Gates

I've been reading a recent book about the end of the western Roman empire by a British historian (Bryan Ward-Perkins, The Fall of Rome and the End of Civilization). He argues that the turn among historians away from viewing the German invasions as bringing on the dark Ages and toward seeing them as just one facet of a newly named Late Antiquity goes too far, because the breakup of the western Roman empire in fact brought about sharp declines in trade, an end to workshops that made good pottery, stunted cows, and probably a fall in food production. He correlates changing attitudes toward the Germanic tribes with feelings toward Germany, and suggests that the recent friendly attitude is connected with the desire to establish a European identity that unites Germans with Latin speakers. Since nobody at the time seems to have been collecting much evidence on people's well-being, it's hard to decide who's right: whether the western Roman empire's end was a catastrophe or just the replacement of one exploitative upper class with another. The point is made that there is a large measure of luck in whether a complex government will survive the various threats to control of its economic base that constantly arise - an interesting perspective on the question of societal collapse.

Closer to now, the NY Times published a useful explanation of how the spinach food-poisoning outbreak can be blamed on the cattle industry. See also here.

And happy new month and Jewish new year to all.