Political Bookworm - America as a new Rome?

It’s an easy comparison – and one bandied about without much thought: the United States of today is a lot like the Roman Empire of antiquity. Only problem is, as Vaclav Smil shows in his new book, it’s a misleading even irrelevant analogy. In “Why America Is Not a New Rome,” Smil, a professor at the University of Manitoba, delves into the meaning of empire, the real extent of Roman and American power and a variety of other social, economic and political aspects. His conclusion: “Superficial (albeit often clever) comparisons may make for provocative remarks on talk shows and intriguing essays or interesting books, but a systematic deconstruction of these recently fashionable preoccupations shows them to be wide of the mark.” By Vaclav Smil Comparisons of modern America and imperial Roman have been flippantly common during the past two decades, based overwhelmingly on selecting specific displays of universal human behavior and then parading Roman quotes and stories in contrast with relev

It’s an easy comparison – and one bandied about without much thought: the United States of today is a lot like the Roman Empire of antiquity. Only problem is, as Vaclav Smil shows in his new book, it’s a misleading even irrelevant analogy. In “Why America Is Not a New Rome,” Smil, a professor at the University of Manitoba, delves into the meaning of empire, the real extent of Roman and American power and a variety of other social, economic and political aspects. His conclusion: “Superficial (albeit often clever) comparisons may make for provocative remarks on talk shows and intriguing essays o