The Myth of America's Decline : : Politics, Economics, and a Half Century of False Prophecies
Book - 2014 None on shelf No requests on this item
Sign in to request
AADL has no copies of this item
Introduction: America as has-been -- "It's decline time in America:" a short history -- Politics and prophecy, or the uses of declinism -- The powers and their power: measuring what matters -- Hype and history: why tomorrow is not like yesterday -- The next number one: China and yesterday's highfliers -- Challengers and champions: why America's edge will endure -- America, the West, and the rest: who will own the twenty-first century?
"While it may be catnip for the media to play up America as a has-been, Josef Joffe, a ... German commentator and Stanford University academic, [proposes] that Declinism is not a cold-eyed diagnosis but a device in the style of the ancient prophets ... Gloom is a prophecy that must be believed so that it will turn out wrong. Joffe [posits that] 'economic miracles' that propelled the rising tide of challengers flounder against their own limits. Hardly confined to Europe alone, Declinism has also been an especially nifty career builder for American politicians, among them Kennedy, Nixon, and Reagan, who all rode into the White House by hawking 'the end is near'"--Dust jacket flap.
REVIEWS & SUMMARIES
Publishers Weekly ReviewSummary / Annotation
Table of Contents
Fiction Profile
Author Notes
COMMUNITY REVIEWS
No community reviews. Write one below!
PUBLISHED
New York : Liveright Publishing Corporation, a division of W.W. Norton & Company, [2014]
Year Published: 2014
Description: xvi, 327 p. : illustrations ; 25 cm.
Language: English
Format: Book
ISBN/STANDARD NUMBER
9780871404497
0871404494
SUBJECTS
United States -- Civilization -- 1945-
United States -- Politics and government -- 1945-1989.
United States -- Politics and government -- 1989-
United States -- Economic conditions -- 1945-
United States -- Foreign relations -- 1945-1989.
United States -- Foreign relations -- 1989-