Plagues, climate change, and the end of an empire

A response to Kyle Harper's The Fate of Rome (1): Climate

Dados Bibliográficos

ID12732133
AutoresJ Haldon (0000-0003-1210-0829, Princeton University, autor correspondente), Hugh Elton (0000-0003-4933-3343, Trent University), Sabine R Huebner (0000-0002-3324-5050, University of Basel), Adam Izdebski (0000-0002-3456-5478, Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History), L Mordechai (0000-0002-8474-0473, Princeton University), Timothy Newfield (0000-0003-1451-5024)
Ano2018
Volume16
Fascículo12
Data de publicação2018-11-09
Peer ReviewedSim
Open AccessSim
TipoARTICLE
PeriódicoHistory Compass (JOURNAL)
Identificadores do periódicoISSN: 1478-0542 • E-ISSN: 1478-0542
EditoraWiley (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1111/hic3.12508
OpenAlexW2899809393
IdiomaEN
Citações recebidas21
Referências citadas30

Kyle Harper's The Fate of Rome , written for a popular audience, uses the environment to explain the decline and fall of the Roman Empire. The book asserts that Rome fell as a result of environmental stress, in particular through a combination of pandemic disease and climate change. Although we agree that the environment can and should be integrated within traditional historical accounts, we challenge the book's claims on several issues. These include Harper's use of primary sources and secondary literature, his approach to analyzing palaeoclimate data, his interpretations of the impact of disease on the Roman state and society, and his synthesis of social, economic, and environmental history. Throughout this and the following two sections of this review, we demonstrate that several major flaws undermine the book's overarching argument, casting serious doubts on its conclusions

Archaeology · Argument (complex analysis · Cartography · Climate change · Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19 · Disease · Economic history · Empire · Environmental ethics · Environmental protection · Environmental stress · Fell · Geography · Pandemic · Roman Empire · Sociology · State (computer science · Archaeology and ancient environmental studies · Classics · Computer Science · History · Medicine · Paleopathology and ancient diseases · Philosophy · Psychology · Yersinia bacterium, plague, ectoparasites research · Ecology