America Is in a Golden Age. Are We Headed Toward a Roman Ending?

We media types obsess about America's problems.

But we should acknowledge that today, life in America is better than life has been anywhere, ever.

For most of history, the norm was hunger, disease, illiteracy, slavery, and war.

There were a few exceptions (from some of those problems)—so-called golden ages, Ancient Athens, Rome, the Renaissance, etc.

In our new video, historian Johan Norberg, author of the new book Peak Human, looks at the miracle of the Roman Empire, which at one point extended throughout most of Europe, and parts of Africa and Asia.

Ancient Rome inspired our form of government, a republic with a system of checks and balances.

"There is a reason why we have a Senate and they meet in the Capitol," explains Norberg. "We borrow these ideas from the Romans."

The Romans