The Dream of Rome

What a hoot this book is by a man who was to become Prime Minister. It is lively, energetic and rambunctious. It is history with imagination. It explains a lot about Johnson's eurosceptic views. It seems that he attended a European school in Belgium and all the children kept to their own national cliques and customs. On page 50 Johnson quotes Cromer on the subject of Brits who are a bit stuffy: ‘The problem, bluntly, is that we are snobbish and racist, he says, and so there has been no proper ‘fusion’ between the British and their alien subjects’. Everything harks back to the Romans and their unified empire. That success has never been repeated. An all powerful leader and emperor is needed. And guess who that emperor might be: show more Johnson?

November 6th 2019 show less

This is an interesting read, funny as all hell, full of down to earth language so it sounds like he's one of those lecturers you like going to lectures by. Indeed a lot of the points he makes make sense and have some merit, and then you realise that he's not looking all that deep and he avoids Ireland's relationship with the UK to the degree that Ireland gets one mention, in what they have on the Euro coins.
If you want to compare how civilisations assimilate other civilisations both Rome and the UK did a good job and in fact the job done in Ireland is comparative to the job done by Rome, only it was done in Ireland with a bit more of an iron fist, though the velvet glove was occasionally present.
Yes the EU is failing in some ways to show more make europe more of a unitary presence in the world and in some ways that isn't a bad thing.
Funny, fairly superficial and engagingly written this is an interesting look at how Rome maintained it's grip on Europe for so long. show less

Outstanding !