I'm currently reading The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire by Edward Gibbon. It's quite an anachronistic book, has an obvious slant from the

I'm currently reading The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire by Edward Gibbon. It's quite an anachronistic book, has an obvious slant from the author's bias, and is outdated in a few parts compared to the modern views of the fall of Rome (according to my historian pal), but it's a delightful read on a literary level. That's not even to mention the casual prejudice and racism; the author really hates the Ottoman empire for obvious reasons and ranks peoples of his time on how barbarous they are. It's an absolutely massive work that even so scarcely indicates the complexity of Rome's decline. I hope to branch out and read some more modern takes afterwards. One interesting observation of the varied causes attributed is that they all exist in some form or another today, in the most powerful nations of the world, and they could come to a critical point once more, and it's not clear where that would take us.