Nemesis: The Last Days of the American Republic (American Empire Project) 1st Edition

4.5 out of 5 stars 146 ratings
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  • Nemesis: The Last Days of the American Republic (American Empire Project)
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  • Blowback, Second Edition (American Empire Project)
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  • The Sorrows of Empire: Militarism, Secrecy, and the End of the Republic (The American Empire Project)
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Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Like ancient Rome, America is saddled with an empire that is fatally undermining its republican government, argues Johnson (The Sorrows of Empire), in this bleak jeremiad. He surveys the trappings of empire: the brutal war of choice in Iraq and other foreign interventions going back decades; the militarization of space; the hundreds of overseas U.S. military bases full of "swaggering soldiers who brawl and sometimes rape." At home, the growth of an "imperial presidency," with the CIA as its "private army," has culminated in the Bush administration's resort to warrantless wiretaps, torture, a "gulag" of secret CIA prisons and an unconstitutional arrogation of "dictatorial" powers, while a corrupt Congress bows like the Roman Senate to Caesar. Retribution looms, the author warns, as the American economy, dependent on a bloated military-industrial complex and foreign borrowing, staggers toward bankruptcy, maybe a military coup. Johnson's is a biting, often effective indictment of some ugly and troubling features of America's foreign policy and domestic politics. But his doom-laden trope of empire ("the capacity for things to get worse is limitless.... the American republic may be coming to its end") seems overstated. With Bush a lame duck, not a Caesar, and his military adventures repudiated by the electorate, the Republic seems more robust than Johnson allows. (Feb.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Booklist

The third book in a series begun with Blowback (2000), which predicted harsh comeuppance for the post-cold war American "global empire," and The Sorrows of Empire (2004), which continued Johnson's thesis with a lambasting of American militarism pre- and post-September 11, this book continues the author's broad condemnation of American foreign policy by warning of imminent constitutional and economic collapse. In a chapter analyzing "comparative imperial pathologies," Johnson reminds readers of Hannah Arendt's point that successful imperialism requires that democratic systems give way to tyranny and asserts that the U.S. must choose between giving up its empire of military bases (as did Britain after World War II) or retaining the bases at the expense of its democracy (as did Rome). Johnson also predicts dire consequences should the U.S. continue to militarize low Earth orbits in pursuit of security. To some extent a timely response to recent arguments in favor of American empire, such as those of Niall Ferguson in Colossus, this account also reiterates Johnson's perennial concerns about overseas military bases, the CIA, and the artifice of a defense-fueled economy. Brendan Driscoll
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved


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Product details

  • ASIN ‏ : ‎ B001P3OMM8
  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Metropolitan Books; 1st edition (February 6, 2007)
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Hardcover ‏ : ‎ 368 pages
  • Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 1.4 pounds
  • Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 6.46 x 1.27 x 9.46 inches
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.5 out of 5 stars 146 ratings

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4.5 out of 5 stars
4.5 out of 5
146 global ratings
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Reviewed in the United States on December 20, 2017
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Top reviews from other countries

squire
5.0 out of 5 stars chalmers johnson
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on February 15, 2013
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Shynney
5.0 out of 5 stars Informative Book
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on December 8, 2014
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Luc REYNAERT
5.0 out of 5 stars On the brink of a military dictatorship
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on August 11, 2007
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28 people found this helpful
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Paul Goldsby
5.0 out of 5 stars A wake up call!
Reviewed in Canada on February 10, 2020
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carl mccrosky
5.0 out of 5 stars Five Stars
Reviewed in Canada on December 15, 2016
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