A Furious Hunger: America in the 21st Century [Paperback]

Bruce Grant (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 28, 1999

A Furious Hunger is a penetrating exploration of America's way of life, its people, its history, its rhetoric, its government and politics, and its arts and popular culture. The author's 'modest intention' is to try to understand the United States better, not as the leader of the Western world, but as itself.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

In a thoughtful inquiry into the American character and the role the U.S. may play in the next century, Grant (Indonesia, etc.), a professor at Monash University in Australia who has traveled extensively in the U.S., combines a Tocquevillian detachment with first-hand familiarity with the American scene. Americans, he asserts, are a contradictory people: rampant individualists, we are nevertheless community minded; hard drinkers, fast food eaters and drug takers, we profess our spirituality and devotion to God but also pursue insatiable consumer lusts; avowedly isolationist, we support countless interventions in the affairs of other countries. The view from Down Under, as Grant reports, is that too many of us buy into "American exceptionalism," the belief that the U.S. is a singular, implicitly superior nationAa view that encourages America's political leaders to cloak their pursuit of national self-interest in lofty moral rhetoric. Grant writes with considerable aplomb and historical breadth. An admirer of John Kennedy, he maintains that America's reforming conscience has been stilled ever since the turmoil following the assassinations of JFK, RFK and MLK, which made Americans deeply conservative. Grant believes that post-Cold War America could become a humane superpower, but only if it recognizes that problems like poverty, environmental degradation, population growth, debt relief, genocide and nuclear weapons proliferation require international cooperation rather than a unilateral approach. All of Grant's insights and arguments are defensible and reasonable; by the same token, none are new or surprising enough to tell American readers anything they haven't previously heard about themselves. (July)
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Review

'. . .there is much in this excellent book that transcends the personal . . . that make it a valuable read for anyone seeking to understand the continuing importance of the US to us all: for better or worse.' -- John Salmond, The Age

'A professional lifetime goes into this distillation of America: a warm, even affectionate, mediation on the pertinent aspects of US politics, history and culture in the 20th century.' -- Bruce C Wolpe, The Australian

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 240 pages
• Publisher: Melbourne University Publishing (April 28, 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0522847927
• ISBN-13: 978-0522847925
• Product Dimensions: 8.5 x 5.6 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 11.7 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #6,772,291 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)