Book Review Folder - 2008

On first glance God and Gold might seem to be a typical triumphalist school of history production about the glorious rise of the Anglo-Americans and their victories over lesser peoples. However, the reader who takes a second look will recognize that Walter Russell Mead has created a wide-ranging and fascinating examination of world history over the last three hundred years or so that, while it does praise the strengths of the Anglophones or Wasps, is not blind to their short comings or to the achievements of other peoples.

I found this book fascinating on many levels. Its a superb work of history, making deft comparisons and drawing excellent and elaborate parallels. The analogies are clear and highly illuminating. Mead is thought provoking and astute in his assessments. I appreciated the attention paid to the role played by organized religions and the reassessment and validation of earlier historians' theses on Protestantism and Christianity. Most of all, I enjoyed the many literary references and analogies, particularly the Carrollian theme of the Walrus and the Carpenter that runs through the book.

Mead can be harsh in his criticisms, particularly of the foolish vainglory of the Bush Administration over the last few years, but overall the book is hopeful and optimistic in its assessment of the past and predictions for the future.


“Persuasively optimistic . . . he knows more theology and church than do most public intellectuals, and more Anglo-American history than do many of the more theologically learned; this makes for an interesting combination.”
-American Heritage

“Entertaining . . .”
-The Economist

“Walter Mead’s new book is both delightful and outrageous: delightful in his mischievous, well-chosen use of poems, pamphlets, and political speeches to illustrate his arguments; and outrageous in the proper sense of the word–for it will outrage lots of readers: American know-nothings who assume life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness only began in 1776; liberal Brits who will be furious at the idea that they are the true and only forebears of our neocons’ obsession with changing the world and making a profit from it; and foreigners everywhere, especially in French-speaking and Arabic-speaking countries, who will have their worst historical myth confirmed, that the Anglo-Saxons have been intent on dominating world affairs for at least the past four centuries and have no plans to give up the habit now.”
-Paul Kennedy

“Ingenious . . . Mead enlivens the text with numerous amusing and illustrative anecdotes, artful literary allusions and helpful invocations of great historians and philosophers. A remarkable piece of historical analysis bound to provoke discussion and argument in foreign-policy circles.”
-Kirkus

“Walter Russell Mead has done it again. With his distinctive sweep and penetration, America's premier archeologist of ideas and their consequences unearths the cultural roots of large political movements and developments. Readers of this scintillating volume will see the modern world afresh.”
-George F. Will

"Walter Russell Mead has written yet another fascinating, thought-provoking book about America's global role. Mead weaves together history, theology, economics and politics to tell the story of the rise of the English speaking peoples and the world that they made. Churchill would have approved."
-Fareed Zakaria

Book Description

An illuminating account of the birth and rise of the global political and economic system that, sustained first by Britain and now by America, created the modern world.

Walter Russell Mead, one of our most distinguished foreign policy experts, makes clear that the key to the predominance of the two countries has been the individualistic ideology of the prevailing Anglo-American religion. Mead explains how this helped create a culture uniquely adapted to capitalism, a system under which both countries thrived. We see how, as a result, the two nations were able to create the liberal, democratic system whose economic and social influence continues to grow around the world.

With wit, verve, and stunning insight, Mead recounts what is, in effect, the story of a centuries-long war between the English-speaking peoples and their enemies. Sustained by control of the oceans that surround them, the British and their American heirs built a global system of politics, power, investment, and trade over the past three hundred years. Along the way, the two nations developed a sophisticated grand strategy that brought the English-speaking powers to a pinnacle of global power and prestige unmatched in the history of the world.

Since Oliver Cromwell's day, the English-speakers have seen their enemies as haters of liberty and God who care nothing for morality, who will do anything to win, and who rely on a treacherous fifth column to assure victory. Those enemies, from Catholic Spain and Louis XIV to the Nazis, communists, and Al-Qaeda, held similar beliefs about their British and American rivals, but we see that though the Anglo-Americans have lost small wars here and there, they have won the major conflicts. So far.

