Lessons of History for the U.S.

Melanie: Griffin hits the nail on the head about our economy.
http://www.thedailybell.com/bellPage.asp?nid=331

Roma: This article points out something more :
"When this sort of thing is talked about now, we are talking about a world system. As I said, in the beginning, where you have systems of administration, systems of law, culture, art and soul,which in various times, in various ways, are still continuing. And if Rome, itself, is no longer the capital of what's happening, we can never forget that Constantinople lives on until 1453."(Constantinople continued to flourish long after the so called fall of Rome. Constantinople became a Christian empire ruled by Constantine. But other areas of the old empire flourished as well. Some areas fell because they were too dependant on other areas to supply their needs (inner city areas in particular).


"That's what we now think is that rather than to talk about a fall of the Roman Empire, with a symbolical date of 476AD, there are the systems, the processes on the various levels of culture in the broad sense of the word --"

"MS. FENTRESS: Britain, for example, there's a moment when the Emperor Honorius says, look after yourselves people, because we can't help you anymore. "

MS. FENTRESS: You know, one thing that's interesting, if you take that another way, I mean this is something Jan touched on, but the economic, the actual production very quickly slips away from Italy, and starts with the sort of boom economies are in the provinces, in Gaul and North Africa and Spain. You get tremendous take-off of productivity, while Italian agriculture really very early on, in say the 1st Century AD, 2nd Century AD, is falling to bits. It's really collapsing. And while Rome continues to control these as part of the empire, the actual places that are producing are quite different. And the wealth is being made elsewhere. I mean, this is interesting in terms of the economic take-off, Pacific Rim, these kinds of areas. It's quite separate from the military hegemony.

http://www.pbs.org/thinktank/transcript501.html