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Free World: Why a Crisis of the West Reveals the Opportunity of Our Time
 
 

Free World: Why a Crisis of the West Reveals the Opportunity of Our Time (Paperback)

by Timothy Garton Ash (Author) "When you say 'we', who do you mean? Many of us would start the answer with our family and our friends ..." (more)
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Product details

  • Paperback: 336 pages
  • Publisher: Penguin (31 Mar 2005)
  • ISBN-10: 0141016817
  • ISBN-13: 978-0141016818
  • Product Dimensions: 19.4 x 13 x 2.8 cm
  • Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
  • Amazon.co.uk Sales Rank: 314,678 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Product Description

Amazon.co.uk
Timothy Garton Ash’s latest book Free World: why a crisis of the West reveals the opportunity of our time grapples with the big issues facing Europeans in the twenty-first century and in the process he explores the following questions: Is the world now divided between the West and the Rest? Is the West now divided between Europe and America? Can the West be put together again, and, even if it can be, should it be? What is the right ‘we’ for our time? Most importantly, as the extraordinary project of associating twenty-five diverse European countries in a single political community takes shape, what kind of emotional glue can be found to hold them all together?

The book opens by brilliantly illuminating the political divisions in Britain between a Right that takes its stand with America and against Europe and a Left that argues the direct opposite. What makes Ash’s analysis of the current scene so enlightening is his account of the British identity crisis captured in the idea of ‘Janus-Britain’. Janus (the Roman god of doorways, passages and bridges) had two faces pointing in opposite directions, one at the front and one at the back of his head. Britain, Garton Ash argues, has four. The back and front faces can be labelled ‘Island’ and World’; the face on the left says ‘Europe’ and that on the right ‘America’. What Britain lacks but desperately needs is a minimal consensus about what story it wants to tell of itself, where it is and where it would like to be. The most complex, ambitious and promising path—the one Tony Blair is attempting to take and the one least represented by the press—is to try to pull America and Europe together.

The whole of the new enlarged Europe, the author argues, is engaged in a great debate between Euro-Gaullist and Euroatlanticist forces and on its outcome depends the future of the West. If the great EU project is to succeed and the problems of the Middle East and the developing world ever to be overcome then European and American partnership is our best hope. Garton Ash ends with a compassionate and intelligent set of suggestions plotting courses for the future. He insists that foreign policy is too important to be left to the people who govern us. It’s not that they’re all scoundrels it’s just that "half the time they don’t really know what they’re doing." Overall Free World is an outstandingly sensitive historical and political analysis written with a confident and imaginative authority. --Larry Brown --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

Review
Did the West die with the fall of communism? To a degree it did, according to journalist and political writer Timothy Garton Ash. But perhaps it still exists in a new form that hasn't yet found a proper identity. Ash points to the changing face of politics, especially since 9/11 and the rise of Osama bin Laden. New challenges face nations that were previously viewed as being essential parts of the West but which now seem to be pulling apart. In particular, Ash shows that the European Union and the USA are rapidly evolving into opposing camps, and Britain finds itself stuck in the middle trying to favour both sides at once. With reference to numerous sources, including conversations he has had with political leaders, Ash shows that only by Europe and America coming together can the old and new West successfully face challenges of the 21st century. This is supremely good writing. (Kirkus UK)

Americans are from Mars, Europeans from Venus, so goes the current right-wing formulation. But, warns British journalist/historian Ash, beware the attendant bigotry: "If we hear a voice generalizing angrily about 'the Americans' or 'the Europeans,' the disease is close." Mars, of course, is the god of war, and one of the great sources of division between the eastern and western branches of the old Atlantic Alliance these days is war: whereas the Bush gang seems to view the world as Hobbesian, the likes of Chirac and Schroeder appear to hope that it's a Kantian place, amenable to peace and reason. In the middle stands England, that once-stolid insularity that was never quite as removed from the world as it thought, and that, Ash writes, has one day to choose between America and Europe: "A man standing astride two oil tankers that are moving apart, trying to hold them together with just the strength in his legs, is not a statesman-he's an idiot." In a time when Europeans are declaring the American Empire to be public enemy number one and American pundits are castigating the French and their western European allies (Germany, now Spain) as "cheese-eating surrender monkeys," it seems that those tankers are steaming to quite different ports. But, Ash wonders, might it not be possible that a new alliance can be forged? "Can the West be put together again and, even if it can be, should it be?" Well, yes, he argues, but in a different project from containing communism or fighting terrorism ("Unless you are Don Quixote, you don't attack a chimera"-namely, extending the material benefits of the so-called free world to the poor world beyond it, giving a penny on the pound or a cent on the euro or dollar "toward providing clean water, basic sustenance, shelter and medical care for the poorest of the poor." That would be a surprising future indeed, and Ash (History of the Present, 2000, etc.) makes a good case for why it, too, should not be considered chimerical. (Kirkus Reviews) --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

