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I recently reported some overall impressions of the excellent After the Empire, by Emmanuel Todd. This post introduces his arguments and includes a number of quotes. I don’t intend to go anywhere with the arguments yet; at this point I’m just recording them.
Part of the pleasure of this book is encountering a European outlook: Todd has Jewish and French cultural roots, and he was trained in research at Cambridge. This book was a bestseller in Germany as well as France. So as an American I might hope to overhear something of what they say about us.
Todd is quite sympathetic as he offers what he sees as uncomfortable truths:
I have to admit that I come to the task of writing the preface for the American edition of Après l’Empire with mixed feelings. I must here address Americans on the subject of their own country, and I do not see how a normal human being could take pleasure in telling other normal human beings that their country is ill, that it has made foolish strategic choices, and that they, as Americans, must prepare for a reduction of their power, and, most likely, of their standard of living.
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