The fall of Rome and the retreat of European multiculturalism: A historical trope as a discourse of authority in public debate

Abstract

A feature of neo-conservative critiques during the course of this century, concerning public issues such as immigration and multicultural policy and Islamic terrorism, has been the use of a rhetoric based on historical imagery as a means to generate affective reactions to matters of debate. This article examines one example of such rhetoric, the claim by the economic historian Niall Ferguson that the terrorist attacks in Paris in November 2015 represented a close parallel to the “Fall of the Roman empire” in antiquity which highlighted failures of France’s immigration policies. Interactions between media debate, ancient world scholarship, and popular history are explored.

Keywords

• fall of rome
• islamic terrorism
• late antiquity
• classics
• immigration and multiculturalism policies in europe
• edward gibbon
• niall ferguson