The stakes today are higher than ever; technological progress makes new and terrible weapons easier for rogue states and terror groups to develop and deploy. Where some see an end to history and others a clash of civilizations, Mead sees the current conflicts in the Middle East as the latest challenge to the liberal, capitalist, and democratic world system that the Anglo-Americans are trying to build. What we need now, he says, is a diplomacy of civlizations based on a deeper understanding of the recurring conflicts between the liberal world system and its foes. In practice, this means that Americans generally, and especially the increasingly influential evangelical community, must develop a better sense of America's place in the world.

Mead's emphasis on the English-speaking world as the chief hero (and sometimes villain) in modern history changes the way we see the world. Authoritative and lucid, God and Gold weaves history, literature, philosophy, and religion together into an eminently important work—a dazzling book that helps us understand the world we live in and our tumultuous times.

The way we understand death—and the possibilities of an afterlife—are at the center of an inchoate movement that started after World War II and, without a leader or a formal structure, has grown to influence every aspect of American life, from religion to politics to economics. Although this "movement" is generally regarded as Christian Fundamentalist, Shorris argues that it is far more widespread. He offers a historical perspective on religion in the U.S., from Calvinist doctrine marrying religion and capitalism to the conservative modern-day gospels as preached by Billy Graham and Jerry Falwell. Drawing on research and interviews with political figures and advisors, academics, and theologians, Shorris examines the confluence of history, philosophy, experiences, and "elemental feelings" that have gained enough momentum to become a movement of the fearful. Fear has led to a pessimism that is driving decisions about who we elect to the presidency, how we approach global warming, and how we view the poor. Shorris eloquently offers a penetrating and unsettling look at American fear birthed by the horrors of the atom bomb and nurtured by 9/11 that promises to have an enduring impact on global and domestic policy for generations to come. Bush, Vanessa

Book Description
An unsettling account of the events, ideas, and minds behind the nameless political movement that governs America today.

The movement transcends political parties, has no formal structure, no acknowledged leaders, and no sworn loyalty except to God, whose will it interprets according to its fears and desires. Yet it is not an abstraction. It elects our presidents and legislatures and informs their decisions while in office.

The movement started at the end of World War II when nuclear weapons, the Holocaust, and then the Cold War led to the fear of mass death that infected American views of justice, ethics, and global politics. It gradually replaced the New Deal.

As conversations with religious and political leaders, churchgoers, and pollsters make clear, after 9/11 the nation became increasingly pessimistic. Americans more than ever embraced simplistic, self-serving solutions to questions of personal and national destiny.

To regain the best in the American character, we must recognize the existence of a new national movement, define it, and learn how it grows. This book is a first step.

The role of religion in politics is a subject whose time has come. Of the several books treating it that have come out this year, Earl Shorris' "The Politics of Heaven: America in Fearful Times" is the most comprehensive and rewarding. Even those who are most conscientious about doing their political homework will gain new insights from the meticulous research and trustworthy analysis of this beautifully written treatise.

Many have written and commented on the present state of America, one in which much pessimism reigns about the future of this republic in the face of terrorism, imperial misadventure, and sheer incompetence in its leaders. Many have also remarked on the seeming turn to religion and apocalypticism both as a solution and a cause of the malaise. But Earl Shorris believes that every problem has a distant intellectual cause and he discovers the cause of our present danger in the thought of Plato, Leon Strauss, and Alasdair MacIntyre. The last two thinkers are little known, Strauss the supposed godfather of neoconservatism and MacIntyre a convert to the outmoded thought and faith of Thomas Aquinas. You might have thought Plato would have been good enough as a target.

Shorris is an accomplished student of the classics but in his attempt to find in the classics an explanation of the current climate of opinion, which he labels without a real name THE MOVEMENT, he demonstrates yet again how far from reality an intellectual can get when he refuses to leave his study and his books.

