Download or read book The Virtual American Empire written by Edward N. Luttwak and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2017-09-08 with total page 234 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This is Edward Luttwak's third and arguably fi nest collection of essays. In a challenge to the intellectual backbone of those who write about peace as something one wishes into existence through mediation and good will, Luttwak's view of warfare is bracing: "An unpleasant truth, often overlooked, is that although war is a great evil, it does have a great virtue: it can resolve political confl icts and lead to peace." Luttwak articulates positions shared by military fi gures and political heroes who have their feet on the ground rather than in the sand. He shares his thoughts in essays covering America at war and the new Bolshevism in Russia, ranging in place from the Middle East to Latin America and stops along the way to Byzantium. Luttwak examines military reform, great powers grown small, and drugs, crime and corruption as part of the common culture of the West. Th ough his message is sometimes delivered in a light tone, he is never foolish and never trivial. Luttwak develops the bracing thesis that cease fi res and armistices in states of war, while sometimes inconclusive, are lesser evils than prospects for a nuclear meltdown. Even in arenas of geopolitical antagonism, neither Americans nor Russians have been inclined to intervene competitively in wars of lesser powers. As a consequence, intermittent war persists; and greater dangers to the world are averted. It is no exaggeration to compare Luttwak to Clausewitz in the nineteenth century and Herman Kahn in the twentieth century. Th is volume deserves to be read and digested by all who would understand contemporary geopolitics.
Download or read book Habits of Empire written by Walter Nugent and published by Vintage. This book was released on 2009-06-09 with total page 434 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Since its founding, the United States' declared principles of liberty and democracy have often clashed with aggressive policies of imperial expansion. In this sweeping narrative history, acclaimed scholar Walter Nugent explores this fundamental American contradiction by recounting the story of American land acquisition since 1782 and shows how this steady addition of territory instilled in the American people a habit of empire-building. From America's early expansions into Transappalachia and the Louisiana Purchase through later additions of Alaska and island protectorates in the Caribbean and Pacific, Nugent demonstrates that the history of American empire is a tale of shifting motives, as the early desire to annex land for a growing population gave way to securing strategic outposts for America's global economic and military interests. Thorough, enlightening, and well-sourced, this book explains the deep roots of American imperialism as no other has done.
Download or read book On Empire written by Eric Hobsbawm and published by Pantheon. This book was released on 2008-11-26 with total page 128 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In these four incisive and keenly perceptive essays, one of out most celebrated and respected historians of modern Europe looks at the world situation and some of the major political problems confronting us at the start of the third millennium. With his usual measured and brilliant historical perspective, Eric Hobsbawm traces the rise of American hegemony in the twenty-first century. He examines the state of steadily increasing world disorder in the context of rapidly growing inequalities created by rampant free-market globalization. He makes clear that there is no longer a plural power system of states whose relations are governed by common laws--including those for the conduct of war. He scrutinizes America's policies, particularly its use of the threat of terrorism as an excuse for unilateral deployment of its global power. Finally, he discusses the ways in which the current American hegemony differs from the defunct British Empire in its inception, its ideology, and its effects on nations and individuals. Hobsbawm is particularly astute in assessing the United States' assertion of world hegemony, its denunciation of formerly accepted international conventions, and its launching of wars of aggression when it sees fit. Aside from the naivete and failure that have surrounded most of these imperial campaigns, Hobsbawm points out that foreign values and institutions--including those associated with a democratic government--can rarely be imposed on countries such as Iraq by outside forces unless the conditions exist that make them acceptable and readily adaptable. Timely and accessible, On Empire is a commanding work of history that should be read by anyone who wants some understanding of the turbulent times in which we live.
