Cullen Murphy - Are We Rome (2007) - Synopsis

UFPPC (www.ufppc.org) Digging Deeper Xl @ Mandolin Café (Tacoma, WA) January 7, 2008, 7:00 p.m. Cullen Murphy, Are We Rome? The Fall of an Empire and the Fate of America. (Boston & New York: Houghton Mifflin, 2007). Prologue: The Eagle in the Mirror. A third-century Roman emperor’s entourage (1-3). The U.S. president’s entourage (3-5). The ubiquity of the Rome-U.S. comparison (5-6). Views on the relation categorized: triumphalists, declinists, Jeremiahs, Augustinians, Ambrosians, expansionsists (710). Comparative decadence (10-11). Dissimilarities (11-12). Historians’ skepticism about whether we can learn from history (12-14). Parallels (14-16). Differences (16). Character differences (17). Preview of the book (17-21). Author’s first visit to Rome at the age of twelve (21-23). Ch. 1: THE CAPITALS: Where Republic Meets Empire. The “fall of Rome” in 476 A.D. (24-26). Imaging D.C. in ruins (26-27). The rise and fall of Rome (27-30). Explanations based on internal and external factors (30-34). Gibbon (34-35). Rome as moral and practical example for America’s founders, epitomized in George Washington (35-40). The imperial presidency has Roman parallels (40-43). Rome’s “omphalos syndrome” (43-48). Washington’s Beltway Bubble (48-58). Ch. 2: THE LEGIONS: When Power Meets Reality. Bagram Air Base in Afghanistan as an outpost of American civilization (59-62). Vindolanda, Rome’s outpost in Northumberland (62-64). Military might the principal source of Rome-U.S. comparisons (64-66). A tour of bases (66-67). Rome and U.S. possessed vast logistical capability and excel in training (67-71). Grand strategy (is the U.S. an empire at all?); the problem of overreach (71-78). The military class and the two-cultures problem (78-83). Manpower challenges and the recruitment of outsiders (83-90). Ch. 3: THE FIXERS: When Public Good Meets Private Opportunity. Pliny the Younger (91-94). Marcus Cornelius Fronto (94-95). Libanius (95). Roman suffragium, or influence through pressure (96-97). Rome’s patron-client system (97-108). Similar developments in U.S. (108-16). Privatization as “a central dynamic of

American public life” (116; 116-20). Development of franchise in English comparable to suffragium in Latin (120). Ch. 4: THE OUTSIDERS: When People Like Us Meet People Like Them. Battle of Teutoburg Forest, September 9 A.D. wiped out 10% of Rome’s military (three legions), testimony to smugness (121-28) Roman overconfidence and moments of disaster (128-32). American and Roman selfconceptions and reactions against them (132-40). American exceptionalism, selfabsorption, and ignorance of the world contribute to a functioning global elite (14047). Green Zone in Baghdad as microcosm of U.S. attitudes toward non-American world, illustrating the “fractal” organization of empire (Charles Maier) (148-51). Ch. 5: THE BORDERS: Where the Present Meets the Future. Hadrian’s Wall, c. 120 A.D.; comparison to El Paso/Juarez (152-57). Rome’s borders (157-60). Romans’ concept of borders (160-64). The border as a crucible for intermingling cultures (164-66). The “barbarians” (166-71). The reality of “borderlessness” is a fact of life (171-77). Powers of assimilation (177-83). “The Roman Empire . . . did not entirely vanish. . . . Did Rom ever fall?” (184). Epilogue: There Once Was a Great City. The deposition of Romulus Augustus, the last Roman emperor, in 476 A.D. (185-89). Rome unraveled more than fell (189-92). The Rome-U.S. parallel breaks down if pressed too hard (192-95). Ovid (196). “Are we Rome? In a thousand specific ways, the answer is obviously no. In a handful of important ways, the answer is certainly yes” (197). Imagining future fast-forward programs for America: Fortress America; City-State; Boardroom (198-200). The author offers recommendations for America: 1) teach about the wider world; 2) valorize government; 3) fortify assimilating institutions; 4) ease the burden of the military (200-04). The U.S.’s vitality: “America has lived through more social transformations in a few centuries than

Rome did in a millennium” (205-06). “Are we Rome? In important ways we might be. In important ways we’re clearly making some of the same mistakes. But the antidote is everywhere. The antidote is being American” (206). Acknowledgments. Various “scholars and experts” consulted (207). “Many others” influenced the book’s evolution. Much of it written at the Boston Athenaeum. Notes. 42 pp. Bibliography. 223 books [About the Author. Born Sept. 1, 1952, in New Rochelle, NY. Majored in medieval history at

Amherst, graduating in 1974. Worked at Change and the Wilson Quarterly (where he met his wife) before the Atlantic Monthly, where he was managing editor (1985-2002) and editor (20022006). Currently editor at large for Vanity Fair. Wrote Prince Valiant with his father from the mid1970s to 2004. Author of Rubbish! (1992, with William J. Rathje), Just Curious (1995), and The Word According to Eve (1998). In 2008 he plans to publish a book about the Inquisition. Lives in Massachusetts. Wife, Anna Marie (of Mexican heritage [182]), and three children, Jack, Anna, and Tim. In May 2007, he told the Boston Globe: “I hate the tone of public conversation these days. I am put off by too much partisanship, people shouting at one another.”