Rogue State: A Guide to the World's Only Superpower (Paperback)

by William Blum (Author) "Washington's war on terrorism is as doomed to failure as its war on drugs has been..." (more)
Key Phrases: United States, Khmer Rouge, New York (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Review
"Rogue State forcibly reminds us of Vice President Agnew's immortal line: 'The United States, for all its faults, is still the greatest nation in the country."' - Gore Vidal, author of The Decline and Fall of the American Empire

Product Description
The American Empire: To the American mind, these words sound like an oxymoron. Suggesting to Americans that their country has a compelling lust for political, economic and military hegemony over the rest of the world, divorced from any moral considerations, is akin to telling them of one's UFO abduction - except that they're more likely to believe the abduction story. William Blum has compiled evidence that will make believers of such sceptics. In 'Rogue State', he shows that 'close encounters' between the United States and alien nations have demonstrably been of the cruellest kind.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 320 pages
• Publisher: Zed Books (July 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1842770152
• ISBN-13: 978-1842770153
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars See all reviews (80 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #6,551,142 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

399 of 483 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Impossible to Review Objectively, February 28, 2003

By	doomsdayer520 (Pennsylvania) - See all my reviews (TOP 100 REVIEWER)

This review is from: Rogue State: A Guide to the World's Only Superpower (Paperback)

First, remember that you are unlikely to find completely objective reviews for this book, but that's okay because of its extremely political nature. Blum is a polemicist, meaning he wants to create controversy and hard feelings in order to make his point. And yes the basic political angle of his work is leftist on the surface. However, he does have plenty of criticism for Clinton and the Democrats, so Blum's political persuasion might be more accurately described as social anarchist, as he distrusts all government and politicians and believes all power should be in the hands of the real people. Such sharp politics will rile up readers of any stripe, making objectivity hard to hang on to.

Regardless, most of this book contains extremely useful and relevant information on US chicanery and violence around the world. Despite the constant predictable sloganeering about freedom and democracy, the US has always been more concerned about preserving corporate interests and a hegemonic domination of power, with an ideology that is unyielding and destructive. Entire peoples and nations around the world have been ruined and exploited. This is why people around the world hate us, not because of a vague dispute with a vague concept like freedom. But anyone who makes that accusation will be given the narrow-minded but still harmful label "Un-American" and will be ignored, if not persecuted. That's what makes Blum's work important to read, and he mostly provides sharp evidence. Unfortunately his polemic style often descends into sarcasm, damaging his credibility, and he tends to rely on lists rather than deeper insights. Meanwhile the entire book is almost sunk by the mind-numbing final chapter that is merely a list of social problems and crimes that Blum disagrees with, offering little connection to the focus of the rest of the book.

That's about as objective as I can get with this review, given my own personal politics.

29 of 33 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Read it. , February 6, 2006

By	Me (New York) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Rogue State, 3rd Edition: A Guide to the World's Only Superpower (Paperback)

As I read some of these hysterical reviews I begin to realize how disconnected many Americans are to what their country does in the world. They repeat standard American propagandistic slogans of freedom and free market capitalism (which even the US is not! with 1/3 of gdp attributed to government spending) and all the rest...this is a great book to read for anyone truly interested in what most of the world experiences. Some reviewers have even recommended Thomas Friedman! The most simplistic person in the world...but then again this is the US...so if you are interested in "pop international politics" filled with platitudes and hyperbole then he probably is your man, if you are interested in the underbelly of American politics and in seeing the complexities that go along with that then this book is for you. Another good book to read is "Confessions of an Economic Hitman".

63 of 78 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars APPALLING, SAD, AND SO VERY TRUE, January 23, 2006

By	Capt. Lou Costello "Capt. Lou" (Videomaker, USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Rogue State, 3rd Edition: A Guide to the World's Only Superpower (Paperback)

I read this book in pretty much one sitting (no new information here for me personally) and was simply more surprised than anything else to find it not only in print but the center of much attention, primarily via the unusal conduit of Osama Bin Laden. The book details and documents the rather amazingly sad state that American foreign policy has arrived at since the end of WWII. The gov't has indeed caused much misery and bloodshed around the world with deaths running into the many millions. I have seen some of the results of this myself firsthand, particularly in Asia, while visiting refugee camps on the Thai border. I have lived and worked in many countries (including Arab countries) over the years and watched and felt the horror and dismay of many peoples grow into hate. They don't hate our culture or even dislike the average rank and file American or resent our prosperity but they hate and loathe what our government does in our name in so many foreign lands. [...] I earnestly hope that this book does something to alleviate this ignorance. The book has some flaws but a great deal of well documented truth that cannot be ignored. Korea, Vietnam, Cambodia, the Balkans and now poor Iraq and a bit here and there in between. A majority of those who make policy decisions have never lived outside of the country and in almost all cases cannot even speak or understand a foreign language. While it is plain that the author's viewpoint is liberal it is also equally plain that both political parties are very much to blame. This is also very much the type of book that the conventional media loves to suppress.

Perhaps it is time for another movie, "The Even Uglier American".

It appears that "The pleasure of hating makes patriotism an excuse for carrying fire, pestilence and famine into other lands." Buy this very interesting and well written book, read it and weep.