
American Empire
By Joshua B. Freeman
I’m not a learned man. I’m only saying that to filter out the intellectuals, preventing the waste of precious minutes reading on.
But I salvaged one important thing from years deskbound and dulled by a sub-standard education in our history.
That when the subject matter, matters; when the teacher practices benevolence by gifting knowledge and passion beyond what is expected or necessary to pass muster for the annual inspection of ability; the gold in our past glitters in a way that no Christmas tree or rapper’s chest ever could.
American Empire (The Rise of a Global Power, The Democratic Revolution at Home) by Joshua B. Freeman is the kind of book which should be universally admired for filling in thousands of blanks in the minds of adults young and old about what really went down Stateside in the second half of the 20th century.
What makes this such a mightily appreciated book is the distillation of 55 years (1945–2000) into a single volume. Few nations underwent quite the same intensity of evolution as the United States, and giving a wise and admirable account of the political scene alone (Watergate is but one of the seismic shudderings covered in detail here) would have been nothing short of totemic.
Yet here we have Freeman pouring into this goblet of facts the entire encylopaedia of American goings-on in the years between the close of World War 2 and moments before the 50 states stared down economic collapse.
Make no mistake: this is a highly weighty discussion of how we got to where we are. But it’s one not only Americans but keen readers from across the world should add to their collection for thoughtful moments when we need reminding of how change changes us all.
American Empire (The Rise of a Global Power, The Democratic Revolution at Home) is available on Amazon.

