James McCormick reviews Peter Heather’s The Fall of the Roman Empire:
The pattern of cross-frontier influence that gradually stimulated the political evolution and predatory habits of the Germanic tribes (over the course of several centuries) seems all too familiar to us in a world that had seen globalization of cell phones and AK-47s in the last fifty years. It is easier to loot and destroy than build, and the Romans ultimately could not protect what they had spent centuries developing. Persians, Goths, and Huns became a relentless and effective external pressure … and for the West, the incursions into Gaul, Spain, and especially North Africa, removed the economic resources needed for military strength.