Bands of young Muslims and other foreigners roamed the suburbs, occasionally
penetrating into the central cities to loot and burn. Slow to
respond, society?s institutions for preserving law and order proved incapable
of dealing with this new threat. With increasing frequency, property
owners fell victim to thieves and kidnappers. The inner cores of many cities
became neglected and run down, while taxpayers revolted against the
confiscation of their wealth by public officials. As streets, highways and
bridges fell into disrepair, the educational system was unable to maintain
the standards of earlier years. Traditional religious institutions were no
longer able to impose centralized discipline on their followers, who flocked
to newer movements. In the political sphere, citizens looked in vain for
leaders willing to put aside their personal interests and those of their inner
circle in order to govern for the common good.
No, this is not a sequence from a recent newscast or from a science-fiction
film portraying our society in the very near future.Rather, it describes Western
Europe after the break-up of the Carolingian Empire, during the last half of
the ninth century and the first half of the tenth. Yet the parallels between the
creative destruction seen at that time and present-day events are quite striking.
The similarities suggest that the West has come full circle since the final
collapse of the institutions of the Late Roman Empire some 1200 years ago.
If we are interested in what lies ahead for us, we might do well to attempt to
explain a remarkable series of social, political and economic transformations
that have brought us from the Carolingians to the present time.
penetrating into the central cities to loot and burn. Slow to
respond, society?s institutions for preserving law and order proved incapable
of dealing with this new threat. With increasing frequency, property
owners fell victim to thieves and kidnappers. The inner cores of many cities
became neglected and run down, while taxpayers revolted against the
confiscation of their wealth by public officials. As streets, highways and
bridges fell into disrepair, the educational system was unable to maintain
the standards of earlier years. Traditional religious institutions were no
longer able to impose centralized discipline on their followers, who flocked
to newer movements. In the political sphere, citizens looked in vain for
leaders willing to put aside their personal interests and those of their inner
circle in order to govern for the common good.
No, this is not a sequence from a recent newscast or from a science-fiction
film portraying our society in the very near future.Rather, it describes Western
Europe after the break-up of the Carolingian Empire, during the last half of
the ninth century and the first half of the tenth. Yet the parallels between the
creative destruction seen at that time and present-day events are quite striking.
The similarities suggest that the West has come full circle since the final
collapse of the institutions of the Late Roman Empire some 1200 years ago.
If we are interested in what lies ahead for us, we might do well to attempt to
explain a remarkable series of social, political and economic transformations
that have brought us from the Carolingians to the present time.
