Book Description
In recent years, one book after another has sought to take the measure of the Bush administrations aggressive foreign policy. In their search for precedents, they invoke the Roman and British empires as well as postwar reconstructions of Germany and Japan. Yet they consistently ignore the one place where the United States had its most formative imperial experience: Latin America. A brilliant excavation of a long-obscured history, Empires Workshop is the first book to show how Latin America has functioned as a laboratory for American extraterritorial rule. Historian Greg Grandin follows the United States imperial operations, from Thomas Jeffersons aspirations for an empire of liberty in Cuba and Spanish Florida, to Ronald Reagans support for brutally oppressive but U.S.-friendly regimes in Central America. He traces the origins of Bushs policies to Latin America, where many of the administrations leading lightsJohn Negroponte, Elliott Abrams, Otto Reichfirst embraced the deployment of military power to advance free-market economics and first enlisted the evangelical movement in support of their ventures. With much of Latin America now in open rebellion against U.S. domination, Grandin concludes with a vital question: If Washington has failed to bring prosperity and democracy to Latin Americaits own backyard workshopwhat are the chances it will do so for the world?
Customer Reviews:
Lots of Info.......2007-08-13
Very well researched but could tell it was written by a historian. Somewhat repetitive and bland. Obviously liberally biased.
Amazing book on US intervention in its own backyard.......2007-08-01
This is truly an excellent book that in a clear way illustrates American involvement in South and Central America.The book begins by telling the story about how Kennedy set out to reshape the Americas into a place where true revolutionary ideals could grow spread by free men and women. He started something called the "Alliance for progress" which contained the nucleus of this idea. The problem was that he armed exactly those people who where completley opposed to these revolutionary ideas. thus began an era of counterrevolution, that gave birth to the death squads and coups in Brazil, Uruguay, Chile and Argentina. When Richard Nixon arrived in Venezuela in 1958 his limousine was attacked by an angry mob. The next day they cleared the streets with tear gas so he could leave safely. This set the tone for American and Latin American relation in the coming years. Allendes election in Chile terrified Nixon because Allende wasnt trying to create another Cuba with Soviet style repression of civil liberties. He wanted a socialist state that would be a symbol of real reform, and this was truly frightening to Washington. Therefore Nixon with the help of the strong arm of the CIA ordered Allendes downfall.
Later when Reagan came to power he saw his purpose to reinstate a sense of national purpose and this he did by restoring military power. Almost all of Latin America was ruled at the time by pro american dictators, but something was starting to brew in Central America. The hardest hit countries where El Salvador, Nicaragua and Guatemala. US allies killed approximatley 300,ooo people during Reagans two terms. Hundreds of thousands where tortured. Jean Kirkpatrick advised the Reagan administration to undo the human rights programs that Carter had initiated and spoke instead of the true nature of politics that was based on "competition for power", and that "brute force" was often better than "human reason". This rationalized such things as the dictatorships death squads-because "salvadors political culture respected a sovreign who was willing to wield violence". America now painted itself as the vanguard against the evill empire of the Soviet Union and this was used as an excuse to legitemize the brutal opposition to third world nationalism. In countries like El salvador, Guatemala and Nicaragua, the United States did not make the same mistake as they did in Vietnam. Instead they "outsourced" their army and by supporting local bad boys let death squads do their dirty work. The idea of "going primitive" was implemented in these conflicts, where the most brutal crimes against human rights imaginable where committed.To tell you the truth I skimmed past most of the descriptions of the violence due to the intense brutality that was described.
Already in the 1960s Kennedy had installed such anti-communist paramilitary groups in El Salvador called ANSESAL and ORDEN. These groups where to work preemptively to stop any communist threats in the area. These groups where such a large part of the political oppression that eventually the people rose up,and this gave the Reagan administration the motivation they needed to "go primitive". One US expert said that "the horrible lesson of El Salvador is that terrorism works". Several torturers defected from the notorious Battalion 316 and testified in American courts of how they where trained by American specialists. They where taught to employ psychological torture instead of physical torture. This is what we are seeing today in Abu Graihb. Ofcourse if this didnt work then the good old hands on methods where used. Finally at the end of the cold war in 1991 the FMLN rebels where not defeated and saw to it that the United States helped to implement the changes that they had long been fighting for. If El Salvador was bad then Guatemala was worse. Here there was a literal genocide that moved into its most brutal faze when Ronald Reagan became president. The military turned the Guatemalan highlands into a "slaughterhouse" committing as many as 600 massacres there between 1981 and 1983. Most of the victims being Indian men, women and children, all the while Reagan pushed military aid to the area.
Reagan was also handson in rearming Somozas National guard and with the help of the CIA turning that ruthless group of marauding thugs into the "freedom fighters" better known as the Contras. After the US government froze the funding for the Contras Reagans accomplice Oliver North was sent to negotiate arms deals with Iran, securing large sums of money for the Contras. Large amounts of evidence say that he also negotiated delas with drug cartels to have access to their planes bringing weapons to the contras while giving them easier access to US markets for their drugs. The Contras where infamous for their "murders, mutilations, tortures and rapes" and at the end of the war an apporximate 30,000 civilians hand been killed, most at the hands of the Contras. They destroyed schools, health clinics, and power stations to show the Nicaraguan civilians that the Sandinistas werent capable of bringing stability to the region. There also followed an intense degredation of the Sandinistas in US media. The sandinistas where linked to such things as "terrorism, nuclear submarines, religious and ethnic persecution, totaliarianism, Castro, East germany Bulgarians, Libya, Iran, and even the Bader meinhoff gang".
