Speaker: Peter Heather
Topic: How Empires Fall
Venue: Vinson Theatre
Time: 12:00-13:00 Saturday 16 September
Talk Summary:
Over the last three centuries, the West rose to dominate the planet. Then, suddenly, around the turn of the millennium, history reversed. Faced with economic stagnation and internal political division, the West has found itself in decline. Is the United States, as well as its allies, heading for the same fate as befell Ancient Rome, or can it succeed in a multipolar world in which China has emerged as a major player – and its fiercest rival?
Peter Heather is a British historian of late antiquity and the Early Middle Ages. He is Chair of the Medieval History Department and Professor of Medieval History at King’s College London. His latest book is Why Empires Fall: Rome, America and the Future of the West, which he co-authored with the political economist John Rapley.