Escape from Rome

Walter Scheidel

Published by Princeton University Press 2019

Escape from Rome

The Failure of Empire and the Road to Prosperity

Walter Scheidel

Volume 115 in the series The Princeton Economic History of the Western World

https://doi.org/10.1515/9780691198835

Overview
Contents

About this book

A major new history of the rise and success of the West which traces it back to the Fall of the Roman Empire and why that was a good thing and why nothing like it has ever returned.

The gripping story of how the end of the Roman Empire was the beginning of the modern world

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 ensured competitive fragmentation between and within states. This rich diversity encouraged political, economic, scientific, and technological breakthroughs that allowed Europe to surge ahead while other parts of the world lagged behind, burdened as they were by traditional empires and predatory regimes that lived by conquest. It wasn’t until Europe "escaped" from Rome that it launched an economic transformation that changed the continent and ultimately the world.

What has the Roman Empire ever done for us? Fall and go away.

Author information

Walter Scheidel is the Dickason Professor in the Humanities, Professor of Classics and History, and a Kennedy-Grossman Fellow in Human Biology at Stanford University. His many books include The Great Leveler: Violence and the History of Inequality from the Stone Age to the Twenty-First Century (Princeton). He lives in Palo Alto, California. Twitter @WalterScheidel

Reviews

"Astonishingly learned, hugely ambitious, and deeply thoughtful, the indefatigable Walter Scheidel has written another innovative and provocative book that will turn global history upside down."—Joel Mokyr, author of A Culture of Growth: The Origins of the Modern Economy

"Escape from Rome is a brilliant and very important book by a great scholar at the top of his powers. This is a wholly convincing and innovative account, logically driven and based on stunning scholarship. It will become a classic."—John A. Hall, coauthor of The Paradox of Vulnerability: States, Nationalism, and the Financial Crisis

"Lucid and provocative, this book makes an iconoclastic case for why Europe's luckiest break was losing its only internal empire. A must-read for anyone curious about the long shadow of Rome."—Sheilagh Ogilvie, author of The European Guilds: An Economic Analysis

"Escape from Rome presents a fascinating account of why modernity appeared first in western Europe—it was precisely the failure of the Roman project and not its legacy that allowed the emergence of a decentralized and competitive system that became the ultimate platform for modern economic growth. A challenging and counterintuitive hypothesis."—Francis Fukuyama, author of The End of History and the Last Man

"Walter Scheidel has done more to reveal the hidden patterns of human existence than any other historian of our era. Quite simply, he has no peer. Erudite, enlightening, and wonderfully provocative, Escape from Rome is destined to become a classic."—Amanda Foreman, author of A World on Fire: Britain's Crucial Role in the American Civil War

"In a masterpiece of global history spanning over two millennia, Walter Scheidel tells us why western Europe remained politically fragmented after the collapse of Rome, why the rest of the world gravitated toward empire, and why that enduring political contrast explains the origins of sustained economic growth. A fascinating book."—Philip T. Hoffman, author of Why Did Europe Conquer the World?

"A bold, provocative, and brilliant book in which Walter Scheidel does not just ask big questions—but sets out to answer them too. And better still, it's immensely enjoyable to read as well."—Peter Frankopan, author of The Silk Roads: A New History of the World

"If a new Roman Empire had appeared in medieval Europe, it would have aborted modernity and everything would be different today! This is the remarkable, but tightly argued, conclusion of Walter Scheidel's virtuoso exploration of counterfactual world histories."—David Christian, author of Maps of Time: An Introduction to Big History

Topics

Frontmatter Publicly Available Download PDF	i
CONTENTS Publicly Available Download PDF	ix
FIGURES AND TABLES Publicly Available Download PDF	xi
TABLES Publicly Available Download PDF	xv
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS Publicly Available Download PDF	xvii
Introduction: The Great Escape Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	1
PART I. The European Anomaly Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	29
PART II. Why Rome? Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	49
PART III. Why Only Rome? Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	125
PART IV. The First Great Divergence Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	217
PART V. From the First to the Second Great Divergence Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	335
Epilogue. What Have the Romans Ever Done for Us? Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	503
GLOSSARY Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	529
TECHNICAL NOTE TO CHAPTER 1 Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	533
NOTES Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	537
REFERENCES Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	603
INDEX Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	647