Don’t get me wrong: I have railed against the EU at length in smoky Central European basements to Eastern Europeans intent on signing up… but blaming the EU and momumentalist German historiography is one thing… utterly ignoring the existence of the Pirenne Thesis in order to do so, as if the whole notion of Late Antiquity had merely sprung from the head of an EU-crat (perhaps Belgium is the common factor?), is another matter entirely.

Can’t wait to read the book… but the “Late Antiquity” argument stands on firmer ground than one might think reading this review.

/decidedly non-squishy medieval milhist guy

However, a compounding factor that usually doesn’t get as much attention as imperial administration and policies, the financial state of the empire, or the population crunch, is the changing effect of climate upon the situation. The last Little Ice age before the Medieval warming period and Big Chill, dovetails with the ‘Dark Ages’ along with the arrival into the neighborhood of the uninvited overbearing guests, who decide to make the visit permanent. Two big blows upon the long great prosperous period of the Mediterranean centric based civilization from which it will require a ‘re-birth’ to get rolling again.

A classic, of course. The basic idea of the book is that human action matters and that contingency matters and that the “deep forces of history” can be channelled into one course or another depending on what people actually do. I agree completely with this interpretation.

Furgeson’s book “Empire” pointed out (to me at least) that the entire British Empire went from top of the heap to dust bin of history in about 20 to 25 years.

Eternal vigilence, indeed.

“…the fall of Rome was fundamentally due to economic deterioration resulting from excessive taxation, inflation, and over-regulation. ”

Wrong.

This post and James’ previous one show that the fall of Rome was due to the failure of military defense on the borders.

(Sigh…)

Sledgehammer sarcasm aside, another good take on the Roman collapse from a libertarian perspective can be found here.

Using CE is a habit I’m trying to acquire late in life. It seems more appropriate for public conversations about history where the entire world is reading, and the entire world, now, has a “dog in the fight.” All faiths welcome.

I’m curious as to the reason you personally use CE in place of AD?

I’m wondering if S.M. Sterling has been reading this stuff as he writes his ‘Dies The Fire’ series.