Fox Lecture
Emeritus professor Urban to compare America’s current state to Rome
William Urban, professor emeritus of history at Monmouth College, will deliver the college’s 31st annual Bernice L. Fox Classics Lecture on Feb. 29 at 7:30 p.m. in the Pattee Auditorium in the Center for Science and Business.
Titled “America: A New Rome?” the lecture is free and open to the public. The year 1776 provided an interesting intersection of the histories of Rome and the United States of America, Urban observes. While it brought America’s revolution and the Declaration of Independence, it was also the year that Edward Gibbon’s “Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire” was published. “This relates to the most important question any historian can ask,” said Urban. “Why do nations rise and fall?” In recent years, the decline of American influence in the world has invited comparisons with Gibbon’s model. During his Fox Lecture, Urban will attempt to answer whether those comparisons are justified. An internationally recognized authority on the history of European warfare, Urban has authored approximately two dozen scholarly books. During a 49-year career at Monmouth, he served as its Lee L. Morgan Professor of History and International Studies. Established in 1985, the lecture honors the late Bernice L. Fox, who taught classics at Monmouth from 1947 until 1981. The goal of the series is to illustrate the continuing importance of classical studies in the modern world and the intersection of the classics with other disciplines in the liberal arts and sciences.
Titled “America: A New Rome?” the lecture is free and open to the public. The year 1776 provided an interesting intersection of the histories of Rome and the United States of America, Urban observes. While it brought America’s revolution and the Declaration of Independence, it was also the year that Edward Gibbon’s “Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire” was published. “This relates to the most important question any historian can ask,” said Urban. “Why do nations rise and fall?” In recent years, the decline of American influence in the world has invited comparisons with Gibbon’s model. During his Fox Lecture, Urban will attempt to answer whether those comparisons are justified. An internationally recognized authority on the history of European warfare, Urban has authored approximately two dozen scholarly books. During a 49-year career at Monmouth, he served as its Lee L. Morgan Professor of History and International Studies. Established in 1985, the lecture honors the late Bernice L. Fox, who taught classics at Monmouth from 1947 until 1981. The goal of the series is to illustrate the continuing importance of classical studies in the modern world and the intersection of the classics with other disciplines in the liberal arts and sciences.
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