Download or read book The Decline and Fall of the American Empire written by Anthony V. Bouza and published by Springer. This book was released on 2013-11-11 with total page 328 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: No segment of American society is spared from Bouza's critical gaze in exposing the systemic excesses that are poisoning the heart of our nation. He spotlights the white-collar criminals, who quietly take pennies from each of us to create their own pots of gold. He unmasks the politicians, on both ends of the political spectrum, whose arrogance and hypocrisy speak volumes. He demonstrates how organized crime, while catering to our sinful, illicit cravings, affects our daily lives from buying a fish dinner to building a house. He uncloaks the televangelists and other fraudulent religious leaders who have transformed the ministry from a shepherd's leading the flock into a huckster's fleecing the gullible. Moreover, he reveals the abuses that have permeated the medical and other "helping" professions
Download or read book Virtual History Alternatives And Counterfactuals written by Niall Ferguson and published by Basic Books. This book was released on 2008-08-06 with total page 566 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: What if there had been no American War of Independence? What if Hitler had invaded Britain? What if Kennedy had lived? What if Russia had won the Cold War? Niall Ferguson, author of the highly acclaimed The Pity of War, leads the charge in this historically rigorous series of separate voyages into “imaginary time” and provides far-reaching answers to these intriguing questions.Ferguson's brilliant 90-page introduction doubles as a manifesto on the methodology of counter-factual history. His equally masterful afterword traces the likely historical ripples that would have proceeded from the maintenance of Stuart rule in England. This breathtaking narrative gives us a convincing, detailed “alternative history” of the West—from the accession of “James III” in 1701, to a Nazi-occupied England, to a U.S. Prime Minister Kennedy who lives to complete his term.
Download or read book American Empire written by Andrew J. BACEVICH and published by Harvard University Press. This book was released on 2009-06-30 with total page 313 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In a challenging, provocative book, Andrew Bacevich reconsiders the assumptions and purposes governing the exercise of American global power. Examining the presidencies of George H. W. Bush and Bill Clinton--as well as George W. Bush's first year in office--he demolishes the view that the United States has failed to devise a replacement for containment as a basis for foreign policy. He finds instead that successive post-Cold War administrations have adhered to a well-defined "strategy of openness." Motivated by the imperative of economic expansionism, that strategy aims to foster an open and integrated international order, thereby perpetuating the undisputed primacy of the world's sole remaining superpower. Moreover, openness is not a new strategy, but has been an abiding preoccupation of policymakers as far back as Woodrow Wilson. Although based on expectations that eliminating barriers to the movement of trade, capital, and ideas nurtures not only affluence but also democracy, the aggressive pursuit of openness has met considerable resistance. To overcome that resistance, U.S. policymakers have with increasing frequency resorted to force, and military power has emerged as never before as the preferred instrument of American statecraft, resulting in the progressive militarization of U.S. foreign policy. Neither indictment nor celebration, American Empire sees the drive for openness for what it is--a breathtakingly ambitious project aimed at erecting a global imperium. Large questions remain about that project's feasibility and about the human, financial, and moral costs that it will entail. By penetrating the illusions obscuring the reality of U.S. policy, this book marks an essential first step toward finding the answers. Table of Contents: Preface Introduction 1. The Myth of the Reluctant Superpower 2. Globalization and Its Conceits 3. Policy by Default 4. Strategy of Openness 5. Full Spectrum Dominance 6. Gunboats and Gurkhas 7. Rise of the Proconsuls 8. Different Drummers, Same Drum 9. War for the Imperium Notes Acknowledgments Index Reviews of this book: [A] straightforward "critical interpretation of American statecraft in the 1990s"...he is straightforward, too, in establishing where he stands on the political spectrum about US foreign policy...Bacevich insists that there are no differences in the key assumptions governing the foreign policy of the administrations of Bush I, Clinton, and Bush II--and this will certainly be the subject of passionate debate...Bacevich's argument persuades...by means of engaging prose as well as the compelling and relentless accumulation of detail...Bring[s] badly needed [perspective] to troubled times. --James A. Miller, Boston Globe Reviews of this book: For everyone there's Andrew Bacevich's American Empire, an intelligent, elegantly written, highly convincing polemic that demonstrates how the motor of US foreign policy since independence has been the need to guarantee economic growth. --Dominick Donald, The Guardian Reviews of this book: Andrew Bacevich's remarkably clear, cool-headed, and enlightening book is an expression of the United States' unadmitted imperial primacy. It's as bracing as a plunge into a clear mountain lake after exposure to the soporific internationalist