December 17, 2008

University Provost James J. O'Donnell discusses his latest book, The Ruin of the Roman Empire: A New History, and relates the issues that contributed to the fall of the Roman Empire to issues facing the world today.

Provost O'Donnell examines historical events such as refugee crises, diplomatic failures, territorial disputes, religious wars, and insurgent uprisings, and compares their occurrence during the Roman Empire to their occurrence today.  He discusses how we can learn from the history of Rome and use those lessons to inform our solutions to problems today.