Mapping Decline: The History of American Power‪.‬

In chronicling the rise, flourishing, and decline of the powers of the world as he knew it in the fifth century BC, the Greek historian Herodotus stated that he would tell of the small cities and the great, for the cities "which were great once are small today; and those which used to be small were great in my own time." Judging that "human prosperity never abides long in the same place," Herodotus set forth a pattern for the study of subsequent historical epochs. The United States assumed a position of preeminence during the twentieth century, succeeding Alexander the Great's Hellenistic Empire of the fourth century BC, the Roman Empire of the first century, the Chinese and Mongol Empires of the thirteenth, and the British Empire of the nineteenth century. The decline and fall of the empires of the past are recorded by historians, but the story of the world role of the United States is still being written. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]