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 enlarge | Author: Fareed Zakaria
Publisher: W. W. Norton
Category: Book
List Price: $25.95
Buy New: $13.98
You Save: $11.97 (46%)
New (56) Used (16) Collectible (2) from $13.98
Avg. Customer Rating:  122 reviews
Sales Rank: 56
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
Condition: This item is new. Just like the one on the shelf at the bookstore only cheaper!
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| Customer Reviews:
 Misleading in many ways August 10, 2008
3 out of 9 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.
Very Good Analysis and Perfect for the Kindle August 8, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
This is a very good overview of how the world is developing a global economy, the ways (good and bad) that the emergence of two large nation-markets (China and India) are affecting that economy, and the place of the US within it, both now and in the future.
One of the more interesting things that Zakaria illuminates are the various ways that a major power like the United States might respond to the challenges posed by an up-and-comer like China onto the world stage. He compares America's situation to that of Great Britain at the beginning of the 20th Century and discusses the way that Great Britain dealt with the emergence of the US. Further, he suggests that the US take a similar attitude toward China. That is, don't try to block China from becoming a world power. Instead, we in the US should accept China as a key player and accommodate ourselves to China's new role. This is, Zakaria says, what Britain did during the twilight years of its empire and, thus, managed to retain an influential political role for itself well past the time when it had ceased be a major economic power.
Some reviewers have charged that this book is a rehash of the work of Tom Friedman et. al. and, to some extent, that is true. However, I believe that Zakaria adds a new dimension to the established point of view that globalization's cheerleaders (like Friedman) have offered. His experience as an immigrant to the US, his roots in Indian culture, and his own personal observations give him a broader perspective and, not incidentally, one that is a good deal more optimistic than some of the others who have written on similar topics (notably Clyde Prestowitz, whose excellent book Three Billion New Capitalists I have also reviewed here on Amazon).
The Post-American World is an excellent candidate for reading on a Kindle, as the Kindle copy will cost you only $9.99 (as opposed to a hard copy at over $15.) and since the book has no maps you will not miss anything by using the Kindle. The only drawback I have found with the Kindle is that maps are not well rendered. So if you are someone who longs to read these expensive, nonfiction books before they go into paperback, the Kindle is your answer. Avid readers will recover its cost in about a year.
 excellent, poignant, and prescient August 7, 2008
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
This book should be required reading for us all. It brings together the thoughts of many of the great minds to illustrate the needs, opportunities, and challenges facing America in a world which it can no longer dominate, ignore, or control.
 More like the Post-American book August 6, 2008
2 out of 3 found this review helpful
I have mixed views on this book.
On one hand, there is a wealth of global economic information that would be interesting to anyone following the topic. The book gives you a genuine glimpse into how individuals in the countries that count as 'the rest' view current trends. This book is not uninteresting by any means.
But it has the same inherent flaws as every other book by Zakaria. Like Friedman, he puts an over-emphasis on economics and tables completely geopolitical realities. When he does mention those who would disagree with that overemphasis, his dismissive nature of those critics is way too brief. He mentions that Iran is 'Romania, not Germany' when the threat that people are concerned about is nuclear and terrorism issues, not its economic growth. He dismisses those wary of China's rise as 'neoconservatives' who don't have the facts on their side. In fact, many China watchers consistently opposed the war in Iraq. For all of Zakaria' impressive knowledge about the military balance in the early 20th century, he seems to be oblivious to the fact that China now has the world's largest submarine fleet (which makes the U.S. surface fleet in Asia he refers to quite vulnerable). Some of the anti-ship missiles they are armed with are bought from Russia for less than a million dollars each, and can sink multi-billion dollar warships. The dollar figure of military budgets is mattering less and less today, so Zakaria can't determine victory or defeat simply based on dollar figures.
