Research Catalog

Title

Escape from Rome : the failure of empire and the road to prosperity / Walter Scheidel.

Author

Scheidel, Walter, 1966-

Publication

• Princeton, New Jersey : Princeton University Press, [2019]
• ©2019

Items in the Library & Off-site

Details

Description

xviii, 670 pages : illustrations, maps; 25 cm.

Summary

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.

Series Statement

The Princeton economic history of the Western world

Uniform Title

Princeton economic history of the Western world.

Alternative Title

Failure of empire and the road to prosperity

Subject

• To 1492
• Economic history
• Rome > History > Empire, 30 B.C.-476 A.D
• Rome > Economic conditions > 30 B.C.-476 A.D
• Europe > History > 476-1492
• Europe > Economic conditions > To 1492
• Europe
• Rome (Empire)

Genre/Form

History.

Bibliography (note)

• Includes bibliographical references and index.

Call Number

JFE 20-307

ISBN

• 9780691172187
• 0691172188

LCCN

2019943431

OCLC

1089438234

Author

Scheidel, Walter, 1966- author.

Title

Escape from Rome : the failure of empire and the road to prosperity / Walter Scheidel.

Publisher

Princeton, New Jersey : Princeton University Press, [2019]

Copyright Date

©2019

Type of Content

text

Type of Medium

unmediated

Type of Carrier

volume

Series

The Princeton economic history of the Western world

Princeton economic history of the Western world.

Bibliography

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Chronological Term

To 1492

Research Call Number

JFE 20-307