I tend to think we're going back to Rome

Cullen Murphy's Are We Rome? is a exploration of the similarities and differences between the United States and Rome. Murphy begins by describing the long tradition (dating to the Revolution) of comparing the two polities. He also notes that it is often used merely as a rhetorical foil. This section goes on for so long that I began to wonder if he really thought comparing ourselves to Rome had any value.

Not surprisingly, he does. Murphy asks us to think beyond the election cycle and in terms of decades. He identifies a number of similarities of today's USA and the late Roman empire and while the excesses of Rome are not present today, he argues they could evolve if they go unchecked.

Although some are moderately dangerous like the mirror gazing of Romans (city variety) and Washingtonians and the reliance on military power, others are more insidious like the creeping privatization of government power. While it is little known outside of policy circles, more and more of core government function is handled by private organizations. While this may all be well and good in the short term, what happens when private and public interest conflict? Ha, ha, ha, silly question, private interest will win.

Murphy doesn't write a doom and gloom tract. He also argues that Rome and the USA are different in critical areas. Among the most important is the presence of a (reasonably) mobile class structure and a dynamic culture. There is also the idea that progress and improvement are always possible (although the left sees this more from the state and the right from private sources). These can help the USA avoid the placid conservatism that helped kill Rome.

Murphy's prose is light and lively and he peppers his arguments with anecdotes , beyond the ones you've heard before. In describing the power of private interest over public in ancient Rome, he notes the story of a regional governor (outsourced) who pocketed the money meant for security. Local citizens complained and a Roman representative was sent. Said rep was bought off and said all was fine. The whistleblowers were executed and when the regional security situation deteriorated, the northern defenses were weakened to rebuild the region.

This is the sort of societal analysis we don't see terribly often in the popular press. While most of the press is about how to either cement/address the Bush changes, this book steps back and looks at the entire national enterprise. And does it in less than 250 pages.