Claudius

Following up from the 9/11 thread, I thought it might be a good idea to start a separate thread about a book I mentioned in there which explains why the USA have to attack weaker nations, and how the USA will, from their current "super power" status, simply become a nation amongst others.



Here's an excerpt from the book:

The efforts of the United States to sustain its position as the planet's only post-Cold War superpower show serious signs of back-firing. The current American method of operating in the world will lead to a gradual downsizing to normal nation status as the United States' military, economic, and ideological tendencies continue to anger allies and enemies alike, according to Emmanuel Todd. Todd anticipates that American hegemony will wane and an enhanced role for what he calls Eurasia will emerge, bringing together in common cause the world's two most productive industrial centers, Japan and Europe, and two regions of military and demographic force, Russia and the Arab-Islamic world.
A historian and demographer, Todd compiles and analyzes an astonishing breadth of data about birth and infant mortality rates, literacy levels, and marriage practices in the United States to uncover deep trends of decline. Against this backdrop, Todd points to a number of factors, including increasing resistance among the nations of the world to militant American unilateralism -nowhere more evident than in Iraq -and the faltering supremacy of the U.S. dollar, that suggest that the American century has come to an end.

Contents

Introduction
The Myth of Universal Terrorism
Democracy as A Threat
Imperial Dimensions
The Fragility of Tribute
The Movement Away from Universalism
Confront the Strong or Attack the Weak?
The Return of Russia
The Emancipation of Europe
Conclusion: Endgame
Notes


About the Author

Emmanuel Todd is currently a researcher at the French National Institute for Demographic Studies. He is the author of numerous books, including The Final Fall: An Essay on the Decomposition of the Soviet Sphere, The Making of Modern France: Ideology, Politics and Culture, and The Explanation of Ideology.

Claudius

Reviews from journalists who have read the book (the arab guy's comments are funny )

"A powerful antidote to hysterical exaggeration of American power and potential by American triumphalists and anti-American polemicists alike. A best-seller in Europe, Todd´s book should be read by all thoughtful Americans for its provocative and well-informed analysis of their nation and its prospects."
–from the foreword by Michael Lind

"The most effective and most talked about of the new anti-American texts."
–Adam Gopnik The New Yorker

"[Todd] has written what may be the most important work since Francis Fukuyama's The End of History and the Last Man . . . Already a best-seller in Europe, this book is destined to be much talked about and analyzed."
– Booklist

"Slic[ing] the globaloney pretty thin, . . . Todd argues that a New World Order really is emerging, as country after country experiences the rising literary rates and falling birth rates that precede a shift toward modernization."
– Newsday

"Todd is a brilliant provocateur. But if his book is sometimes depressing that is because it echoes many of our current concerns."
–Eugen Weber The New Leader

"He makes some interesting points. . . . Worth reading for insight into how some people view the U.S. Throughout much of the world, America is more feared than respected and more disliked than admired. Ignoring such opinions is folly."
–Philip Seib The Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel

"I would recommend this extraordinary book to everyone troubled by US neo-imperialism . . . this is a brave and challenging book which contains a great deal of truth."
–Clare Short New Statesman

"After the Empire is a work of greater political engagement, excoriating the global impact of an America that has passed with bewildering rapidity from dream to a nightmare, and calling down on it a doom almost as rapid and every bit as fulfilling."
–John Dunn Times Higher Education Supplement

"In this latest thought-provoking book, Todd predicts the end of another empire. He examines the fundamental weaknesses of the US to conclude that, contrary to conventional wisdom, America is fast losing its grip on the world stage in economic, military and ideological terms."
–Anne Penketh The Independent (UK)

"What makes the latest publication by the celebrated French political analyst Emmanuel Todd unusually provocative is its robust skepticism . . . Todd has written an important book which not only challenges the conventional wisdom but does so with exhilarating verve and panache."
–Neil Berry Arab News

"Emmanuel Todd'sAfter the Empire: The Breakdown of the American Order is the best new book on the reasons behind American 'theatrical micromilitarism.' . . . Todd performs the neatest surgery yet on the insecurities besetting the alleged American hyperpower. . . . Todd gives us more hope than any other recent writer that the day of reckoning is soon to come."
–Anis Shivani Adbusters

"Todd's book is like a hearty dose of castor oil: strong medicine, but a remedy that, if swallowed, will help us to purge ourselves of much that ails us."
–Harold O. J. Brown American Conservative

"After the Empire is worth reading for insight into how some people view the United States . . . this book might help dispel some of the smugness that is one of the least attractive facets of the American character."
–Philip Seib Dallas Morning News

Claudius

http://www.theglobalist.com/DBWeb/St...x?StoryId=3968

http://www.politicalaffairs.net/article/view/185/1/34/

http://www.hopedance.org/new/book_reviews/r80.html

Claudius

Available here:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/...062499-4402261

Alas

I'll wait for the Hollywood movie
Alas

FrenchBoy

Claudius, you dont happen to be his publisher do you?

Who'd have thought a frenchman would have anything critical to say about the USA eh?

Sounds like an interesting read though.

Claudius

HAHAHA!!!

Claudius

No, I dont publish books. I just posted the info as someone asked about it and I didnt want to "hijack" the 911 thread.


Come on This isnt about slagging anybody off, it's a prediction based on facts. What makes it particularly interesting is the fact that the same guy predicted the fall of the Soviet Empire in 1976. Does he hate Russians, too? Demographic studies are his job, he's a researcher. One of his parents is Jewish, he isnt out to slag the USA off, he's just predicting what he sees as a necessary consequence of currently available data.


It is, really.

Pbr

Took the words right out of my mouth.

Pbr

As did many others in the seventies. The Soviet Empire was a centrally governed multi racial conglomerate held together by repression and such states rarely endure.

Claudius

Well, I'll just dig this thread out in 20 years, then

Leslie

I think that we have to look forward to a world power struggle between two or three factions as globalisation develops further. Too much economic power in too few hands I'm afraid.

Les

suprabeast

bit early for a discussion this advanced!