The Imperial Tense: Prospects and Problems of American Empire

by Andrew J. Bacevich

Overview

What is the nature and scope of the American empire, and what are its prospects and challenges? In this timely and thought-provoking collection, leading scholars and observers consider the new reality of American power in the world and what consequences it may bring at home and abroad. First-rate...a most valuable collection. —Walter LaFeber

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781566635325
Publisher:	Dee, Ivan R. Publisher
Publication date:	08/06/2003
Pages:	288
Product dimensions:	5.94(w) x 8.80(h) x 1.08(d)

About the Author

Andrew Bacevich teaches international relations at Boston University. He has recently published American Empire: The Realities and Consequences of U.S. Diplomacy to considerable acclaim. He lives in Walpole, Massachusetts.

What People are Saying About This

Walter LaFeber

First-rate...a most valuable collection.

Richard H. Kohn

This captivating collection addresses the most important issue facing the United States in the coming century. (Richard H. Kohn, University Of North Carolina At Chapel Hill, Former Chief Of Air Force History For The U.S.A.F. (1981-1991))

Walter Lafeber

First-rate...a most valuable collection.

David Pryce-Jones

Bacevich has performed a valuable service.

Editorial Reviews

...Well worth reading for…bracing arguments, pro and con, on whether or in what sense America is an empire.

First Things

The essays collected…are a curious amalgam of military hubris and cultural anxiety: they dutifully document both America's truly awesome military reach and the widespread national uncertainty about what to do with it.

New York Review of Books

This captivating collection addresses the most important issue facing the United States in the coming century.

Richard H. Kohn

...Provides a panoramic view of the empire debate...

Concord Bridge

Bacevich has performed a valuable service.

David Pryce-Jones

...This collection reflects most of the distribution curve of current opinion on the subject.

The American Conservative

He has done the ongoing debate about America's role in the world a great service by bringing these pieces together in a convenient package.

Virginia Quarterly Review

The essays collected…are a curious amalgam of military hubris and cultural anxiety: they dutifully document both America's truly awesome military reach and the widespread national uncertainty about what to do with it.

The New York Review Of Books

An outstanding introduction to the growing debate on the implications and import of US 'hyperpower.'

Choice

An outstanding introduction to the growing debate on the implications and import of US 'hyperpower.'

CHOICE

The essays collected…are a curious amalgam of military hubris and cultural anxiety: they dutifully document both America's truly awesome military reach and the widespread national uncertainty about what to do with it.

New York Review Of Books

...This collection reflects most of the distribution curve of current opinion on the subject.

American Conservative

There's a host of issues surrounding the U.S. and what many see as its empire as it pushes to confront terrorism-and this balanced collection of mostly scholarly articles addresses many of them. For the most part, the pieces are nuanced, examining subtleties in a world where the U.S. is the sole global power. There are no epiphanies, but pieces discuss such topics as how the U.S. can both confront authoritarian regimes and promote human rights, how American policy should change in order to prevent a further international backlash and whether the U.S. is doomed to fall, like previous empires. Some of the articles gathered by Bacevich (American Empire) hew to familiar arguments-a few, like journalist Charles Krauthammer, argue unabashedly for American power; others seem stuck in a pompous, crude anti-Americanism, as when John Millbank calls on the West "to abandon our global idolatrous worship of sacralized absolute sovereignty, and the formally neutral market." But these pieces are the exceptions. To the editor's credit, the essays appear to be carefully chosen, with an equal number critical and accepting of America's increasing global power. At their best, they display a measure of wit, as when one essayist writes: "Whatever its fate, America, too, will live on-for its Constitution, its movies, and for having placed the first man on the moon." (Sept. 26) Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information.

Publishers Weekly

First-rate...a most valuable collection.

Walter LaFeber

An especially useful guide to a complex and controversial debate.

Royal United Services Institute Journal - Michael Cox

An outstanding introduction to the growing debate on the implications and import of US 'hyperpower.'

Choice Reviews

An especially useful guide to a complex and controversial debate.
— Michael Cox

Royal United Services Institute Journal