In his review today of Walter Nugent's new book,
Habits of Empire: A History of American Expansion, John
Steele Gordon praises the first two, strictly historical sections
of the book, but then unloads on Nugent over his final section, a
postscript on the U.S. in the world since WWII, calling it both
"highly tendentious" and "simply...silly." Read on:
To describe globalization as nothing more than American
economic imperialism is ludicrous. He might at least have noted
that globalization has enormously enriched the entire world, not
just the United States....
In short, he buys completely into the visceral anti-Americanism,
seeing American self-aggrandizing imperialism everywhere while
scarcely noting that the free world was engaged in a decades-long,
worldwide struggle against a ruthless tyranny.
In all, "Habits of Empire" is an excellent book as long as one
ignores the historical claptrap of the postscript, which is an
embarrassment to the author and publisher and an insult to the
reader.
What is noteworthy is that these sentiments are being expressed
not in the Washington Times, but in the New York
Times.
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