United States - New Rome

Author: (German) Peter Bender
Publisher:
Publication Date: 2005-01-01
Features: The author provides a comprehensive comparison of Rome and America in terms of domestic affairs, foreign policy, and humanities, presenting vivid historical scenes to us. These scenes are not just records of history but also deep comparisons and analyses of history. The author believes that the past and the present are intertwined over two thousand years. We live in a world filled with atomic energy, computer networks, and genetic decoding, which separates our present from all the past. However, what remains unchanged is politics. Situations are always changing, and the problems arising from human interactions, even over thousands of years, remain the same. The author argues that the path Rome and America took to become world powers was similar, and the unique status of the only world power they achieved was also similar. On the "islands" of the Romans and Americans—Italy and North America—Rome became a military powerhouse and a dominant empire at the time; America became an economic powerhouse, unmatched by any other country. When the sea no longer served as a shield, both the Romans and Americans expanded for defense. Their security policies evolved into hegemonic policies, but America could not become an empire like Rome, because America has only climbed one step onto the ladder of world powers. It can act as an international police force without regard for the opposition of other countries, but its power cannot extend to the entire world. Russia, India, Indonesia, and China are beyond the reach of Washington. After the dissolution of the Soviet Union and the Eastern Bloc, America, as the unique world power without competitors, only had a brief moment in the long river of history, and the "peace under American rule" could not last a hundred years like the "peace under Roman rule." After the book was published in Germany, it received widespread praise from all sectors of society. Der Spiegel called it "a politically significant historical essay with real-world relevance," Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung hailed it as a "truly great achievement in both politics and history," and Die Zeit considered it "a book that one cannot afford to miss."