A fascinating, informative and deeply thoughtful work. -- Linda Colley ― Financial Times A useful post-Gibbonian primer in why things went wrong for the Romans - Heather's scholarship shines through its pages ... an interesting polemic. -- Simon Heffer ― Daily Telegraph [A] provocative short book . . . with a novel twist. ― The Economist [A] fascinating book. -- Martin Wolf ― Financial Times, 'Best Summer Books of 2023: Economics' A short, sober (and sobering) account of where we are now and where we might be heading ... lucid and absorbing ... jaw-dropping facts and figures. -- Carlos F. Norena ― Times Literary Supplement This essay has changed my view both of the past and the present ... It’s convincing and relevant to the west today. -- Carlo Rovelli ― The Observer Two experienced scholars lucidly engage in contemporary debates about the future of the West and its parallels to the Roman Empire. This is comparative history done right. -- David Potter, author of DISRUPTION: WHY THINGS CHANGE Enlightening ... Heather and Rapley's book is not pessimistic. It does not predict a collapse of the West analogous to the tragic collapse of Rome in the fifth century. On the contrary, it offers a penetrating historical analogy as a tool for reading the present, so that it can help us avoid the political mistakes of the late empire. -- Carlo Rovelli ― Corriere della Sera