Why read The Roman Predicament?

Book cover of The Roman Predicament: How the Rules of International Order Create the Politics of Empire

Book description

Modern America owes the Roman Empire for more than gladiator movies and the architecture of the nation's Capitol. It can also thank the ancient republic for some helpful lessons in globalization. So argues economic historian Harold James in this masterful work of intellectual history. The book addresses what James terms…

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Why read it?

1 author picked The Roman Predicament as one of their favorite books. Why do they recommend it?

Perry Mehrling

Author

Browsing my shelves in preparation for this book list, this one in particular jogged my memory as an important influence on my own book, an influence so internalized that I completely forgot about and never cited it! I remedy that lapse here.

My copy of the book is heavily underlined with lots of stars in the margin, so I know it was important. You can see from the title that the author is concerned with the same tension between money and empire, he as a historian and me as an economist.

Now that I have finished my own book, I’ll…

From Perry's list on the forces making the global money system.