The second typical flaw of a Zakaria book present in his latest one is his complete ignorance of those affected negatively of globalization. He attributes negative American feelings toward trade, immigration, and globalization to be because of scaremongering, yet all of these things have caused massive wage stagnation and manufacturing job losses in the millions since we embarked on the free trade kool-aid. For all his analyses on the reasons why civilizations fall from their place of greatness, he seems to gloss over the fact that Rome fell when it produced too little and consumed too much - a process that is replicating itself for America through globalization. There is zero sympathy to be found from the author for the auto worker who lost his job and is put in a mid life crisis because it got sent to China, and I think this sets an extremely bad precedent, especially since Barack Obama is reading this book.
If Zakaria provided more factual basis for talking down his critics and political persuasions he disagreed with, and perhaps laid out some solutions for those Americans who have been and are being slaughtered by free trade agreements, I would rate this book five stars. But it doesn't do that.
All in all, I find something very ironic about this book. It's called the 'post-American world' but the only way for that term to really be fulfilled is if we follow Zakaria's recomendations of brainless trade policy, unrestricted immigration, and selling ourselves to China so we can, as he says, "buy a couple extra lattes." It is, after all, all those things which has played a vital part in the 'rise of the rest.' Where would China and India be today without an opening of Western markets? They need the consumer base we have. And once even one fifth of their populations have a middle class that is big enough to compare to the current American consumer base, they won't need these trade agreements anymore.
Definitely not Fareed Zakaria's best book out there.
Unipolar to multipolar - but what are the poles? August 5, 2008
From the end of World War II until 2003 there was one nation that exceeded all others in economic prosperity, military strength and cultural power. That was further exemplified in 1989 when the Berlin Wall came crashing down and Hasselhoff sang for freedom. Yet, in 2003 the US's position as sole superpower - economically, politically, militarily and culturally - began to crumble.
Zakaria sees this change from a unipolar to multipolar world. While the rising powers - China, India and the EU - may not eclipse the United States in these areas, their relative power will rise (and have risen) to a degree that the United States cannot merely ignore them.
In his comparison between British Power of the early 20th century and American power, Zakaria introduces a contrast between the two. The UK had lost economic power but maintained political power - both hard (military) and soft (cultural and general good will). In the end the economic problems - of both loss of secondary and tertiary industrial dominance, and the sheer size of the new powers, the US and USSR - caused the UK to be eclipsed. Yet for a while the UK maintained a political role, through both lingering power and clever diplomacy. Zakaria shows how the current American situation is reversed. It has a loss of power - both militarily and politically (largely because of the adventure in Iraq) - but maintains its power economically.
Is it too late for the US? Zakaria thinks not; the next administration can rebuild some of the bridges the old has burnt and continue building the relationships the Bush started (i.e. with India - one of the only foreign policy situations I, personally am in agreement with the Bush Administration). Furthermore, the base of the American economic system, its financial architecture and its flexible superstructure (Zakaria does not use these nomenklatura, but that's what he means), will also allow the US to continue its economic power. What the US must do, according to Zakaria and for which I am in agreement, is build on the post War architecture of the Bretton Woods and UN systems of international organizations to create responsive procedures to new challenges - global warming, terrorism and energy security. This can be done either through the creation of new organizations directly charged with such sectors or through the broadening and deepening of powers already charged to such organizations.
While Zakaria appears to see what are the new challenges, his role in creating the current crisis in political power is glossed over at best. On pages 223-224, his mini mea culpa on the Iraq War attempts to avert some of the blame that can be laid upon him. But, he does not cover how his (and Christopher Hitchens') support of the Iraq adventure, allowed others from the center-left and the caviar gouche to not do their homework on the war before expressing support. While I have long felt Zakaria has a great grasp of the "big picture" and this book furthers that opinion, his myopic views of smaller pictures leaves much to be desired. (I am discussing not only his support for the Iraq imperialism but also such things as his attack on the left and center-left detractors of the Free Trade Area of the Americas without understanding their issues). This book fits well into his largely coherent and correct vision of the big picture. I would suggest anybody from IR geeks to casual observers pick this one up.
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