From Publishers Weekly
A bestseller in Europe, this provocative but erratic manifesto stands Euro-anxiety about American hegemony on its head. French demographer Todd (The Final Fall: An Essay on the Decomposition of the Soviet Sphere) cites Paul Kennedy's theory of imperial overstretch and Michael Lind's notion of the American overclass to paint America as a "predatory" but weakening empire, its unilateralism and militarism a sign of frailty, not strength. Misguided free trade policies, he contends, have hollowed out America's industrial base and decimated its working and middle classes, polarizing the country into a society of plutocrats and plebeians. Dependent on imports, America has degenerated into a parasitic, Keynesian consumer-of-last-resort, injecting demand into the world economy while producing nothing of value. To mask its decline, America pursues a foreign policy of "theatrical micromilitarism," picking fights with helpless Third World countries like Iraq to convince the world's real power centers-Europe, Japan and Russia-of its military prowess and validate its spurious image as global policeman. Written in a witty polemical style, Todd's grand but cursory arguments range across economics, military history and geopolitics in ways that might make specialists cringe. Particularly reductionist is his demographic and anthropological view of political science, in which birth and literacy rates and peasant family structures are virtually the sole determinants of a society's politics (but, it should be noted, he used declining birth rates in the Soviet Union to predict its downfall). Todd's eccentric views-on the American trade deficit, the racial attitudes of "the Anglo-Saxon mind," the prevalence of marriages between cousins in Islamic countries, the "castrating" feminism of American women-pull in too many directions to be classified as right or left. His characterization of the United States may hold more than a grain of truth, but some readers might bristle before they see it.
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Todd, a researcher at the French National Institute for Demographic Studies, has authored numerous books, one of which (The Final Fall, 1979) predicted the collapse of the Soviet Union well before it came to pass. Now he has written what may be the most important work since Francis Fukuyama's The End of History and the Last Man (1992), positing that the U.S., despite its apparent position as the unipolar power of the planet, is overextended--our trade deficit is currently $500 billion per year, which means that the rest of the world is financing our consumerism. Todd is above all a demographer, and he bases much of his opinion on statistical elements--declining birth rates in the Soviet Union first cued him in to the country's approaching doom. So he notes some disturbing American phenomena, such as rising stratification based on educational credentials, and the "obsolescence of unreformable political institutions." In the end, he believes the U.S. should return to its nineteenth-century civilian, republican roots, and that Europe should follow that impulse. Already a best-seller in Europe, this book is destined to be much talked about and analyzed. Allen Weakland
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved
Review
[Todd] has written what may be the most important work since Francis Fukuyama's The End of History and the Last Man... Already a best-seller in Europe, this book is destined to be much talked about and analyzed. ― Booklist
Slic[ing] the globaloney pretty thin,... Todd argues that a New World Order really is emerging, as country after country experiences the rising literacy rates and falling birth rates that precede a shift toward modernization. ― Newsday
He makes some interesting points.... Worth reading for insight into how some people view the U.S. Throughout much of the world, America is more feared than respected and more disliked than admired. Ignoring such opinions is folly. -- Philip Seib ― The Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel
I would recommend this extraordinary book to everyone troubled by US neo-imperialism... this is a brave and challenging book which contains a great deal of truth. -- Clare Short ― New Statesman
After the Empire is a work of greater political engagement, excoriating the global impact of an America that has passed with bewildering rapidity from dream to a nightmare, and calling down on it a doom almost as rapid and every bit as fulfilling. -- John Dunn ― Times Higher Education Supplement
In this latest thought-provoking book, Todd predicts the end of another empire. He examines the fundamental weaknesses of the US to conclude that, contrary to conventional wisdom, America is fast losing its grip on the world stage in economic, military and ideological terms. -- Anne Penketh ― The Independent (UK)
What makes the latest publication by the celebrated French political analyst Emmanuel Todd unusually provocative is its robust skepticism... Todd has written an important book which not only challenges the conventional wisdom but does so with exhilarating verve and panache. -- Neil Berry ― Arab News
Emmanuel Todd'sAfter the Empire: The Breakdown of the American Order is the best new book on the reasons behind American 'theatrical micromilitarism.'... Todd performs the neatest surgery yet on the insecurities besetting the alleged American hyperpower.... Todd gives us more hope than any other recent writer that the day of reckoning is soon to come. -- Anis Shivani ― Adbusters
Todd's book is like a hearty dose of castor oil: strong medicine, but a remedy that, if swallowed, will help us to purge ourselves of much that ails us. -- Harold O. J. Brown ― American Conservative
After the Empire is worth reading for insight into how some people view the United States... this book might help dispel some of the smugness that is one of the least attractive facets of the American character. -- Philip Seib ― Dallas Morning News
...it is a source of intelligent analysis and distinctive insights that merit close attention by all Americans concerned about our country's role in the world and the future we are leaving our children. -- David Korten ― Yes: A Journal of Positive Futures
this is a book well worth reading -- Gerald Horne ― Political Affairs
The most effective and most talked about of the new anti-American texts. -- Adam Gopnik ― The New Yorker
Todd is a brilliant provocateur. But if his book is sometimes depressing that is because it echoes many of our current concerns.After the Empire: The Breakdown of the American Order -- Eugen Weber ― The New Leader
About the Author
Emmanuel Todd is a researcher at the French National Institute for Demographic Studies. He is the author of numerous books, including The Final Fall: An Essay on the Decomposition of the Soviet Sphere and The Making of Modern France: Ideology, Politics, and Culture. C. Jon Delogu is a full professor of English at the Université Jean Moulin, Lyon III.Michael Lind is the Whitehead Senior Fellow at the New America Foundation. He is the author of Made in Texas: George W. Bush and the Southern Takeover of American Politics and, with Ted Halstead, The Radical Center: The Future of American Politics.
