What do you think?
Rate this book
Win a free print copy of this book!
1 day and 00:33:01
25 copies available
U.S. only
Lessons from a Lost Republic: What Ancient Rome Can Teach Us About This American Moment
Not yet published
Expected 11 Aug 26Win a free print copy of this book!
1 day and 00:33:01
25 copies available
U.S. only
A brisk, eye-opening account of the Roman Republic’s fall from democracy to dictatorship and the uncanny parallels to our own perilous political moment—an engaging and learned cautionary tale.
It can happen to us. But it doesn’t have to.
The Roman Republic, like the American one, was founded on the overthrow of a king. It was a system based in the rule of law, with separation of powers among governing bodies, and the right of legal recourse for its citizens. By the time the emperor Augustus came along in 27 BCE, the Republic was ravaged by decades of vicious partisanship, political violence, and the concentration of enormous wealth in the hands of very few. With citizens weary and afraid, Augustus took the opportunity to dismantle the Republic while pretending to restore it.
The Senate and the people of Rome let it happen. They let Augustus accumulate domestic powers that no one person had ever been allowed to wield. They stood by as he exacted retribution upon his enemies, rewrote history, and fashioned an image of himself that had little connection to reality. Romans looked the other way as Augustus manipulated elections, chose his own successor, and founded a monarchic dynasty that would last for more than a millennium.
Americans can and must learn from the Romans’ mistakes. This book offers the tools Americans need to recognize the Augustan methods Donald Trump is already employing and urges them to respond in ways the Romans did not. It considers the damage done to the Roman Republic before Augustus (close calls and returns to ‘normal’ without addressing root causes of disruption, increasing violence in politics, extraordinary wealth of few alongside the precarity of many) and missed opportunities for repair and rebuilding. With hope bolstered by her ironic and quippy sense of civic practicality, Michelle Berenfeld proposes that Rome’s slide into dictatorship was not inevitable and neither is ours. This book asks Americans not to fall for Augustus’s story nor the one being unspooled for us now, reminding us that the U.S. founding fathers saw Augustus and Rome as a cautionary tale and urging us to imagine a different path.
It can happen to us. But it doesn’t have to.
The Roman Republic, like the American one, was founded on the overthrow of a king. It was a system based in the rule of law, with separation of powers among governing bodies, and the right of legal recourse for its citizens. By the time the emperor Augustus came along in 27 BCE, the Republic was ravaged by decades of vicious partisanship, political violence, and the concentration of enormous wealth in the hands of very few. With citizens weary and afraid, Augustus took the opportunity to dismantle the Republic while pretending to restore it.
The Senate and the people of Rome let it happen. They let Augustus accumulate domestic powers that no one person had ever been allowed to wield. They stood by as he exacted retribution upon his enemies, rewrote history, and fashioned an image of himself that had little connection to reality. Romans looked the other way as Augustus manipulated elections, chose his own successor, and founded a monarchic dynasty that would last for more than a millennium.
Americans can and must learn from the Romans’ mistakes. This book offers the tools Americans need to recognize the Augustan methods Donald Trump is already employing and urges them to respond in ways the Romans did not. It considers the damage done to the Roman Republic before Augustus (close calls and returns to ‘normal’ without addressing root causes of disruption, increasing violence in politics, extraordinary wealth of few alongside the precarity of many) and missed opportunities for repair and rebuilding. With hope bolstered by her ironic and quippy sense of civic practicality, Michelle Berenfeld proposes that Rome’s slide into dictatorship was not inevitable and neither is ours. This book asks Americans not to fall for Augustus’s story nor the one being unspooled for us now, reminding us that the U.S. founding fathers saw Augustus and Rome as a cautionary tale and urging us to imagine a different path.
- GenresHistoryNonfiction
Kindle Edition
Expected publication August 11, 2026
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 of 1 review
Review of advance copy received from NetGalley
Lessons from a Lost Republic is a highly readable history of the end of the Roman Republic. Berenfeld's clear and colloquial prose makes the past feel close without ever oversimplifying it. In reminding you how each event and each character sits in their historical context, you really get the sense of how political change can be both sudden and a slow erosion, and how easy it is not to notice how far things have shifted until it's too late.
The parallels with American politics today are definitely there, but never forced. There is always a sense that history didn't have to be this way. This is the story of Rome with moments of reflection; by recognising the turning points in the past it becomes easier to spot them in your present.
Engaging, accessible and absorbing, Lessons from a Lost Republic is a thought-provoking read.
*Thank you to Netgalley for the arc in exchange for an honest review*
The parallels with American politics today are definitely there, but never forced. There is always a sense that history didn't have to be this way. This is the story of Rome with moments of reflection; by recognising the turning points in the past it becomes easier to spot them in your present.
Engaging, accessible and absorbing, Lessons from a Lost Republic is a thought-provoking read.
*Thank you to Netgalley for the arc in exchange for an honest review*
Displaying 1 of 1 review