You can find the book here. Goldsworthy starts where Gibbon starts – after Marcus Aurelius. It ends at the end of the 5th Century. The vast majority of the book is basically a short description of what happened during this time period. Only at the end does Goldsworthy explain how Rome fell. The answer is that it fell slowly in a long process of day. The reviews have basically left it at that.
Unlike Gibbon, Goldsworthy, does not overtly answer the question of why Rome fell. Goldsworthy slightly hidden answer is basically Mancur Olson’s answer. Bureaucracies have a tendency to decay in a certain way and Rome’s eventually did. I’d write more on this, but I already did in my review of Olson’s book – read that if you’re interested.
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