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The Age of Illusions: How America Squandered Its Cold War Victory Audiobook
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Publisher Description
A thought-provoking and penetrating account of the post-Cold war follies and delusions that culminated in the age of Donald Trump from the bestselling author of The Limits of Power. When the Cold War ended with the fall of the Berlin Wall, the Washington establishment felt it had prevailed in a world-historical struggle. Our side had won, a verdict that was both decisive and irreversible. For the world’s “indispensable nation,” its “sole superpower,” the future looked very bright. History, having brought the United States to the very summit of power and prestige, had validated American-style liberal democratic capitalism as universally applicable. In the decades to come, Americans would put that claim to the test. They would embrace the promise of globalization as a source of unprecedented wealth while embarking on wide-ranging military campaigns to suppress disorder and enforce American values abroad, confident in the ability of U.S. forces to defeat any foe. Meanwhile, they placed all their bets on the White House to deliver on the promise of their Cold War triumph: unequaled prosperity, lasting peace, and absolute freedom. In The Age of Illusions, bestselling author Andrew Bacevich takes us from that moment of seemingly ultimate victory to the age of Trump, telling an epic tale of folly and delusion. Writing with his usual eloquence and vast knowledge, he explains how, within a quarter of a century, the United States ended up with gaping inequality, permanent war, moral confusion, and an increasingly angry and alienated population, as well, of course, as the strangest president in American history.
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“Bacevich insistently discloses the discomfiting truth, showing how America’s self-congratulatory past has led to our wrenching present. Instead of illusions, he offers hope for a future free of self-deception and points the way toward a newly responsible American civic life.”
— Patrick J. Deneen, author of Why Liberalism Failed
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“A brilliant account of how the collapse of the Soviet Union and the end of the Cold War brought on not the end of history but an explosion of American hubris and an era of excess that blinded our political class to reality.”
— Bill Moyers, #1 New York Times bestselling author -
“A longstanding critic of the nation’s foreign policy argues that Washington mishandled the end of the Cold War by trying to dictate global peace and expand American influence.”
— New York Times Book Review -
“A brief, painful, and thoughtful analysis of how ‘the passing of the Cold War could not have been more disorienting’…A brilliant but ultimately discouraging analysis.”
— Kirkus Reviews -
“[A] well-informed and deeply humane critique of the self-absorbed grandiosity that dominates American foreign policy. He is one of a handful of sane voices contributing to the national conversation, and this is an indispensable book for our troubled times.”
— Jackson Lears, author of Rebirth of a Nation
Awards
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A #1 Amazon.com bestseller in International Relations
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A New York Times Book Review Editor’s Choice
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Among longlisted titles for USA Today Best Books of the Year, 2020
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About Andrew J. Bacevich
Andrew J. Bacevich is the author of several acclaimed books, including the New York Times bestseller The Limits of Power. His writings have appeared in the New York Times, the London Review of Books, and the American Conservative, among other publications. He served in the United States Army for twenty-three years and is a professor emeritus of history and international relations at Boston University. He is founder and president of the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft, a Washington think tank dedicated to foreign policy.
About Andrew J. Bacevich
Rob Shapiro is a musician, writer, voice actor, and Earphones Award–winning narrator. He performed several seasons of radio comedy on Minneapolis Public Radio and voiced the titular lion in Leo the Lion. He is a musician and composer with his critically acclaimed band Populuxe. He is also a business consultant and software system designer.