precedent to justify his destruction of Gotham”. Furthermore, Cullen specifies the relative sameness to both the Roman military power, global reach, and fragile borders and that of the United States. Lastly the author foreshadows the six parallels, that he will examine in their respective …show more content…
Murphy states that both societies ultimately underestimated the capabilities of outside forces, and holds a opinion of themselves as superior. To elaborate, the Romans saw themselves distinct and superior to, non Roman people. For example, outside the imperial frontier of Rome, people were considered barbarians. America however has a more idealistic perspective, assuming the job as the world’s superior force. In the book, Murphy states “ The idea of American exceptionalism extends powerfully through national psyche form the founding of the first colonies up to the more recent efforts to somehow force-feed democracy to the Middle East ( Murphy Page. 144)”. Ultimately, United States should be more considerate of outside forces. In Chapter 5, “Where the Present meets the Future”, the author starts by examining the abstract concept of borders; questioning what border essentially means. The author states “ A border can refer to a political jurisdiction, economic boundary, cultural or religious divide, or a psychological state-- or(rarely) all if these things neatly conjoined(Murphy Page. 157)”. The chapter also discusses the similarities between the Rio Grande boundary zone of America and the Rhine/Danube frontier in Roman times. Both the United States and Rme have a zone of interaction. Finally, the last chapter, “There Once Was a Great City”, discusses the complexity