Cullen Murphy: The Author of 'Are We Rome?' Takes In the Sights And Similarities

As Cullen Murphy stands on the west side of Capitol Hill, gazing in the direction of the Mall, he sees what the tourists around him see: the National Gallery of Art and the Smithsonian museums, the Washington Monument and, shining white in the distance, the Lincoln Memorial.

But unlike the tourists, Murphy is imagining these things in ruins. The monument toppled, perhaps. Marble museums cracked and broken. Kudzu engulfing the temple to the Great Emancipator.

And why not? The man has spent years mulling the American future and the ancient past.

Murphy's new book -- titled, simply, "Are We Rome?" -- is an extended examination of one of the most contested historical analogies around.

Since the collapse of the Soviet Union, the United States has stood alone as the world's dominant power. So, for centuries, did Rome. Much has been made of the comparison, both by those who have urged America to seize its imperial destiny and by others who fear the consequences of doing so.

Edward Gibbon, after all, didn't call his life's work "The Rise and Continued Prosperity of the Roman Empire." How relevant is the phrase "Decline and Fall" in the American capital today?

During a customized "Are We Rome?" tour of Washington, Murphy will do his best to address this question....

[Similarities?]

There are the two militaries' enormous investments in logistical capability and in training. There are shared concerns about the ability to fight on multiple fronts at once. There are increasing manpower shortages, with Rome responding by incorporating"barbarians" into its legions and the U.S. Army by lowering its recruiting standards and relying, more and more, on private contractors.

And there is the recurring question of what true security means.

Murphy cites a 4th-century letter from a concerned Roman citizen to his emperor, which"makes the very modern point that security isn't just a matter of raw military power but also derives from a society's overall health." These days, that point is often made by concerned American citizens on the political left. But Murphy -- a registered independent who has voted for presidential candidates of both parties and thinks" centrist" is a fair term to describe his political views -- supports it with a quotation from a man whose military credentials are unimpeachable.

"Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired," Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower said in 1950,"signifies in the final sense a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and not clothed."...