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When you say 'we', who do you mean? Many of us would start the answer with our family and our friends. Read the first page
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6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars The two faces of 9/11, 18 Jul 2005
By Stephen A. Haines (Ottawa, Ontario Canada) - See all my reviews
(TOP 10 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   
With years of European and American journalism as a foundation, Garton Ash seeks a means of preventing skirmishes from turning into clashes. The interests of Europe and America are the same, he contends. The primary one is "freedom". Where freedom can be enjoyed by a populace, other benefits assuredly follow. With freedom, however, comes responsibility. Part of that responsibility is the recognition that the remainder of the world does not enjoy those freedoms. To bring that Free World about, there must be compromises. In recognising where compromises must be made, policy makers must confront world realities, not simply follow entrenched dogmas. In this compelling study, he brings great insight into analysing the issues our societies face and offers provocative solutions for them.

Garton Ash uses something as simple as how Europeans and Americans write dates. The infamous "9/11" [September 11] in the United States is a glorious "9/11" [09 November] in Europe. These are the pivotal dates in viewing the true onset of the 21st Century. For the United States, it is the collapse of the World Trade Centre under the hijackers' assault. For Europeans, the collapse of the Berlin Wall signalled the end of a divided continent. For the United States, "9/11" has divided a nation by an administration bent on revenge. In Europe "9/11" is an opportunity to consolidate and dispose of old rivalries. In making this comparison, however, the author is quick to point out that none of these images are as simple as they appear. Europe has a long way to go to shed local interests and jealousies. The United States is a single entity bearing immense military power which, as is now obvious, it feels it may use with impunity. European nations, even as a "Union", must not develop policy out of resentment for that power. The United States must realise that the world is a highly diverse place. Other norms, other interests, other feelings must be regarded seriously.

Within a short time, Europe will count almost as many states as the continental USA. Within a few years, there will be forty nations participating in a European community. This amalgamation will include, as it already does, former Soviet Bloc nations. It will reach to the Near East [what Americans call the "Middle East"], which will likely be a stepping stone to the Far East. What all these assembling nations will have in common is a large measure of freedom. The economic and social benefits of joining this organisation will make absolutist governments untenable. "Human rights" and environmental protection are already a condition of EU membership. With the expansion of that standard, says Garton Ash, a positive framework will be in place for further beneficial policies. The looming question will be whether the United States will follow that lead. America's consumptive and expansionist power must be curbed from within. Will it be able to take that step?

Garton Ash thinks that's a possible path. The guide down that track must be Great Britain. The "Special Relationship", established by Churchill [Roosevelt's job was mostly to agree] so derided by many, is a keystone in the bridge between Europe and America. America's place as the "daughter of Europe" has been replaced by it being "uncle of Europe". Britain can help the United States back on the path to multilateralism it once championed with the formation of the United Nations. Once that structure is firmly in place, the wealth of the new linkage can be used to break the bonds of poverty leashing so many. The first step in that regard is the tumbling of another wall, the trade barriers restricting the imports of Third World products.

This is a book to be studied, not merely read. It's not a difficult job, and Garton Ash hasn't wasted a single word in the presentation. He's an observer of consummate skills and a peerless writer. The book contains some compelling comparative "maps" illustrating the way the world is structured in human terms. They are an intriguing way of imparting the information - even if you need to shed your old geography lessons. The only lack in this book is failure to offer a way to overcome the established mind-sets of the people who cannot or will not see beyond the path they are on. Read this book, then show it to them.

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7 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars A brilliant analysis, and very inspiring indeed!, 29 Jan 2005
By Thomas Koetzsch (Hong Kong) - See all my reviews
(TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   
Timothy Garton Ash's (TGA) recent book should be an eye opener for everyone, including Britain, Europe and the US. There is indeed a crisis in the West, but hardly anyone seems to perceive it.

The book is an entertaining read. It would appear that the British have yet to notice that they are more pro-European than anything else. This 'anti-Europe thing' takes largely place on the fringes of the political parties and the press, which is also the reason why it appears as a larger topic than it actually is.

The EU is the successful result of European countries moving their differences from the battlefield to the debating chamber. The goal of a truly European Union will remain elusive as more countries join it. As TGA quite rightly points out a community of 25 states (and more to come) will always be less of a Union than a combination of 50 federal states. The 2003 Iraq war is a case in point.
I don't see the affair leaving the EU any more divided than it was before the event. Just witness its regular battles over the Common Agricultural Policy or the budget.

The US was thrown onto the international stage by accident following Europe's inability to solve a problem (World War One), and then another problem (World War Two). With the demise of the Soviet Union, the US was bound to occupy a pre-eminent position. That it is pushing its perceived interests should not come as a surprise. All nations push their interests. The 2003 Iraq war again is a case in point.