conventional wisdom...Bacevich performs an invaluable service by restoring missing historical context and perspective to today's shallow, hand-wringing discussion of Sept. 11...Bacevich's brave, intelligent book restores our vocabulary to debate anew the United States' purpose in the world. --Richard J. Whalen, Across the Board Reviews of this book: To say that Andrew Bacevich's American Empire is a truly realistic work of realism is therefore to declare it not only a very good book, but also a pretty rare one. The author, a distinguished former soldier, combines a tough-minded approach to the uses of military force with a grasp of American history that is both extremely knowledgeable and exceptionally clear-sighted. This book is indispensable for anyone who wants to understand the background to U.S. world hegemony at the start of the 21st century; and it is also a most valuable warning about the dangers into which the pursuit and maintenance of this hegemony may lead America. --Anatol Levin, Washington Monthly Reviews of this book: American Empire is an immensely thoughtful book. Its reflections go beyond the narrow realm of U.S. security policy and demonstrate a deep understanding of American history and culture. --David Hastings Dunn, Political Studies Review I have long suspected our nation's triumphs and trials owed much to the American genius for solipsism and self-deception. Bacevich has convinced me of it by holding up a mirror to self-styled idealists and realists alike. Read all the books you want about the post-Cold War, post-9/11 world, just be sure American Empire is one of them. --Walter A. McDougall, Pulitzer Prize-winning historian, University of Pennsylvania This deeply informed, impressive polemical book is precisely what Americans, in and outside of the academy, needed before 9/11 and need now even more. Crisp, lively, biting prose will help them enjoy it. Among its many themes are hubris, hegemony, and the fatuousness of claims by the American military that they can now achieve 'transparency' in war-making. --Michael S. Sherry, Northwestern University The United States could not possibly have an empire, Americans think. But we do. And with verve and telling insight Andrew Bacevich shows how it works and what it means. --Ronald Steel, author of Temptations of a Superpower: America's Foreign Policy after the Cold War
Download or read book The Rise and Decline of the American Empire written by M. Y. Demeri and published by Archway Publishing. This book was released on 2015-03-17 with total page 330 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The United States rose from a modest colonial power to a formidable world superpower, but then it went into decline. M. Y. Demeri traces the major events that allowed a loosely held league of thirteen British colonies to become a union of fifty states spanning the North American continent as well as Alaska and Hawaii. The nation would revolutionize world arts, science, technology, space exploration, and lead the digital revolutionall while promoting the ideals of democracy, freedom, and liberty. But it also contributed to global conflicts, a nuclear arms race, political upheavals, and the financial collapse of world markets. To this day, it has failed to live up to its promise of turning economic success and prosperity into social progress. With more than two hundred charts and tables, this book examines where America has been, what led to its decline, and how a rising deficit, soaring health care and Social Security costs, national security concerns, and miscarriages of social justice pushed it into decline. More importantly, however, it offers solutions to reverse course before we witness the end of The Rise and Decline of the American Empire.
Download or read book The American Empire written by John C. Davenport and published by Chelsea House Pub. This book was released on 2007 with total page 152 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Presents a collection of essays that look at the origins of American imperialism, the influence the United States has overseas, and the future of imperialism.
Download or read book American Empire written by A. G. Hopkins and published by Princeton University Press. This book was released on 2019-08-27 with total page 1002 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Compelling, provocative, and learned. This book is a stunning and sophisticated reevaluation of the American empire. Hopkins tells an old story in a truly new way--American history will never be the same again."--Jeremi Suri, author of The Impossible Presidency: The Rise and Fall of America's Highest Office.Office.
Download or read book Empire as a Way of Life written by William Appleman Williams and published by Ig Publishing. This book was released on 2007 with total page 230 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Influential historian William Appleman Williams' groundbreaking work highlights imperialism as the central theme in American political and cultural history. Analysing more than 225 years of American history, from the Founding Fathers to the dawn of the Reagan era, Williams shows how America has always been addicted to empire in its foreign and domestic ideology.
Download or read book Winning Modern Wars written by Wesley Clark and published by . This book was released on 2003-10-16 with total page 248 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Discusses America's involvement in Iraq, including the risks, triumphs, and repercussions, and offers alternatives to future dealings with Iraq and the War on Terrorism.
