Monday, November 9, 2020

Review of Are We Rome?: The Fall of an Empire and the Fate of America by Cullen Murphy

This book review is written by Eugene Kernes

Book can be found in:
Genre = History, Empires

Elaborate Description

Rome and the U.S. may not be from the same era, but the way Murphy transitions from facts and discussions makes it seem that both empire's are right next to each other. Really good in terms of explaining the historical significant of events but not could have explained more on why they occurred. At times the author overly imposes similarities that may not be complete there, for example in terms of privatization. The author mentions that public and private interest diverge, which is not really the case. The private companies that do the job instructed by the government entities do the job better than the government, but the actual interest are aligned for the government needs the job done and someone can do it better. The only way the private companies can work if they do as they are told by those who are supposedly in the public interest. Which means that the private interest is to serve the public interest. Private companies also have much more competition than the government, so private companies are forced to do a better job than others in the same industry. Should the private companies go over the funding from the government, the government can just obtain another contractor. If the contracts usually become corrupted, it is usually due to those making the contract, which is the government. This is an incredible book about the strengths and weakness of Rome and the U.S., and how we can potentially change the fate of the latter.


Book Details

Edition ISBN:  9780618742226
Pages to read:   206
Publication:     2008
1st Edition:      2007
Format:            Paperback

Ratings out of 5:
Readability    5
Content          5
Overall           5