What is America?: A Short History of the New World Order [Hardcover]

Up to the minute refined excellence bounces the historical ball off the same old wall.
Glimpse into this must read compendium of timely thought with the following excerpts;

Page 38; For all its corruption, chaos and sclerosis, the Spanish Empire still holds the record as the longest-lived world-super power-exactly three hundred years from conquest of Mexico to Mexican independence.
Page 81; Nowadays, when individuals think that God is speaking to them, that they have been chosen for a greater purpose, that they are unquestionably right while everyone else is mistaken or evil, they are likely to be removed from society and treated for mental illness.
Page 82; At what point does one group's religious mission become a threat to other groups? It seems to me that the acid test for determining when a religious community had become a peril to itself and others is when it starts killing people on God's orders.
Page 82; The atrocities of medieval popes and kings had been committed under an overreaching theology formidable enough to persuade most people that Christ allowed his delegates on Earth to practice war, torture and ingeniously painful executions on His behalf. Protestants knew that was bunk, but were soon doing much the same themselves.
Page 107; America's wealth and freedom would build on the slaughter of one race and the enslavement of another.
Page 170; In the thirty years after 1870, white Americans took and settled more land than they had in the previous three hundred.
Page 191; The history of the United States is not a story of triumphant anti-imperial heretics. It is an account of the power of empire as a way of life, as a way of avoiding the fundamental challenge of creating a humane and equitable community or culture.
William Appleman Williams, 1980
Page 194; "Our country is now geared to an arms economy which was bred in an artificially induced psychosis of war hysteria and nurtured upon an incessant propaganda of fear."
Page 207, 208; The supposed "rights" of capital trump those of sovereignty, ecology, labour-and future generations. The economy has become tyranny. Unless trade agreements include tough environmental and labour standards (as they do to some extant within the European Union), capital will always seek out the dirtiest river and the most exploitable human being.
The quest for easy money is as old as money itself. But it is hardly surprising that the delusion of endless growth and the denial of natural limits have taken their most virulent form in the United States-in the culture forged on the frontier. "The very essence of the frontier experience," writes the naturalist Tim Flannery, "is to exploit [resources] as quickly as possible, then move on.
The world is less a home in which to live than a treasury to ransack, and the loot needn't be shared out fairly or even used wisely, because there will always be more somewhere else.

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"The Columbian Age [the Age that occurred after Christopher Columbus discovered America] was built on colonial attitudes: on taming the wilderness, civilizing the savage, and the American dream of endless plenty. Now there is nothing left to colonize...Mankind will either share [this planet] or fight over it--a war nobody can win...[The United States of] America...must now examine its own record--the facts, not the myths--and free itself from the potent but potentially fatal mix of forces that created its nation, its empire, and the modern world."

The above is the very last paragraph of this eye-opening and riveting book by award-winning novelist, historian, author, and essayist Ronald Wright.

This book's primary purpose is to understand the rise of the United States from small colony to world's lone superpower in the span of only two centuries. By delving deep into history, Wright is indeed able to, as the above quotation states, separate fact from myth.

Interpretive history is also included. That is, the author is able to draw parallels from events of the past and apply them to today's events. The result is a coherent and insightful historical analysis of the United States, an analysis that some people may find difficult to read.

What I especially enjoyed about this book is that it contains the actual writings of those from the past. Some of these writings may be distressing to some readers.

Each chapter begins with a few profound quotations from others. My favourite:

"The real war has been to keep alive the light of civilization everywhere...The end of the world begins not with the barbarians of the gate, but with the barbarians at the highest levels of state."
(Acclaimed Nigerian poet and novelist, Ben Okri, 2003)

Finally, it should be mentioned what this book is not:

(1) It is not a rant. A rant is written work based on emotion (usually anger) and opinion. This book is based on history. It contains almost 125 pages of notes and bibliography.

(2) It is not Anti-American. By examining history and human behaviour, the author derives his insight.

In conclusion, this book is a must for those who want to understand the United States and our times.

(first published 2008; forward; 9 chapters; main narrative 225 pages; notes; bibliography; acknowledgements; index; about the author)

<<Stephen Pletko, London, Ontario, Canada>>

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The first 75% of the book is a good description of the founding of the New World, it's affect on Europe and the poor treatment of native Americans. Unquestionably there is an American myth of how the Country was carved out of wilderness. Setting the record straight is a useful exercise. Where the historical aspect of the book essentially comes apart, is in the final 25%; which is primarily devoted to bashing the right wing policies of Nixon, Regan, and the two Bushes. Although I essentially agree with the author's position, I think this recent history could have been better balanced and written in a less confrontational manner. Finally, his description of the rightwing element of American politics as "Backwoods America" as contrasted with "Enlightenment America", is a gross oversimplification and indicates a lack of a clear understanding of political contrasts in America today.