After the Empire: The Breakdown of the American Order (European Perspectives: A Series in Social Thought and Cultural Criticism) (Hardcover)

~ (Author), C. Jon Delogu (Translator), Michael Lind (Foreword) "A catastrophic view of the world has dominated Western perceptions in the last ten to fifteen years..." (more)
Key Phrases: imperial option, anthropological system, anthropological base, United States, Great Britain, Central Asia (more...)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

A bestseller in Europe, this provocative but erratic manifesto stands Euro-anxiety about American hegemony on its head. French demographer Todd (The Final Fall: An Essay on the Decomposition of the Soviet Sphere) cites Paul Kennedy's theory of imperial overstretch and Michael Lind's notion of the American overclass to paint America as a "predatory" but weakening empire, its unilateralism and militarism a sign of frailty, not strength. Misguided free trade policies, he contends, have hollowed out America's industrial base and decimated its working and middle classes, polarizing the country into a society of plutocrats and plebeians. Dependent on imports, America has degenerated into a parasitic, Keynesian consumer-of-last-resort, injecting demand into the world economy while producing nothing of value. To mask its decline, America pursues a foreign policy of "theatrical micromilitarism," picking fights with helpless Third World countries like Iraq to convince the world's real power centers-Europe, Japan and Russia-of its military prowess and validate its spurious image as global policeman. Written in a witty polemical style, Todd's grand but cursory arguments range across economics, military history and geopolitics in ways that might make specialists cringe. Particularly reductionist is his demographic and anthropological view of political science, in which birth and literacy rates and peasant family structures are virtually the sole determinants of a society's politics (but, it should be noted, he used declining birth rates in the Soviet Union to predict its downfall). Todd's eccentric views-on the American trade deficit, the racial attitudes of "the Anglo-Saxon mind," the prevalence of marriages between cousins in Islamic countries, the "castrating" feminism of American women-pull in too many directions to be classified as right or left. His characterization of the United States may hold more than a grain of truth, but some readers might bristle before they see it.
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From Booklist

Todd, a researcher at the French National Institute for Demographic Studies, has authored numerous books, one of which (The Final Fall, 1979) predicted the collapse of the Soviet Union well before it came to pass. Now he has written what may be the most important work since Francis Fukuyama's The End of History and the Last Man (1992), positing that the U.S., despite its apparent position as the unipolar power of the planet, is overextended--our trade deficit is currently $500 billion per year, which means that the rest of the world is financing our consumerism. Todd is above all a demographer, and he bases much of his opinion on statistical elements--declining birth rates in the Soviet Union first cued him in to the country's approaching doom. So he notes some disturbing American phenomena, such as rising stratification based on educational credentials, and the "obsolescence of unreformable political institutions." In the end, he believes the U.S. should return to its nineteenth-century civilian, republican roots, and that Europe should follow that impulse. Already a best-seller in Europe, this book is destined to be much talked about and analyzed. Allen Weakland
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 192 pages
• Publisher: Columbia University Press (February 15, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 023113102X
• ISBN-13: 978-0231131025
• Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 5.7 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (41 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #797,414 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

116 of 135 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Frechie Skewers Drunken-Sailor Diplomacy, and more..., March 13, 2004

By	Jeremy Raymondjack (Roslindale, MA USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

For Americans used to reading narcissitic volumes from either the right or the left, this book is fantastic. I don't pretend to know the economic trajectories of Russia, or the politcal contours of Japan, or other such wide-ranging topics; so I can't say whether his interpretation of the global picture is correct or not.

But what I can say is that many of his characterizations of America ring true. He calls the US the "arsonist-fireman" of the globe, stirring up trouble in little countries just so we (well, Bechtel and Halliburton really, but close enough) can then ride in on the white horse and fix everything that we broke. His description of our foreign policy since the end of the Cold War as "drunken-sailor diplomacy" (a kind of clumsy, non-unified staggering about the planet) is a refreshing antidote to the usual elite conspiracy theories of the American left.

