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| The Post-American World | 
 enlarge | Author: Fareed Zakaria
Publisher: W. W. Norton
Category: Book
List Price: $25.95
Buy New: $15.45
You Save: $10.50 (40%)
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Avg. Customer Rating:  158 reviews
Sales Rank: 150
Media: Hardcover
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 288
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.1
Dimensions (in): 9.6 x 6.2 x 1.3
ISBN: 039306235X
Dewey Decimal Number: 303.49
EAN: 9780393062359
ASIN: 039306235X
Publication Date: May 5, 2008
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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| Customer Reviews:
 The Liberal design for American. September 13, 2008
30 out of 59 found this review helpful
The blame America first crowd has authored a book to accept the decline of America, which they have caused. This book outlines a rosy scenario that the decline of America and the rise of the rest are going to champion another natural age of progress and we should all look forward to when America is no longer a super power. This in a post 911 world...talks about not having safety and security as a priority. I just hope the U.N. can continue to stop the genocide in Africa and Muslim extremist from getting nukes and destroying the infidels-oh wait they don't. This book illustrates what would happen if the left continue to get there way, as it would be a blueprint for a worst case scenario for the world. This book takes us down the lefts (aka the democrats) yellow brick road and tells us it will be great and all will be right in the world. Get this book if you vote for Obama then you can see his world view. Thanks Mr. Muslim for your next book write about how sharia law is going to save America.- utter nonsense
A unoriginal, overly-hyped book with too many factual mistakes June 17, 2008
26 out of 59 found this review helpful
I find Zakaria's book to be flat on historical substance, and heavy on pompous anti-American statements. While easy to read his ideas are unoriginal and often times disjointed.
As someone who does not read much about global economics, I hoped this book would be refreshing and perhaps a stepping stone to finding others I could read and learn more from. I was let down. His references are few and far between and his insight on China is far less impressive than on his home country of India.
I think Zakaria was just trying to come back from his popular first book, and capitalize on his already allegiant audience.
Probably would have served him better if he could at least get some of his facts straight. For instance it wasn't the Asian tsuanmi of 2005, it was the tsunami of 2004. And the whole world was not against the US invasion of Iraq, there were plenty of countries who supported it (UK, Turkey, and don't forget Poland).
But it seems Zakaria creates his own reality. His own facts. And for this
I would not recommend this book to anybody. Well, almost anybody. Perhaps if you are a member of al-qaeda you might appreciate his outlook. Or if you want to learn a little about China and India (emphasis on the word little).
 Whither Go American Dreams? May 16, 2008
25 out of 44 found this review helpful
Fareed Zakaria, a brilliant journalist, maybe the last honest one left of a very sorry lot, has found a way to maneuver around America's immense but infinitely fragile egg-shell like ego to tell us indirectly what we already know about ourselves but don't want to hear: that our nation, the American Empire, is in a precipitous decline, due mostly of our making.
Sadly, for the author, this is work that must be left unsaid and insinuated from deep within the subtext of the book, unsaid and insinuated in "metaphorical relief." As he puts it, it is not "the "fall of America, but the rise of the rest."
Anyone who takes that backhanded insult at face value, then I have a bridge in Brooklyn I want to sell you? This demeaning backhanded way of telling us that our country is in very serious decline sounds like the kind of reverse psychology one uses on a young child who will not eat his vegetables. But it is the only way to get any kind of self-criticism down the ultra-sensitive American palate. Its the same maneuver that Denish d' Souza, one of the darling of the rightwing, used so deftly in his equally insulting "What's so Good About America?" Again, under the pretext of praising America, he too had to tuck the truth in between the lines amid so much insincere "pro-American groveling."
And why not? Somehow, no matter how untrue or how superficial, we tend to eat fawning compliments like they are breakfast cereal. But any criticism is un-patriotic and un-American. Fareed is no ones fool.
As brilliant as he is, the author has never been allowed to tell the full truth, even on the weekend news pundit shows. The inferior minds among his colleagues just keep censoring him into non-existence. I notice that even though he is clearly the most brilliant in our generation of journalists, his appearances are becoming less and less frequent. I wonder why?
This is not a "Zakaria problem," but an "American problem." And to paraphrase Jack Nicholson in one of the most famous lines in all movie-dome: "Americans can't handle the truth!" Fareed, to repeat another of my favorite cliches from the movie Munich, is just "the voice in our heads telling us what we already know: That while America has led the world into the 21st Century it has suddenly and abruptly made a u-turn ducking its head back into the sands of its own dark ages. Beating its breast with all kinds of new weapons but scared to come out of its hole: [The world is going off and leaving us in the dust: Is this really the way we want to go down? Has anyone seen Kuala Lumpur, or Dubai, or even Singapore or Seoul lately? They all make America cities look like something from the Middle Ages.]
The evidence of our decline is everywhere: (1) In the 21st Century, we are still fighting the Scopes trial, and are losing? Intelligent Design is slowly gaining an undeserved prominence on par with the Science of Evolution. Four of the Republican candidates admitted in the Presidential debates on international television that they do not believe in evolution. (2) Like the most famous modern day Neanderthal we love to hate, Saudi born, Osama bin Laden, we too love our guns, god, and hate gays, and just for good measure, also throw racism into that mix. (3) The very fact that GW Bush was elected for two terms should have been a strong enough hint that something is terribly wrong with the "last standing superpower." Even if we were trying to, we could not have picked a worse representative of the best America has to offer. (4) But worse of all, America has become a "fair weather democracy." It no longer completely believes in it founding ideas and ideals. It only believes in them when they benefit certain protected American subgroups, otherwise, all bets are off. To wit, we will cheat to win elections; torture prisoners and throw away due process; neglect our own poor; turn the clock back on hard won civil rights; and sell out not just our democracy, but all of our seed corn too -- our future -- to the highest bidder. Our politicians have become whores for the moneyed interests.
If we were half the nation we tell ourselves we are, then Fareed Zakaria would not have had to "dumb-down" this book and write in reverse psychological diplomatic code to tell us what we already know.
Fifty stars.
America Must Realize the World is Catching Up May 9, 2008
23 out of 34 found this review helpful
One of the biggest problems we have as Americans is the inability to realize that many of our former industries are now the equivalent of blacksmiths --- they are becoming overshadowed by new technologies and inventions from other countries. This isn't bad if we allow new ways of doing things to dominate our economic life but instead we attempt to save the old at the expense of the new.
This book is a great read.
Misleading in many ways August 10, 2008
23 out of 34 found this review helpful
As a French-Australian, I have to say that he mischaracterises both French and Australian attitudes.
Sarko fiercely pro-American? He doesn't favor the Iraq war, the death penalty, health care run by insurance companies or mass gun ownership. And, rightly or worngly, these are the things America is known for. Way back in 1995, Chirac was called pro-American too, since he has spent some months there as a young man. How long did that last? Get a memory, stop dealing in cliches, superficialities, generalisations and banalities.
Vietnam War : it was passionately opposed by millions of Australians. but not only won't you learnt that in the book, Zakaria will actively mislead you into thinking Australians were cheering it on all the way.
I don't know whether he just hasn't done his research, is a lazy thinker or has an agenda to push that makes him disregard facts that stand in his way.
It's a shame because it's a good topic; but it needs a more honest and intelligent treatment.
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