The Decline and Fall of Roman Britain
by Neil Faulkner
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Combining a fresh analysis of the archaeological evidence with the traditional historical accounts, Neil Faulkner presents a new interpretation of the decline and fall of Roman Britain.The original conquest of Britain was one of the last successes of Roman military imperialism, whereas the Romans' repeated failures on the north British frontier shows the limits of this system. A new order became established in Britain: a centralised, military-bureaucratic state, governed by a class of show more super-rich landlords and apparatchiks, who siphoned wealth out of the provinces to defend the frontier. As a result the towns declined and the countryside was depressed.This process of decline led to the great military crisis of the last fourth century. The Roman imperial army, bled white by defeats on continental battlefields, withdrew its troops from Britain to defend the imperial heartlands, and the Romano-British elite succumbed to a combination of warlord power, barbarian attack an popular revolt. The study concludes by discussing the legacy of Roman's and the significance of the so-called 'Dark Ages'. show lessTags
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Populist TV series, such as the BBC's What the Romans Did For Us, were repeated endlessly on British digital history channels to emphasise the heritage of the Roman Empire in its farflung outposts such as Britannia. It's true that Britons are indebted to them for a lot of technology and for the cultural legacy left to us in history, literature, religion, the law and so on.
But freelance historian and archaeology journalist Neil Faulkner argues that the Roman Empire was "a system of robbery with violence, that it was inherently exploitative and oppressive, and that it was crisis-prone, unstable and doomed to collapse". Furthermore its main use is as an Awful Lesson to us in the modern world, "dominated as it is by corporate capital and show more imperialist war," just as in Late Antiquity. His polemic is powerful and cumulative if, as he says, "essentially negative".
There is a lot of weight hanging on a title that pays homage to Gibbons' great multi-volume work (which, incidentally, also inspired Isaac Asimov's sequence of SF books in the Foundation series). The 2004 paperback edition reinforces his political views and includes an additional final chapter on Dark Age Britain entitled 'From Commune to Kingdom' which seems to put the final nail in the coffin of Roman Britain. show less
But freelance historian and archaeology journalist Neil Faulkner argues that the Roman Empire was "a system of robbery with violence, that it was inherently exploitative and oppressive, and that it was crisis-prone, unstable and doomed to collapse". Furthermore its main use is as an Awful Lesson to us in the modern world, "dominated as it is by corporate capital and show more imperialist war," just as in Late Antiquity. His polemic is powerful and cumulative if, as he says, "essentially negative".
There is a lot of weight hanging on a title that pays homage to Gibbons' great multi-volume work (which, incidentally, also inspired Isaac Asimov's sequence of SF books in the Foundation series). The 2004 paperback edition reinforces his political views and includes an additional final chapter on Dark Age Britain entitled 'From Commune to Kingdom' which seems to put the final nail in the coffin of Roman Britain. show less
The author Neil Faulkner has tried to masquerade his book as a work on the Decline and Fall of Roman Britain. In actual fact it is a spurious piece of Marxist invective against the crimes (so called) of Imperialism. Oh those nasty Romans they were just so awful and of course what applies to the Romans applies also to...........surprise, surprise......Americans !!! (check out the introduction to the 2nd edition).
If you want to be a self righteous leftist then fine but please, please go practise your under graduate politics elsewhere and stop spreading this far left nonsense. There are far better books out there on the subject so avoid this propaganda piece - unless of course you enjoy lefty pretentiousness.
If you want to be a self righteous leftist then fine but please, please go practise your under graduate politics elsewhere and stop spreading this far left nonsense. There are far better books out there on the subject so avoid this propaganda piece - unless of course you enjoy lefty pretentiousness.
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Neil Faulkner is a Research Fellow at the University of Bristol and author of numerous books including A Visitor's Guide to the Ancient Olympics (2012) and Rome: Empire of the Eagles (2008). He was a leading contributor to Sky Atlantic's TV series The British.
Common Knowledge
- Important events
- Roman occupation of Britain
Classifications
- Genres
- History, Nonfiction, Anthropology, General Nonfiction
- DDC/MDS
- 936.204 — History & geography History of ancient world (to ca. 499) Europe north and west of Italian Peninsula to ca. 499 England to 410 and Wales to 410
- LCC
- DA145 .F38 — History of Europe, Asia, Africa and Oceania Great Britain History of Great Britain England History By period Early and medieval to 1485 Celts. Romans. Saxons. Danes. Normans
- BISAC
Statistics
- Members
- 63
- Popularity
- 490,395
- Reviews
- 2
- Rating
- (3.38)
- Languages
- English
- Media
- Paper
- ISBNs
- 3
