What We Are Reading Today: Escape from Rome: The Failure of Empire and the Road to Prosperity

Author: Walter Scheidel

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 launched an economic transformation that changed the continent and ultimately the world.
Awards and recognition:
Finalist for the PROSE Award in Archaeology and Ancient History, Association of American Publishers.
One of the Evening Standard’s Best Books of 2019
One of the Financial Times’ Best Books of 2019: Economics