show bio Cullen Murphy

Cullen Murphy is the editor-at-large of Vanity Fair magazine and previously served for two
decades as the managing editor of The Atlantic Monthly. He is also on the editorial board of The American Scholar and of OnEarth, the magazine of the Natural Resources Defense Council.

Are We Rome?
Date: 1/28/2008

Editor and author Cullen Murphy discusses his new book that ventures past the pundit’s rhetoric to draw nuanced lessons about how America might avoid Rome’s demise. “Are We Rome?” reveals a wide array of similarities between the two empires of Modern America and Ancient Rome. There are comparisons between Rome and America that offer lessons worth heeding: the blinding, insular culture of capitals, and the debilitating effect of corruption; the paradoxical issue of borders; and the weakening of the body politic through various forms of “privatization.” Murphy discusses all of these themes is his Clinton School speech