Download or read book This Violent Empire written by Carroll Smith-Rosenberg and published by UNC Press Books. This book was released on 2012-12-01 with total page 512 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This Violent Empire traces the origins of American violence, racism, and paranoia to the founding moments of the new nation and the initial instability of Americans' national sense of self. Fusing cultural and political analyses to create a new form of political history, Carroll Smith-Rosenberg explores the ways the founding generation, lacking a common history, governmental infrastructures, and shared culture, solidified their national sense of self by imagining a series of "Others" (African Americans, Native Americans, women, the propertyless) whose differences from European American male founders overshadowed the differences that divided those founders. These "Others," dangerous and polluting, had to be excluded from the European American body politic. Feared, but also desired, they refused to be marginalized, incurring increasingly enraged enactments of their political and social exclusion that shaped our long history of racism, xenophobia, and sexism. Close readings of political rhetoric during the Constitutional debates reveal the genesis of this long history.
Download or read book The Rise and Decline of the American Empire written by Mahmoud Y Demeri and published by Independently Published. This book was released on 2015-03-16 with total page 400 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The United States rose from a modest colonial power to a formidable world superpower, but then it went into decline. The book traces the major events that allowed a loosely held league of thirteen British colonies to become a union of fifty states spanning the North American Continent as well as Alaska and Hawaii. The nation would revolutionize world arts, science, technology, space exploration, and lead the digital revolution- all while promoting the ideals of democracy, freedom, and liberty. But it also contributed to global conflicts, a nuclear arms race, political upheavals, and the financial collapse of world markets. To this day, it has failed to live up to its promise of turning economic success and prosperity into social progress. With more than two hundred charts and tables, this book examines where America has been, what led to its decline, and how a rising budget deficit, soaring health care, and Social Security costs, national security concerns, and miscarriages of social justice pushed it into decline. More importantly, however, it offers ideas and solutions to reverse the decline of the American Empire.
Download or read book The American Empire written by Richard W. Van Alstyne and published by . This book was released on 1960 with total page 28 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book The Great American Empire Or Gen Ulysses S Grant Emperor of North America written by American Citizen and published by Legare Street Press. This book was released on 2023-07-18 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: What if Ulysses S. Grant had declared himself Emperor of North America after the Civil War? This satirical novel explores that premise, weaving together elements of politics, history, and science fiction to create a thought-provoking alternate reality that reverberates with relevance to this day. This work has been selected by scholars as being culturally important, and is part of the knowledge base of civilization as we know it. This work is in the "public domain in the United States of America, and possibly other nations. Within the United States, you may freely copy and distribute this work, as no entity (individual or corporate) has a copyright on the body of the work. Scholars believe, and we concur, that this work is important enough to be preserved, reproduced, and made generally available to the public. We appreciate your support of the preservation process, and thank you for being an important part of keeping this knowledge alive and relevant.
Download or read book How to Hide an Empire written by Daniel Immerwahr and published by Farrar, Straus and Giroux. This book was released on 2019-02-19 with total page 372 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Named one of the ten best books of the year by the Chicago Tribune A Publishers Weekly best book of 2019 | A 2019 NPR Staff Pick A pathbreaking history of the United States’ overseas possessions and the true meaning of its empire We are familiar with maps that outline all fifty states. And we are also familiar with the idea that the United States is an “empire,” exercising power around the world. But what about the actual territories—the islands, atolls, and archipelagos—this country has governed and inhabited? In How to Hide an Empire, Daniel Immerwahr tells the fascinating story of the United States outside the United States. In crackling, fast-paced prose, he reveals forgotten episodes that cast American history in a new light. We travel to the Guano Islands, where prospectors collected one of the nineteenth century’s most valuable commodities, and the Philippines, site of the most destructive event on U.S. soil. In Puerto Rico, Immerwahr shows how U.S. doctors conducted grisly experiments they would never have conducted on the mainland and charts the emergence of independence fighters who would shoot up the U.S. Congress. In the years after World War II, Immerwahr notes, the United States moved away from colonialism. Instead, it put innovations in electronics, transportation, and culture to use, devising a new sort of influence that did not require the control of colonies. Rich with absorbing vignettes, full of surprises, and driven by an original conception of what empire and globalization mean today, How to Hide an Empire is a major and compulsively readable work of history.
Download or read book The Fall of the American Empire written by Jerry Bailey and published by Wheatmark, Inc.. This book was released on 2007-04 with total page 98 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "The Fall of the American Empire" not only asks thought-provoking questions about the state of the nation, but also proposes solutions to make the country prosper in the 21st century.
