Category: Culture (Page 7 of 23)

I’ve spent the last few months getting into the History of Rome and History of Byzantium podcasts. And along with Mike Duncan, Robin Pierson, and their listeners, I’ve been asking myself: when did the Roman Empire fall?

The traditional view says it fell in 476 CE. But in recent decades, historians have put more emphasis on a ‘continuity and change’ narrative than on a ‘decline and fall’ narrative. Well, which is it? Did the Roman Empire fall in 476 CE? Earlier than that? Or did it live on much longer? Maybe it lasted all the way until the Fall of Constantinople to the Ottoman Empire in 1453?

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The Fourth of July is, of course, the holiday most closely associated with the U.S. But most Americans use it as a specifically patriotic holiday. As leftists, what is our association with the Fourth of the July?

More broadly, we have complicated associations with other U.S. traditions, like ‘free speech‘ and the broader ‘rights of man.’ How about the Fourth? How do you think about it?

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