Incoherent Empire [Hardcover]

Michael Mann (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 2003

This rigorous critique of the new American imperialism analyses the action in Afghanistan, the war against terrorism and the warnings to "rogue states". It argues that current American foreign policy exaggerates American power and fails to understand that the US possesses much less power than the major empires of history. It suggests that this new imperialism will simply produce wars without end. This dissection of the military, economic, political and cultural resources of the US insists that they can only generate an incoherent empire.

Editorial Reviews

Review

A devastating critique of the confused, dangerous, self-interested, and antidemocratic imperialist policies of the current Bush administration...definitely required reading. -- P. Kivisto, Choice, 1 April 2004

A distinguished scholarly work on the history of social power. -- G. John Ikenberry, Foreign Affairs, 1 March 2004

[Gives] cogent counterarguments to those who think that it will be easy for the US to dominate the world. -- Amitabh Pal, Progressive, 1 February 2004

About the Author

Michael Mann is Professor of Sociology at the University of California, Los Angeles. His major works include the prizewinning series The Sources of Social Power, Volume I: A History of Power from the Beginning to 1760 AD, and Volume II: The Rise of Classes and Nation-States, 1760-1914. He is working on the third volume, Globalizations, which covers the most recent period of world history.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 284 pages
• Publisher: Verso; First Edition edition (October 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1859845827
• ISBN-13: 978-1859845820
• Product Dimensions: 9.6 x 6.4 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #199,038 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

70 of 87 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Rome wasn't burnt in a day, March 8, 2004

By 

Andrew S. Rogers (Stamford, Connecticut) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Incoherent Empire (Hardcover)

Michael Mann's "Incoherent Empire" is a good addition to the recent raft of books shining a much-needed light on America's descent from republic to empire. However, I found it flawed in its tone, and in its easy acceptance of Leftist dogma. More seriously, its historical perspective is too short.

To his credit, Mann does a fine job proving his thesis (articulated on page 13), that the employment of military unilateralism by the Bush Administration is not the policy of "realism" it's made out to be. With his thorough focus on ongoing and potential military threats and ample documentation of global, especially Middle Eastern, opinions of American actions, Mann proves that we're not winning any friends worldwide. Indeed, burdened as we are with a particularly parochial viewpoint, "Americans, insulated within their self-censorship, do not even know how isolated they are" (p. 261). Worse, many Americans who do recognize this don't seem to care.

This is where I think Mann's tone comes into play. His casual deployment of Leftist smear-words (describing the 2000 election, for example, as "a neo-conservative chicken-hawk coup" [p. 252], as just one example), or constant mis-identification of America's mercantilist trade policy as "capitalism" or "free trade," no doubt endear him to a certain segment of his readership. But it undermines what I think is a far more important mission: helping potentially sympathetic audiences (even conservative ones) see the strengths of his arguments. In this area, Chalmers Johnson's recent "The Sorrows of Empire" is a much better work.

The other area where Johnson's book is far stronger than Mann's is in his long-term historical perspective. Mann is too quick to paint the new militarism as a product of a neo-conservative cabal. Unquestionably, the neo-cons play a major role in the growth of the Empire, especially the current emphasis on military unilateralism. But Mann writes as though the "Incoherent Empire" was conceived in Defense Department memoranda during Bush the Elder's term, and midwifed by Bush the Younger following 9/11. In fact, Johnson makes an almost ironclad (in my opinion) case that the roots of Empire sink far back into America's past. The old cliché about Rome not being built in a day has a literal, and precise, application here.

And if Rome wasn't built in a day, it won't be burnt in one either. Mann writes on his last page that the "political solution" to the situation he describes is to "throw the new militarists out of office" in November 2004. But to turn out the neo-cons and replace Bush the Younger with someone different (and the differences between Bush and Kerry are much smaller than either man would have us believe), would simply mean changing the Emperor. The apparatus of imperial power would remain in place.

Mann's book is a good start, but I believe he needs to widen his field of vision somewhat. This is about far more than a few "chicken hawks."

50 of 67 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Read this book before November 2004, October 22, 2003

By 

Robert G. Boyd "Grandfather of Jessica" (Torrance, CA USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Incoherent Empire (Hardcover)

When Vice President Cheney staffed the Bush Administration, he gave jobs to many of his neoconservative friends. The neoconservatives want to establish an American Empire, using American military might. Now that they have given us a war in Iraq, they would like to invade Syria and Iran as well.

So Michael Mann took time out from his scholarly work to give us a clear and concise analysis of American Imperialism. Since his specialty is the history of empires of the past, he is well equipped to tell us about the American empire of the present.

His conclusion: The US government has military power, but does not meet any of the other requirements for establishing and keeping a successful empire. If you want to know the details, buy and read his book.

If it were put to a vote, I would vote against American imperialism. So would Thomas Jefferson and John Quincy Adams, if we could bring them back from the grave.

11 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Very intelligent work......, September 10, 2004

By 

MADC "mdiaz" (America Latina) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Incoherent Empire (Hardcover)

I just finished reading this book and I could not wait to write my humble review about it. This work by Prof. Mann presents such a rational and powerful analysis of what is happening in the world today that it is difficult to understand how some people fail to see the obvious consequences of the military adventures the american govt' undertakes.

Apart from the fact that US foreign policy is sometimes based on very simplistic views and a lack of understanding of cultures and aspirations of the rest of the world ...it also assumes that the US has the right to judge and impose its ways...The american people , good , honest ,hard working and very patriotic , but almost always misinformed , can not see ,that maybe some of those displayed by the US media as fanatic terrorists view themselves also as patriotic and nationalist fighters...We must go further and deeper and examine what causes their unrest and if in fact they are enemies of the US or if they feel it is the other way around...The results may surprise you...

Terrorism MUST end...and the best way is to end what causes it....and most of the time the cause is state repression and unequality...when the causes are gone , the evil minds that
harm innocent people would be unable to justify their actions.