The Coming Caesars
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Average rating5
15
Ratings2
Average rating5
Few Americans see the US presidents and the presidency outside of a sentimental idealism. Amaury de Riencourt, an author of more than eight books who lectured extensively in the US in the 1950s, pulls out all the stops to reveal the essence of the U.S. Presidency in this volume. Originally published in 1957, The Coming Caesars, was well-received being featured in publications like Foreign Affairs, The New Yorker and Harper's magazine. Now, with a new Introduction, a private letter to the author from a high Pakistani official from 2002, new endorsements, additional quotes and a new typeset design; a new generation can gain a better understand what is happening in the United States than is being told them. Caesarism in the presidency is much more of a threat today than ever before. This book will show why.
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An exceedingly good book by French polymath scholar Amaury de Riencourt. Riencourt must certainly be in the running with Toynbee for producing the most-prescient Post-Spenglerian account of history. His “spiral” formulation of the path of history deftly accounts for the cyclical evolution of culture to civilization to moribund tyranny and the slow, but real progression and advancement of world civilization as it journeys nomadically from empire to empire.
In this, his most well known work (first published in 1952), he argues that only an abnormally high civilizational self-awareness coupled with supreme effort can stem the historical tide of America's process of turning from a republic to a world empire led by an autocratic Caesar. Not only because the USA purposefully modelled itself on the Roman republic, but because the Western European culture that is the heritage of American culture, is itself the result of this cyclical process, the logic of social organization from loose confederation, to united republic, to world empire is, one might say, “baked in.”
The Caesars are coming, and it will not be a partisan dispute, as just like in Rome: there will be Caesars from both parties. Some might even argue, they are already here.
