When I read Mike Duncan’s “The Storm Before the Storm: The beginning of the end of Roman Republic,” I was unaware his podcasts on Roman history are some of the most popular history podcasts. What I did realize was the prose was unlike any history I had ever read – precise, crisply written, and above all, sounding like the best lecturer you’ve experienced.
His account of the fate of the Roman Republic before the Empire is not merely informative and entertaining, it leaves the reader an eerie sense of Santayana’s Curse, “Those who do not remember history…”
Consider Duncan’s insightful comment about legacy of Sulla, the Dictator who effectively ended the Republic: “…the men who followed him paid attention to what could be done rather than what should be done.” Wake-up calls like that are scattered along the lively narrative with throw-way lines like clueless Senators “caught with their togas down.”
In a time when colleges are jettisoning history departments, Duncan’s work reminds us the importance of knowing how we got here, and how little politicians and political strife have changed. The story will engage, and the inferences readers will draw are unsettling and memorable.
E-reader use has plateaued, but instant access to footnotes and definitions make books like this a superior experience on Kindle, etc.
