John Rapley – författare

What can the fall of Rome teach us about the decline of the West today? A historian and a political economist, both experts in their field, investigateOver the last three centuries, the West rose to dominate the planet. Then, suddenly, around the turn of the millennium, history reversed. Faced with economic stagnation and internal political division, the West has found itself in rapid decline.This is not the first time the global order has witnessed such a dramatic rise and fall. The Roman Empire followed a similar arc from dizzying power to disintegration - a fact that is more than a strange historical coincidence. In Why Empires Fall, historian Peter Heather and political economist John Rapley use this Roman past to think anew about the contemporary West, its state of crisis, and what paths we could take out of it.In this exceptional, transformative intervention, Heather and Rapley explore the uncanny parallels - and productive differences - between the two cases, moving beyond the familiar tropes of invading barbarians and civilizational decay to learn new lessons from ancient history. From 399 to 1999, the life cycles of empires, they argue, sow the seeds of their inevitable destruction. The era of western global domination has reached its end - so what comes next?

'Excellent' Aaron Bastani'Provocative ... An entertaining, sweeping read' Financial TimesEvery leader comes to power promising growth: think back to the campaigns of Boris, Truss, Sunak, Starmer, Trump. Yet real-term income hasn't improved in the UK since 2008. Across the West, growth has stagnated for well over a decade, leading to cost of living crises, political instability and rising social tensions.Is real economic growth still possible? And with the climate emergency accelerating beyond repair, should we still be pushing for it?In Icarus Economics, acclaimed economist John Rapley argues that the problem of growth is inherently tied up with the climate crisis. We often assume that poor countries will bear the brunt of climate change, pandemics, and other exogenous shocks, but this book argues the opposite: western societies have more wealth and capital to lose and are less inherently resilient. In this book, he shows us how rich countries can grow their own economies by helping poor countries to decarbonise - and in the process, mitigate the effects of climate change.

What can the fall of Rome teach us about the decline of the West today? A historian and a political economist, both experts in their field, investigateOver the last three centuries, the West rose to dominate the planet. Then, suddenly, around the turn of the millennium, history reversed. Faced with economic stagnation and internal political division, the West has found itself in rapid decline.This is not the first time the global order has witnessed such a dramatic rise and fall. The Roman Empire followed a similar arc from dizzying power to disintegration - a fact that is more than a strange historical coincidence. In Why Empires Fall, historian Peter Heather and political economist John Rapley use this Roman past to think anew about the contemporary West, its state of crisis, and what paths we could take out of it.In this exceptional, transformative intervention, Heather and Rapley explore the uncanny parallels - and productive differences - between the two cases, moving beyond the familiar tropes of invading barbarians and civilizational decay to learn new lessons from ancient history. From 399 to 1999, the life cycles of empires, they argue, sow the seeds of their inevitable destruction. The era of western global domination has reached its end - so what comes next?

First published in 1997. An introduction to the theory and practices of development in the third world, tracing the evolution of development theory over 40 years, and examining why so many of the benefits of development are still not shared by millions.

First published in 1997. An introduction to the theory and practices of development in the third world, tracing the evolution of development theory over 40 years, and examining why so many of the benefits of development are still not shared by millions.

First published in 1997. An introduction to the theory and practices of development in the third world, tracing the evolution of development theory over 40 years, and examining why so many of the benefits of development are still not shared by millions.

Imagine one day you went to a cash-machine and found your money was gone. You rushed to your branch, where a teller said that overnight people had stopped believing in money, and it all vanished. Seem incredible? It happened, and it could happen again.Twilight of the Money Gods is the story of economics, told not as the science it strove to be, but as the religion it became. Over two centuries, it searched for the hidden codes which would reveal the path to a promised land of material abundance. While its prophets, from Adam Smith to John Maynard Keynes and Milton Friedman, concerned themselves with the human condition, its priesthood gradually grew remote from its followers, until it lost sight of their tribulations. Today, amid a crisis of faith in their expertise, we must re-imagine an economics for a new era - one filled with both danger and opportunity.

First published in 1997. An introduction to the theory and practices of development in the third world, tracing the evolution of development theory over 40 years, and examining why so many of the benefits of development are still not shared by millions.

Was wir vom Untergang Roms für die Zukunft des Westens lernen können Der Westen befindet sich in einer Krise: Unsere Demokratie ist angeschlagen, die Deindustrialisierung bedroht den Wohlstand und Flüchtende machen sich auf in westliche Länder und stehen vor den Toren.In diesem außergewöhnlichen historischen Vergleich erkunden die Autoren die unheimlichen Parallelen – und produktiven Unterschiede – zwischen dem Untergang Roms und dem Fall des Westens, um aus der antiken Geschichte neue Lehren zu ziehen. Die Ära der westlichen globalen Dominanz hat ihr Ende erreicht – doch was kommt als Nächstes? In den letzten drei Jahrhunderten stieg der Westen auf, um den Planeten zu dominieren. Doch plötzlich, um die Jahrtausendwende, kehrte sich die Geschichte um. Angesichts wirtschaftlicher Stagnation und innerer politischer Spaltung befindet sich der Westen in einem rapiden Niedergang. Es ist nicht das erste Mal, dass die globale Ordnung einen solch dramatischen Aufstieg und Fall erlebt. Das Römische Reich folgte einer ähnlichen Entwicklung von überwältigender Macht bis zum Zerfall – eine Tatsache, die mehr ist als ein seltsamer historischer Zufall. In diesem fesselnden Buch nutzen der Historiker Peter Heather und der politische Ökonom John Rapley diese römische Vergangenheit, um über den zeitgenössischen Westen, seinen Zustand der Krise und mögliche Wege heraus neu nachzudenken.

Durante los últimos tres siglos, Occidente extendió inexorablemente su domino sobre el planeta. Pero, de repente, con el cambio de milenio, este rumbo parece haberse invertido. Enfrentado a un escenario de estancamiento económico, división política y retroceso demográfico, Occidente parece precipitarse hacia un acelerado declive. No es la primera vez que la historia asiste a un ascenso y a una caída tan vertiginosos. El Imperio romano siguió una trayectoria similar, desde el poder cuasi omnímodo hasta la desintegración, algo que, tal y como este libro argumenta, es más que una curiosa coincidencia histórica. Desde el 399 al 1999, los ciclos vitales de los imperios siembran las semillas de su inevitable destrucción. Y si la era de la dominación mundial de Occidente ha llegado a su fin, ¿ahora qué? En ¿Por qué caen los imperios? Roma, Estados Unidos y el futuro de Occidente, el historiador Peter Heather, experto en la Tardoantigüedad, y el economista político John Rapley exploran los extraños paralelismos –y las no menos esclarecedoras diferencias– entre el declive y caída de Roma y la crisis que vivimos en Occidente, yendo más allá de los tópicos familiares acerca de invasiones bárbaras y decadencia de la civilización, para extraer nuevas lecciones de la historia antigua. Si el ascenso de Roma al dominio mundial sirve para comprender el auge del Occidente moderno, su colapso permite identificar las claves de dicho proceso, y reflexionar sobre el surgimiento de pujantes periferias que desplazan al antes todopoderoso centro. En un lúcido y penetrante diálogo, los autores emplean la historia romana para considerar el momento actual y los posibles escenarios que se nos abren. A la postre, tal y como nos explica el pasado, el futuro de Occidente dependerá de las elecciones políticas y económicas que se nosotros y nuestros líderes tomemos en los años cruciales que se avecinan.