The Fall of Rome
And the End of Civilization
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The Fall of Rome
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Narrated by:
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Roger Clark
About this listen
Was the fall of Rome a great catastrophe that cast the West into darkness for centuries to come? Or, as scholars argue today, was there no crisis at all, but simply a peaceful blending of barbarians into Roman culture, an essentially positive transformation?
In The Fall of Rome, eminent historian Bryan Ward-Perkins argues that the "peaceful" theory of Rome's "transformation" is badly in error. Indeed, he sees the fall of Rome as a time of horror and dislocation that destroyed a great civilization, throwing the inhabitants of the West back to a standard of living typical of prehistoric times. Attacking contemporary theories with relish and making use of modern archaeological evidence, he looks at both the wider explanations for the disintegration of the Roman world and also the consequences for the lives of everyday Romans. The book recaptures the drama and violence of the last days of the Roman world and reminds us of the very real terrors of barbarian occupation.
Equally important, Ward-Perkins contends that a key problem with the new way of looking at the end of the ancient world is that all difficulty and awkwardness is smoothed out into a steady and positive transformation of society. Nothing ever goes badly wrong in this vision of the past. The evidence shows otherwise.
©2005 Bryan Ward-Perkins (P)2019 TantorListeners also enjoyed...
What listeners say about The Fall of Rome
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- A
- 03-10-22
In 1000 years, this book will be a classic.
Hands down one of the most enlightening books I have ever read/listened to. It has opened my eyes to many of the things that are going wrong in the West and it connected dots that I did not have the knowledge to connect myself! After listening to this book, I view the city I live in a completely different way.
Mr Perkins has tied the fall of the Roman empire and the events during and after its fall to current events that are happening in the West. He has done it in such a masterful way that he does not always explicitly state this, but you end up connecting many of the dots yourself. For instance, he gives a description of post Roman buildings that have mostly disappeared because they were made from wood and other perishable materials, as opposed to the stone Roman buildings many of which are still visible! I walk down most streets in the UK and can see the stone buildings built during the British empire and then see next to them buildings made from glass and other cheap modern building materials that I can see will not last until the end of this century.
This book is short but packs a powerful punch. Mr Perkins speaks on manufacturing, currency, demography, infrastructure,...things that are just as important to us today as they were to the Romans.
There are many warnings in this book for us today and I truly believe this book will be read as a classic in years to come. Do yourself and family a favour and read it, you will gain immensely from it.
Performance 10/10. I really can not fault this book at all.
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1 person found this helpful
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance4 out of 5 stars
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- Leigh Martin
- 19-12-22
A Book of Historical Reality
An excellent history book founded in actual written and archaeological evidence. Which for the moment is an uncommon thing.
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Overall4 out of 5 stars
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Performance4 out of 5 stars
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Story4 out of 5 stars
- mernst
- 23-05-24
Well argued and evocative
Very good overview which backs up its argument with fact and evidence without ever being overly academic.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Anonymous User
- 25-01-23
A kick in the teeth for revisionists!!
Modern liberal historians who have tried to state that the empire never fell, or that there was a simple evolution of culture, are left without a case. Bryan Ward-Perkins uses historical records to show how violent and traumatic the Germanic invasions were, as well as, archeological records to display the stark fall of luxury production.
An excellent work that covers all plot holes to back up the archaic (but seemingly accurate) argument that the fall of Rome was as terrible as the primary accounts make it out to be. And, it even makes a good case for rejecting the modern historical argument that the dark ages were not so dark. After reading this… I strongly disagree that the fall was both peaceful and that the dark ages were brighter than what Victorian historians claimed it was.
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2 people found this helpful
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Overall3 out of 5 stars
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Performance2 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Amazon Customer
- 26-09-24
the abysmal pronunciation. is this man an idiot
story good reading not too bad but the mistakes in pronunciation of even English place names like Tintagel and Worcester were truly terrible
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