Against Empire [Paperback]

Michael Parenti (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 1, 1995

Richly informed and written in an engaging style, Against Empire exposes the ruthless agenda and hidden costs of the U.S. empire today. Documenting the pretexts and lies used to justify violent intervention and maldevelopment abroad, Parenti shows how the conversion to a global economy is a victory of finance capital over democracy.

As much of the world suffers unspeakable misery and the Third-Worldization of the United States accelerates, civil society is impoverished by policies that benefit rich and powerful transnational corporations and the national security state. Hard-won gains made by ordinary people are swept away.

Editorial Reviews

Review

Against Empire focuses on exposing the agenda and costs of U. S. expansion in the world and documents the lies used to justify violent intervention in world politics, considering how economics plays into political decision-making process and providing a strong case for considering past wrongs and future changes. An excellent, strong title. -- Midwest Book Review

About the Author

Michael Parenti, PhD Yale, is an internationally known author and lecturer. He is one of the nation's leadiing progressive political analysts. He is the author of over 250 published articles and seventeen books. His writings are published in popular periodicals, scholarly journals, and his op-ed pieces have been in leading newspapers such as the New York Times and the Los Angeles Times. His informative and entertaining books and talks have reached a wide range of audiences in North America and abroad.

Product Details

• Paperback: 217 pages
• Publisher: City Lights Publishers; Reprint edition (May 1, 1995)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0872862984
• ISBN-13: 978-0872862982
• Product Dimensions: 8 x 5.5 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 9 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (16 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #219,739 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Michael Parenti (Berkeley, CA) is the acclaimed author of more than twenty books, including, most recently, Contrary Notions: The Michael Parenti Reader; The Assassination of Julius Caesar; and The Culture Struggle. The New York Times Book Review, the Washington Post, the New York Review of Books, Harper's, The Nation, and Antioch Review, are among the countless publications that have praised Parenti's work. For further information, visit his Web site: michaelparenti.org

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

39 of 42 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Devastating despite its briefness, August 1, 2000

By 

Douglas Doepke (Claremont, CA United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Against Empire (Paperback)

Parenti's "Against Empire" packs a lot of clout in a small space. The book serves as a devastating critique of our foreign policy illusions. Simply put: The image is democracy; The reality is imperialism. Parenti is probably the most consistent high-profile academic courageous enough to trace public policy to class interest. Noam Chomsky is also a high-profile and consistent critic of American imperialism, but he refrains from either using the word or from offering a class analysis. Parenti takes the analysis one step further. One might fault this book for being short on documentation, but those familiar with Parenti's works understand the documentation is present in his other, more narrowly-focused books. Thus, "Against Empire" serves as something of an introduction to the author's invaluable other works.

One of the book's more personal chapters concerns empire in academia with which professor Parenti has first-hand experience. His discussion of quiet and sometimes noisy faculty purges gives the lie to illusions of free speech in academe. He makes clear that if department heads won't oust politically troublesome faculty, then trustees - usually made up of business elites and political appointees - will do the dirty work. One way or the other, empire requires that class conscious teachers must be kept from talking to students about the systematic effects of wealth and imperialism on their lives.

Parenti's exposure of capitalism-disguised-as-democracy is refreshing. Because of capital's tainted and bloody history, empire's propagandists couch their defenses in terms of democratic ideals rather than the more truthful money-grubbing imperatives of actual policy making. Fed a steady dose of this doubletalk, an uncritical public either repeats the idealizing refrain, or, if more critical, becomes cynical about politics in general. Either way, a potentially restive voting public is effectively neutralized. Far from expressing anything like a popular will, capitalist-style democracy subverts this will into a management technique of directing and controlling popular dissent. When anything like popular will challenges empire's basic institutions (as in the case of Vietnam), force can and will be used against it. In practice, American capital prefers the control mechanism of cosmetic democracy to direct authoritarian rule. But it will never sacrifice its narrow class interests to a reality of popular sovereignty. Agree or disagree, this is a work to ponder.

35 of 41 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Parenti Cuts Through The Veil Of Illusion, July 20, 1997

By A Customer

This review is from: Against Empire (Paperback)

I've been reading Parenti's books for a couple of years, and seeking out his articles and lectures. Reading Against Empire was my first exposure to the man. He characterizes the United States as an Empire, in the classic sense, demolishes your ability to look at your country in any other way, and then goes on to discuss practically every aspect of US foreign and domestic policy in terms of how it serves an active and malignant Empire. His class anaylsis makes itr impossible to ever again percieve U.S. roles in world finance, war, humanitarian missions, etc the same way again. Before, I wondered why we might intervene here but not there, why a war at this time and not another, etc. Parenti cuts through the mystery and exposes again and again the class interests that drive our policy. And he does so in blunt, sometimes deadpan humor and with a remarkably clear vision. Also read his new book, Blackshirts and Reds, about fascism. And if you get a chance, order tapes of his lectures

14 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Truth has many faces, usually away from extremism, May 6, 2002

By 

Emanuele - See all my reviews

This review is from: Against Empire (Paperback)

The writer from Houston (TX) says this book is an intellectual fraud. He says so analysing one chapter in particular, or one criticism exposed in the book. Another reader from Wichita (KS) centers his criticism over the recurring distinction between communists and/or nazis. They both narrow they disliking for the book around only two of the many issues faced by Parenti's analysis. To them I ask this question: do you still deny everything else exposed in the book? I'm not suggesting to "drink" everything Parenti says as being true, but the main issue that lies at the very heart of his book is the subtle ways trhough which America tries to rule the world. Interfering in other countries political affairs, and then showing itself as being the savior of the oppressed is very disgusting, but hard to face for many Americans. Indeed very easy for those who see things from the outside because they are foreigners. The book is worth to be read just to be aware that things are different than the way CNN tells you.