Why Rome Fell: Decline and Fall, or Drift and Change? Paperback - 2022

From the rear cover

Why Rome Fell: Decline and Fall, or Drift and Change? discusses the causes of the fall of the Roman Empire in the West in the context of concepts of monarchy, power structure, social mobility, religion, and the aristocratic ethos. Dr. Michael Arnheim, an accomplished scholar of Roman history, delivers compelling comparisons of the later Roman Empire with the Principate and the Byzantine Empire. Unlike (in Gibbon's phrase) "the indissoluble union and easy obedience that pervaded the government of Augustus and the Antonines," the later Roman Empire is revealed in this book as a fractured society rent by divided loyalties.

Why Rome Fell includes coverage of the transition from the ancient to the medieval world, exploring the monarchy, and the relationship with the aristocracy of Diocletian, by contrast with that of Constantine and his successors. It also discusses Constantine's role in the rise of Christianity, together with the general significance of religion and religious persecution. There are also expansive treatments of conflicting theories, including Gibbon's "decline and fall," the Pirenne thesis, the malaria hypothesis, and the approach of the school of "late antiquity." The book also explores the criteria for optimal professional history writing, with comparative case studies of a number of societies spanning three thousand years.

An indispensable resource for students, scholars, and the general reader with an inquiring mind about history, Why Rome Fell deserves a place on the bookshelves of anyone with an interest in a sophisticated and take on historical continuity and change.