Shorris correctly finds much hypocrisy and false religion in the Evangelical stranglehold on the politics of both political parties but he naively thinks that a return to the Social Gospel can lead to a proper place for Christianity in the life of the American Republic. Little does he understand that the appeal of Christian fundamentalism owes its power to the lack of real education in America about what Christianity was at its outset and how it became the greatest hoax of civilization. Emancipation from religion is the answer, not a renewed perusal of outdated eschatological dicta and insights. Americans need to be weaned from Christianity, not given new opium potions laced with social religion.

I have truly never read a book so misguided, so confused, and so wrong-headed than this one, despite the credentials of its author. It is an example of how our current malaise can totally disorient even someone with intellectual powers above the average, way above the average.

"A brilliant contribution to the American foreign policy debate."—Anatol Lieven, New York Times Book Review

At a time when America's dominance abroad was being tested like never before, Taming American Power provided for the first time a "rigorous critique of current U.S. strategy" (Washington Post Book World) from the vantage point of its fiercest opponents. Stephen M. Walt examines America's place as the world's singular superpower and the strategies that rival states have devised to counter it. Hailed as a "landmark book" by Foreign Affairs, Taming American Power makes the case that this ever-increasing tide of opposition not only could threaten America's ability to achieve its foreign policy goals today but also may undermine its dominant position in years to come.

About the Author
Stephen M. Walt is the academic dean and the Robert and Renée Belfer Professor of International Affairs at Harvard University's John F. Kennedy School of Government. He lives in Brookline, Massachusetts.

Walt is a long-time proponent of Realism in international relations, publishing especially in the journal International Relations. This is his latest brief for U.S. foreign policy, and not only is it a rebuke of the Bush Administration's disastrous war on Iraq, "GWOT," and "preemptive war doctrine," which of course is really *preventive*, offensive war, but it outlines a more sensible course of action -- a strategy based on Realist principles.

The bulk of the book examines how the rest of the world is actually responding to U.S. primacy, and why, from the eminently logical point of view that countries pursue their own interests, not ours. Walt looks at examples of the whole range of possibilities, from balancing (including asymmetric strategies), to "balking" (footdragging), "binding" (to alliances, institutions and norms), and delegitimation (what we call in sociology a "framing" strategy), in the cases of Europe, China, Russia, Arab states, and the whole cast of characters on the world stage.

Only at the end, based on this primer on Realist analysis, does Walt turn to his eminently sensible prognosis for U.S. foreign policy. He indicts the failed Global Hegemony strategy of the Bush Administration, which has led to active attempts by virtually everyone else to counter the U.S. After a brief survey of the Selective Engagement strategy of the Bush Sr. and Clinton Administrations, he recommends a return to Offshore Balancing, which was U.S. strategy through most of its history, and which Walt says is perfectly suited to this (no doubt temporary) period of U.S. primacy. Offshore Balancing is not isolationism, but it would minimize permanent commitments and bases in places like Europe and Asia where our allies should take up their share of the common burden, and will in their own interest if forced to, according to Realist theory.

In lamenting the feckless Bush Administration policies that have put the U.S. in a deep hole in terms of its international standing and alliances, Walt observes that the U.S. is "a remarkably immature Great Power," and that "Americans remain remarkably ignorant of the world" (p. 245). In contrast to the spate of immature, ignorant books currently flooding the market, calling for a global War on Islam, among other amazing hare-brained ideas, TAMING AMERICAN POWER is a refreshing voice of sanity.

Ask folks outside the US if there is something wrong with it and what that is, and chances are that you'll get a good many little piece of the big puzzle characterizing the relationship between the US and the World. Since the "mission accomplished" moment, similar pieces have made it in the US media taxonomy, as high up as editorials. It is the merit of Stephen Walt's, to have been gathered a lot of little pieces in a framework that would capture the situation like this: 1) Why other states fear the US primacy? 2) What strategies can states pursue in response to US primacy? 3) What can the US do about #2? If not much can be debated about points #1 and #2 in Walt's framework, point #3 comes along the lines of a growing conversation meant to supplant the neocon doctrine, as the latter one loses steam by the day.It should be briefly noted that the answer to point #3 had preoccupied the US foreign policy makers even before the neocon doctrine - recall Clinton's 'indispensable nation.'