But maybe most importantly, and probably what offends many of the reviewers here, is that Todd doesn't take America all that seriously. He certainly DOES acknowledge our military might (save the Army) and relative economic security at the moment, inegalitarian as it may be. But he feels that the general policy direction that American leaders have taken (both Democrats and Republicans) will render the United States increasingly superfluous. And I would have to agree. The end of the Cold War provided an opportunity to dismantle most of our military and turn our focus back inwards, towards self-sufficiency and ecological sustainability. But instead, we have preserved our Cold War global military reach (over 700 acknowledged military bases in over 130 countries), fudged around both openly and covertly in countries everywhere, morphed the evil communism threat into an evil network of satanic terrorists, and allowed a regal corporate plutocracy to emerge at home.

As American citizens, it's our job to throw out the bozos, both Republicans and Democrats, who are leading this country into irrelevance. Rising per capita income and American corporate competitiveness doesn't help the US if all the rewards are reaped by the elite, leaving the rabble with obese bodies, swollen prisons, 4-hour daily commutes, and negative net worth (all realities right now for many Americans).

Be brave! Buy this book, read it, and pass it on. It's a new perspective worth considering. Besides, all those Germans and Frenchmen can't be wrong.

28 of 32 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent Analysis of What I Have Feared For Many Years, May 2, 2004

By A Customer

I have feared the great dependence of the U.S. on purchases of our Treasury Bills by the very nations that support our overindulgences as a nation. It has been obvious that they must loan money to the U.S. in the form of treasury bills in order for us to purchase their goods. My fear has revolved around what happens when these nations stop buying the treasuries or even worse when they start selling them. While the author does not address the treasury problem directly, he develops a thesis that supports my fears. He spends a lot of time developing a thesis of the world becoming fed up with U.S. militarism being used to protect us from our economic weaknesses. As a result, he foresees an eventual Europe, Russia, and Japan axis of world power. Russia is part of the axis as an oil and gas producer, but most important of all because it will be the nuclear deterrent against the U.S. He acknowledges China's growing strength, but does not address how they will fit into the puzzle. While the author's conclusions may appear somewhat farfetched, one cannot come away with a feeling after reading this book that something of the order of what he proposes could come true.

The fact that this book was a bestseller in France and Germany is reason enough for Americans to read this book.

38 of 45 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Let's Hope This Man Is Right, October 5, 2004

By	I. A. de Petrovsky (currently in Australia) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Similarly to Todd himself, I found myself over the years the sole defender of America to most of my friends throughout Europe and Australasia. There was a time when I hoped that my country, the UK, would join with the US and abandon any moves towards Europe. However, as Todd points out, much has changed. America the once semi-democratic nation that defended the 'free-world' has now become a problem itself. As some of the American reviewers here demonstrate admirably, the mass of American people are woefully ignorant of most things outside their sphere of day to day life. Flying to the UK just a few weeks ago, the Canadian man sitting next to me explained how being able to receive both US and Canadian news channels he could see how little information the American people were actually getting from their networks. America is rapidly turning into a neo-fascist monolith full of frightened, ignorant and corpulent individuals.

What is clearly needed is a complete restructuring of the American media so that at least the people will be able to make informed decisions based on fact and not propaganda. If America wishes to be the 'hyperpower' that many in the current administration already believe it to be - it must earn this right from the rest of the world because, contrary to popular neo-conservative belief, the rest of the world will not allow a militant America to stormtroop across the globe at whim.

Todd's book admirably provides us with the alternative scenario if America is unable to change. It's well worth reading - particularly if you are an American because your great nation has produced so many wonderful individuals in the past who have helped to make the world a much better place, and it would be a veritable tragedy to throw all this away with abandon. The heart and soul of America appears to be under intense internal threat from a fusion of the Straussian ideologues in the White House, and the right-wing fundamentalist Christians of the Dominionism heresy. It's imperative that mainstream Americans grab their country back with urgency so that we can welcome them with open arms back into the international arena. Hopefully Todd's book will help to urge them on.