Modern America and ancient Rome : an essay in historical comparison and analogy / Simon Kiessling de Courcy.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

DeCourcy, Simon Kiessling, 1971- author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Relations.

Rome--Civilization.

Rome.

Rome (Empire).

Civilization.

Greece--Civilization.

Greece.

United States--Civilization.

United States.

Europe--Civilization.

Europe.

Comparative civilization.

Rome--Relations--Greece.

Greece--Relations--Rome.

United States--Relations--Europe.

Europe--Relations--United States.

Social problems--United States.

Social problems.

International relations.

Physical Description:

x, 167 pages ; 24 cm

Place of Publication:

New York : Algora Publishing, [2016]

Summary:

"Parallels between ancient Rome and modern America have been drawn before, but never like this. Professor Kiessling compares the ancient Greeks and the Romans, and he compares them to the modern Americans and Europeans. Subjects include levels of commitment to religion, responsiveness to post-heroic values, attitudes toward war and peace, moral permissiveness, demography, the susceptibility to universalistic ideas and supra-nationalism and the different levels of belief in the political capacity of the nation and its constitutional framework. Discussing challenges facing present-day America, the author looks at our mounting social inequality, increased political polarization, the transformation into an empire of consumption, the privatization of military force, the role of organized money in politics, and the rise of irrational, apocalyptic thought in public discourse - all of which are reminiscent of ancient Rome.

Contents:

Introductory reflections on the philosophy of history and Oswald Spengler's morphological theory of the high cultural formations

The four basic stages of ancient and occidental history

Hellenistic culture, philosophy and art : apoliticism, private aspiration and self-realization

The degradation of the polis

European mentalities of the post-imperialist age

Pan-Hellenism, pan-Europeanism and supra-nationalism

How the Greeks saw the Romans, and Europeans see the Americans

How the Romans saw the Greeks, and Americans see the Europeans

American puritanism and Roman religiousness

Radical ideology and utopian vision

Ancestral lands, mobility and depopulation

Reluctant hegemons

Present-day America and late Republican Rome.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

9781628941531

1628941537

9781628941548

1628941545

OCLC:

935784519