The relative novelty Professor Walt brings into consideration, when looking for answers to point #3, is the need for openness and public debate about the activity of political lobbies - especially those steering the US foreign policy. Michael Scheuer might have been the first one, in this round, to raise awareness about political lobbies as factor influencing the US foreign policy. However, it is only now that we have a proposal on how to deal with the shortcomings of what, Walt reminds us, is a fundamental feature of the American democracy - interest groups. It should also be added that, in a recent report on overall nations' business competitiveness, released by The World Economic Forum, the US occupies only the second place due also to the perceived negative influence of business lobbies on government policy. So, here we have a complementary instance where interest groups, the same ones Tocqueville was first to write about, are exacting their price on the American system.

I would sum up the value of this book in terms of: (a) Taking a snapshot of the world's perception of the US through the lens of the American foreign policy; (b) Building a framework of the relationships between the US and the other nations; (c) Bringing to public attention several prescriptions for maintaining US primacy while addressing (some of) the world's concerns. As for Walt's prescriptions for US foreign policy, the part of the book that's open widest to debate, only time will tell what and how. Somehow, I have a feeling, the next executive is taking notice.

For those still undecided customers, have a look at "Taming American Power," an article the author published in Sept/Oct issue of Foreign Affairs.

As the failures of the "Bush Doctrine" of preventative war become more obvious by the day, the foreign-policy elite - except for a few neocon holdouts - are already looking to steer foreign policy back towards America's traditional grand strategy - namely, the realist approach. Neocons will argue that the realist approach is no longer viable since 9/11, but as we can see the neocon strategy has had many shortcomings. Proponent of the realist school, Professor Stephen M. Walt has written a very sober analysis of our current situation and points to where we should go from here.

After 9/11, the Bush administration conducted foreign policy as if American power was the only thing that counted in the international arena. In responding to this "imperial hubris," other countries adopted a variety of strategies to counter this power, strategies ranging from opposition to accomodation. As more and more countries became uncomfortable with American power, they will either try to coalition against it or try to cozy up to it in order to influence it. In either case, the American strategy of "global hegemony," as Walt calls it, is not working.

The strategy that Walt outlines for America in this book is called "offshore balancing." According to Walt, America should only be concerned with the security of regions of vital interest: namely, Europe, the Persian Gulf, and East Asia. This approach recognizes that the US cannot control these areas directly, rather it would partner with friendly local powers. This is not isolationist since the US would also be engaged through international organizations such as the UN, NATO, and the WTO. Also, significantly, this strategy would not seek to impose democracy on other countries. It is basically a strategy of minding our own business and acting less threatening to others.

The problems with this strategy are numerous. How do we disarm nuclear proliferation, counter the terrorism of non-state actors, or how do we stop genocide or mass murder? The answer, according to Walt, is through multilateral institutions and regional allies. Not only would this reduce the need for the American military, it would, more importantly, preserve the legitimacy of American actions. This may be troublesome for those who still cherish the unencumbered excercise of American power, but it should not be forgotten - nor mentioned too often - that unilateralism is always an option when our vital interests are threatened. Walt has presented us with a foreign policy that will make us not only more popular, but also more powerful.

HH_pink wrote:Oh no, not again.

Demelza wrote:We've got the video with the very sexy voice of Paul Nicholas.

Not as good as Postman Pat, who is my absolute fave.

taipan wrote:

Demelza wrote:We've got the video with the very sexy voice of Paul Nicholas.

Not as good as Postman Pat, who is my absolute fave.

Ah but do you know Postman Pat's name before he became a postman?

Demelza wrote:Funniest thing I've seen in ages.
Thanks for that!

tac wrote:Here's one for you, Doggeroo . . .

Demelza wrote:

tac wrote:Here's one for you, Doggeroo . . .

Of course, the Irish version is Pat the Dog.