If Britain does have a special relationship with the US, the latter doesn't seem to know about it. If she does perceive a special bond though, she ought to use her expertise to draw both the US and Europe into the same camp.
At the same time, the US should be less pushy and sacrifice some of its perceived interests for the greater goal of global harmony (and I really do mean global).
At the same time, the EU should stop defining itself as an elitist Christian Club, but instead draw in the countries on its fringes, so as to safeguard the life-style of its citizens and those of its neighbours.

Can we all also please step beyond nationalism and stop pretending that we are just British, French, American, Moroccan or Bavarians.

At the same time, all of us should strive towards, bringing wealth to the corners of the world in a bid to prevent a potential north-south conflict.

This is the message I took home from reading this book.

If you are interested in commenting you should check out Freeworldweb.net, which is TGA's website on this book. There are lively discussions going on on a range of relevant subjects. And I think this is excellent.

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10 of 36 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars Significant contribution to the Euro debate, 4 Jul 2004
By matthew hilton - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   
Besides being a good read this book repaid its cost to me if only because it contained deeply instructive maps and thickly textured references including many well found web sites. For me totally novel and fascinating was the Inglehart values map which "... shows findings...along two key axes, from traditional values to secular-rational values, and from survival values to self-expression values"

My only reservation is that from the radio piece that alerted me to the book I was expecting more of the two conversations mentioned - one with President George.W. Bush, the other with an illegal Morrocan immigrant - perhaps TGA has in mind this sort of material for the web-site which he has set up to further the debate.

The greatest selling word world wide along with NEW is FREE - the USA has gone from being known as the new world to being seen as the champion of the free world, and we have gone in Timothy Garton Ash's witty phrase "from Plato to NATO".

Timothy Garton Ash (TGA) is an able and seminal chronicler of our (foreign policy)times, in particular he has been where it counted during the European changes of 1989
(We the People: The revolution of '89. Witnessed in Warsaw, Budapest, Berlin & Prague).

Writing now , honestly teasing out contradictions and interpenetrations in the relative positions of EU, UK and USA he speaks as Director of the European Studies Centre at St Antony's College Oxford.

Tellingly the jacket photo shows the author as a younger man. I judge this to be the less malign vanity of not wanting to make a fuss about getting an up to date portrait - endearingly English.

And it is, one senses, as an Englishman that Timothy speaks as Churchill and Orwell hover informatively about the text.

An Englishman who is called in on both sides of the pond to give his views on matters of foreign policy in small private briefings of high officials, presidents even.

An Englishman feeling now, perhaps, as many of that generation must, an obligation to step forward a little into the more direct fray from which they resiled as too too bloody a generation ago.

So as well as a fascinating and pacey discussion of the UK's necessarily Janus like position in relation to the US and EU in the first part, the book may signal TGA's move away from the detached though weirdly anthropomorphic discussions about the behaviour of states into the position of the activist.

This is accomplished in the second part of the book by what is, in my judgment, nothing more or less than a geopolitical fantasia.

TGA has the courage to let his coat, as it were blow in the wind and roll towards an enlargement, clarification, correction of Tony Blair's "bridge" thesis.

Towards a Europe where we simultaneously improve our welcome to immigrants from the fringe countries as replacement for our reduced numbers of young (and the major buggered-upness of those left ) and hope that potential immigrants stay at home and under freer trade make the goods we need to buy.

I began to get the feeling that process was, as it must with any fantasia, beginning to feed on itself.

Suddenly TGA imagines himself singing a European anthem. I put the book down for the first time. I felt a little queasy . Some awful memory. Suddenly the vision of esperanto flashed into my mind - both its dingy headquarters that I used to walk past on the way to school in Kensington, and also in one of Orwell's or was it Graham Green's tales.

Because it seems clear that any blooded knave who runs us, any hooded death lover will at last have to be confronted, no matter how many candles blow in the wind, no matter how much in tithes from those "on above average income" go to the international poor.

For as the disproportion in incomes in the exemplar state (USA) gets even more extreme than the charts in this book show us; as the combination of highest gun ownership with highest religious adherence becomes more strident it is there as it was in the USSR that things will happen from within, the hollow dead centre must be filled from the bottom and in this process the victims must learn, somehow, to speak with charity and pity of their oppressors.

TGA himself has a "Tiresias twinge" when he acknowledges the "insatiable power of Western-style consumerism" and sees clearly that some other model may emerge from newly free countries that they may not tread the same paths.

This is interesting. The idea that valuable ideas still securely located in "old fashioned" cultures could be their and our saving grace in the future is good.

Like the need to preserve bio-diversity because of the as yet unknown useful plants the idea of not being fobbed off with the pseudo choices of the consumer but to have the spiritual and intellectual guts to consider real alternatives seems to me the real starting point.

Matthew Hilton
apwb_1948@yahoo.co.uk

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