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Ronald Wright

What Is America?: A Short History of the New World Order Hardcover – September 2, 2008

by Ronald Wright (Author)

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In the six years since 9/11, as the bush regime has squandered domestic solidarity and international goodwill, many of the archetypes and ideals with which we've traditionally framed the American enterprise now seem endangered, even hollow. This raises the question, has America ever been what it thinks it is? What Is America? goes to the heart of that inquiry. Ranging with dazzling expertise through anthropology, history, and literature, Wright reconfigures our self-perception, arguing that the “essence” of America can be traced to the foundations of our history-literally to the collision of worlds that began in 1492, as one civilization subsumed another-and exploring how these currents continue to shape our world.

Print length

384 pages
Language

English
Publisher

Da Capo Press
Publication date

September 2, 2008
Dimensions

5.75 x 1.5 x 8.5 inches
ISBN-10

0786720972
ISBN-13

978-0786720972
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About the Author

Ronald Wright's other widely translated works include the highly regarded Time Among the Maya, Stolen Continents, and his novel, A Scientific Romance, a New York Times Book of the Year. He lives in Canada.

Product details

Publisher ‏ : ‎ Da Capo Press; 1st edition (September 2, 2008)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Hardcover ‏ : ‎ 384 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0786720972
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0786720972
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 1.15 pounds
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 5.75 x 1.5 x 8.5 inches

Best Sellers Rank: #5,964,491 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #147,099 in World History (Books)
- #213,094 in United States History (Books)

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America the Brave

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on September 19, 2009

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I visit America annually and have spent time living in the country. It is a fascinating place. It encapsulates all that is the best and the worst of the world rolled together. Too often, its ugly side is brought to the attention of the world and it is condemned without thoughting given to its better side. By the same token, too many Americans dismiss its negative features while only focussing on its positive features. The truth to the conundrum lies somewhere in the middle.

Ronald Wright has written a book that will probably infuriate many of America's true blue boosters. This is a good thing. There is nothing wrong with criticism or some introspection. Wright's book is an excellent summation of modern America. But, like the country itself, the book also has its own weaknesses. Wright too often criticises a history for which the modern nation cannot be held responsible. Yes, America's history has a very dark side. The near eradication of the indian population, slavery, religious intolerance and more. People today cannot be held responsible here. However, as with all peoples, they can be held responsible for how they manage the implications of this history going forward. It is here that Wright is on more fertile ground.

The part of the book that I found the most fascinating was his analysis of terrorism is America's history. In discussing the assassination of President McKinley by a home grown anarchist, he goes on to say:
"In 1920, a truck bomb blew up on Wall Street outside the headquarters of J.P. Morgan. Now we are being told that terrorism is new, that nineteen fanatics have changed the world, that such people are so powerful and persuasive that the `war' against them must trump democratic freedoms that survived two World Wars and the threat of nuclear annihilation."
How eloquent. This puts our fears into some sort of perspective. If only George W Bush could have been persuaded similarly. Read this book!

10 people found this helpful

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David Stein

A Good Answer to a Vitally Important Question

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on November 1, 2009

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It is time that we all get past the confines of patriotism and ask ourselves what we really are and how we really got there. Ronald Wright, albeit a Canadian, has performed a critically important service in looking at our history without blinders and clears away much of the self-aggrandizing fog that surrounds the manner in which America came to its present condition - through the extermination of much of the native population, the enslavement of Africans and the belief in empire rather than true democracy. Unless we can face up to this, we are likely to continue to undertake dangerous adventures of the sort that have led us to places like Vietnam, Iraq and Afghanistan, overreaching our presumed ability to remake the world in our self-proclaimed image and betraying our deeper aspirations again. Unfortunately, too few will be able to learn this lesson without taking offense where none is intended. Changing one's standards of behavior has never been easy - and human progress seems to take a terrible toll of its victims - both individually and collectively as we struggle with issues like equality.

