The Problem of Decline and Fall
•Historians long have
sought the causes of the decline or fall
of great civilizations.
•Moral failure often
has been awarded importance for Rome’s
collapse, but the explanation often is stimulated by anxieties of analysts worrying about the course of their own civilization.
•More realistically, it
appears that civilizations naturally rise
and fall as part of an inevitable process influenced by the changes occurring in their societies.
•And, importantly, the
decline or collapse of a civilization
does not mean that its contribution disappears.