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Well-thought out thesis 2009-10-09

Reviewer: Newton Ooi

This book is a diagnosis of the 3-big problems facing American in the 21st century, and how their growth was facilitated by the Republican party. The 3 big problems are dependence on foreign oil, the ascendant power of the FIRE (finance, insurance, real estate) industries, and the growing power of the religious right wing. The author shows how the Republican party has intertwined itself with the Religious Right, Big Oil, and Wall Street such that they are almost indistinguishable from each other by the end of G. W. Bush's 2nd term in the White House. The author also shows how this has played out over election cycles, affecting the electoral landscape, and helped to produce today's Red vs Blue divide in the US. All in all, a great book that explains the transformation of the American political landscape over the past 50 years.

This book is reselling for what its worth 1 cent. 2009-09-06

Reviewer: Davemesaaaz

When ever the Bush said the word God liberals freaked and said that the GOP was turning the country into a theocracy. But now that Obama is President God is back, and he is using God to sell his programs in the name of social justice. Obama refers to God and Jesus more than Bush did. Obama has declared that we can have the kingdom of God here on earth. But if the GOP said something like that it would have echoed from hear to tibet, when Obama says stuff like that they are suspiciously silent.

recommended by a friend 2009-08-28

Reviewer: Ivan Rorick

I'm not really into politics, but a friend of mine is. I am interested in history though, and my politically~inclined friend told me about this book. It draws a number of parallels between the current state of the USA and the declines of various historical empires, and that made it interesting to me. Anyone who likes to analyze how history goes in in cycles shoudl check this book out.

Ivan Rorick

Well researched and written, but already a bit dated. 2009-08-03

Reviewer: Reader X

The author has a point to make, and he makes it relentlessly, and backs it up with research. References which I troubled to check supported claims made for them in the text. This book was apparently published sometime in 2005, and it examines a number of trends which are either still continuing today, or which have come to fruition in the intervening 4 years. One which stands out is his speculation of the economic problems he saw -- in 2005 -- as lying ahead.
On the other hand, the author is very much caught up in the particular excesses of the Bush administration, which were in full flower at the time he was writing, but many of which have since gone by the board.
While the general situation he explores seems, to me, accurate -- and indeed of some concern -- the book at the same time demonstrates the problems inherent with assuming that /any/ particular administration is the one that's going to bring wrack and ruin down upon American society. It needs to be remembered that the bureaucrats who actually keep the government working from day-to-day tend to transcend administrations. Although the author does make this point, I think it could have been made nore plainly. Still, a good read.

2/3 good info 1/3 trying to prove a point that is half wrong 2009-05-16

Reviewer: whomper

if you read his american dynasty then skip this book
adds little except a screed against religion
but otherwise 3 stars if you are not duplicating what you read there
and worth reading if you dont drink his koolade about religion and
realise that only some of what he says is actually true bu twhat is true is helping the gop screw the citizens of the usa and destroy the country
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right about baby bush kowtowing to the nutcase right
including neocons and their pointless preemptive wars for oil
and for the gop giving the finance people the weapons to destroy the economy (which they did after the book was written) so they could make a few more bux but push the risk and cleanup onto the taxpayers.
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but mostly wrong about everything else he claims about religion
and Christians --
not all of whom are against abortion, against stem cell research, or keeping dead peoples bodies functioning at a reflex level ala schiavo --
-- and darwin evolution could not happen because it violates the second law of thermodynamics. explain the chicken/egg, how an eyeball came about, how man/woman got evolved at the same time/place so they could continue propagating. the probabilities of evolutions being feasible are infinitesimally small. ---
-- and evolution is not science because science requires that independent experiments be able to duplicate the claimed results and nobody can run an experiment about evolution, which always means that evolution is at best a conjecture. --
-- plus the so called "proof" of evolution is based on logical fallacies and is not a valid proof merely bloviation of the atheistic human secularists. evolution could be preprogrammed in the genomes but it will be a while before they are fully decoded to see whether that is true or not. either way that would be *proof* of what did happen.
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key points are that empires fall for 4 basic reasons
and the usa appears to be going down for the count
although it could take 20-40 years to happen
(coincidence that that is when ssa and medicare run out of money?)
(or are they runnign out of money because of what bush & gop did to screw teh country up after clintons financial surpluses?)
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reagan set the country on the right path again
daddy bush gave away all the reagan gains
how the gop could nominate baby bush is a mystery
but they did and the shrub put the usa into a death spiral
of massive debt and needless wars that cost us friends
that we desperately need to survive.

he is wrong about why baby bush won -- the religulous right did vote for him but so did too many others who had no real choice. if dems had not run gore enough real republicans/conservatives would ahve voted for the dem candidate, but gore was worser in their eyes than the shrub. so they voted libertarian or stayed home. that is why obama won. if they had run hillary perpaps mccain would have won as the true gop/conservative/moderates would ahve stayed home or voted 3rd party again.
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good points about the economy and how the govt is messing up big time
and why.
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good points about how oil and wallstreet/Finance/realestate/insurance are driving the govt to do things that will completely destroy the usa
so they can get rich and dont pay no never mind to screwing over the average joe sixpack citizen.
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fully footnoted, well written, no padding.
good insights except for his anti-religion screed, which tars all religious people with the same brush blaming them for what a few nutcases who are vocal and active demand the grumpy old pervert (greatly obsolete party) do.
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