5 people found this helpful

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Paul Patterson

A breath of fresh air to clear our perfumed history

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on November 20, 2013

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After reading Ronald Wright's "Stolen Continents" and "A Brief History of Progress," I couldn't wait to start reading "What is America." I could hardly have been more pleased. Clear, concise and easy to read, this book should be required reading for all high school students. When it comes to its treatment of the indigent people it displaced, the United States shares with all former colonies of European Empires a common history of religiously sanctioned inhumanity and exploitation. Of particular interest to me was Wright's insights into the divide that has persisted in American politics, from the time of arrival of the first European colonists, between the religious, authoritarian view and the enlightened, democratic view of what America stands for. Hopefully, future generations of both abusers and abused will embrace their shared humanity and see through the divisive and self-serving projections, illusions and justifications of the past. This book will inform and facilitate that transition in our thinking.

One person found this helpful

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Joseph E. Feredoes

A must for every American and not-Americans

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on May 4, 2011

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This book is very significant for a number of reasons. It sheds light on the controversial view of the US with presenting the history of US from a different angle. The writer does not want to glorify the US and does not try to explain its mistakes with listing large number of reasons. Simply, with giving details of historical facts hardly mentioned in history books, he manages to explain (very convincingly) lots of controversies. With opening the readers' eyes, Wright puts a lot of things in their right place. Mixing honorable democratic values with supporting oppressive regimes, hard working people versus mega-rich Wall street characters and the role of the Bible-belt - all covered in details and with great insight without falling into cliches. One thing is sure, it changed my view about the US.
Joseph Feredoes, Australia What Is America?: A Short History of the New World Order

One person found this helpful

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BenH

Fascinating "who knew" info

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on April 4, 2013

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Who knew that most amerindians were farmers? And here I thought they were all buffalo hunters on horseback--whoops, I forgot, they had no horses until later.

Just in case you didn't know about it, this book will give you at least some feeling of what it was like to be on the wrong end of the guns when Europeans brutally invaded and colonized North America.

Easy reading and plenty of details to keep it interesting.

Also makes the case that Europe was desperately in need of new resources to revive itself, otherwise it would have suffered serious decline--and the industrial revolution might never have happened!

One person found this helpful

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Top reviews from other countries

Born2BeMild

Great factual book that is clear and easy read.

Reviewed in Canada 🇨🇦 on August 2, 2012

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I have enjoyed the book and recommended it to many as well as lent it to others. I purchased this book after hearing his 2004 Massey Lectures, a 5 part series collectively entitled "A Short History of Progress". I also recommend that book "A Short History of Progress".

3 people found this helpful

julie

Five Stars

Reviewed in Canada 🇨🇦 on September 30, 2015

Verified Purchase

Essential Reading.

2 people found this helpful

robert J Gibson

Five Stars

Reviewed in Canada 🇨🇦 on November 9, 2014

Verified Purchase

A well written and well researched book. It will make us all rethink our humanity.

One person found this helpful

Aztec

Pros outweigh Cons

Reviewed in Canada 🇨🇦 on August 29, 2012

Verified Purchase

I found this book to be a very interesting read; giving a solid expression of "What America Is Indeed".

Although I think this book connects the "dots" of American history and "Americanism" extremely well, relating to America and the world, there were a couple of times I found myself somewhat disappointed in the research...or, more importantly, I guess, in the writers interpretation of America today and his reference to the events of 911.

After systematically projecting the sinister historical motivations of America and all that it has sought to conquer in the past 500 years, the writer, in my opinion, wrongly assumes that 19 Muslim hijackers did in fact perpetrate the atrocities of 911....Five to seven of whom were purportedly alive after the attacks????

Given the history or America, the neo-conservative cabal, Military Industrial Complex, Project for A New American Century, etc. are far more likely to be guilty of 911 than any Muslims living in caves, that has to be a naïve assumption sadly overlooked by the writer, but, it may just be an area that the writer didn't want or need to dwell on in this book, although, it does fall under the mental capabilities of the American mindset throughout history.

I also think that, quoting electoral promises of Barack Obama in this book and "assuming that he has the political and intellectual gifts to return the United States to internationalism", can only be attributed to the time this book was written and published.... because as time has shown, there is little difference between this President and any other previous Presidents, as far as what America stands for or where it's moral compass has been, or is heading in the future.

There are many things to learn from this book, but, to me the most obvious was that "The only true friend of the United States, will eventually be a dead friend....when it becomes convenient for America".
A book worth reading.

2 people found this helpful

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