The American christian right opposed itself to "peace christianity"(the same thing as liberation theology)-this christianity opposed Reagans policies in Central America. Liberation theology said that democracy and capitalism were antithetical values. This liberation teology also threatend the new right because they opposed the rights claim that capitalism was linked to human freedom. The christian right therefore now claimed that corporate capitalism mirrors "god's presence on earth". They fought latin american liberation theology with an american "theology of the corporation". They called liberation theology the "theology of mass murder" and claimed it to be "the single most critical problem that christianity has faced in its 2000 year history". The evangelical christian right argued that in a universe of free will where the good are rewarded and the bad are punished, then the USA is a shining example of gods blessing. The misfortune of the third world was "gods curse". The christian right proclaimed Robert DÁubuisson, the despicable murderer of the El Salvadorian archbishop Oscar Romero, as hero and freedom fighter.
This is infact the story of how American corporate elites helped to bring down reformist presidents in places like Chile, Brazil, and Guatemala. Dictatorships where therefore needed for these countries to understand the values of individualism, consumerism and passive rather than participatory democracy. Grandin writes that "Chile had fulfilled the new rights agenda of defining democracy in terms of economic freedom and restoring the power of the executive branch." In 1973 the US experienced a deep economic recession therefore third world nationalism was seen as a great obstacle to economic recovery. This led to Latin Americas "second conquest". First the Spanish and the Portugese took all the gold. Then during the second half of the nineteenth century and the beginning of the twentieth the second faze came- which "entailed the initial phase of US corporate expansion, as firms like United Fruit Company, Standard Oil, and Phelps Dodge turned on the region as a source of raw materials and agricultural products, coming to control most of the continents railroads, electric companies,ports, mines and oil fields." The third conquest began in the 1980s "Railroads, postal service, roads, factories, telephone services, schools, hospitals, prisons, garbage collection services,water, broadcast frequencies, pension systems, electric, television,and telephone companies were sold off-often not to the highest but to the best connected bidder." Much of this property landed with multinational corporations or with latin American "superbillionaires- this was a new class that had taken advantage of the dismantling of the state.
Although Latin America now has democracies with the exception of Cuba many of its countries are devestated economically. Countries like Guatemala, Nicaragua and El Salvador all suffer from incredible poverty In Latin America 165 millionpeople live on less than 2 dollars a day. 60 people are murdered in Guatemala city each week. For many people the only alternative is to try to make it into America through Mexico to find work. This is becoming increasingly difficult due to the tough border patrols. All this has resulted in a new movement in Latin America, which could be called the anti-globalization movement. More and more left politicians are being elected and are protesting against free-market orthodoxy. This to me is a hopefull sign. And even though the Us keep projecting their imperial ambitions in Iraq I think its clear that if they couldnt do it in their own backyard they wont be able to do it in the middle east either. All in all I think that this was a great book and I can reccomend it to anyone that wants to learn more about US foreign policy and how it has effected the third world.
Not in your history book.......2007-07-11
This is a great book that details America's foreign policy with Latin America during between roughly 1950 to present. With a good deal of time being spent in the 1980s and 1990s. The book specifically addresses the support of Latin American rebels that launched and led coups of political leaders in their respective countries. A lot of time is given to the post-Vietnam economic/war engine that America was attempting to create in the wake of the Vietnam disaster. Hearing stories about how our country and leaders were constantly overthrowing leaders, putting new ones in power, only to overthrow them shortly thereafter . . . is quite disturbing. The book is a part of The American Empire Project, which seems extremely interesting. My only complaint about the book would be the sheer amount of details and timelines that get thrown about. While this definitely shows good research . . . at times it left you confused as to what was being discussed as the author jumped from the 50's to the 70's to the 90's and then back to the 70's. It wasn't written with a linear timeline. But rather a philosophy timeline. Which I found confusing at times. But I definitely recommend the book if you are at least somewhat curious about what Cheney, Rumsfield, and Reagan's pals were up to in Latin America. And even how that policy is being reflected in the Middle East today.
Bit Overreaching.......2007-05-24
I felt Mr. Grandin had some very interesting insights into U.S. history in Latin America and its relevance on current administration policy and our involvement in Iraq. I thought that the background on Nicaragua and El Salvador, in particular, was very insightful as was his description of the "PR Campaigns" that have been waged domestically. I found Mr. Grandin's linkage of the militarists and the Christian right to be an interesting perspective. However, particularly towards the end of the book I felt that the stereotypes and judgments in the book were overreaching and that Mr. Grandin offered plenty of criticisms of U.S. foreign policy without offering any meaningful solutions.
It's all connected.......2007-04-07
I've understood for some time that there is a connection between US foreign policy history, corporate globalization, militarism, and current events around the world -- and that US rhetoric says one thing, while US policy often does the opposite. This is the first book I've read that presents the timeline and the players of our involvement in Latin America so completely and so accessibly. I'm not a history buff, or a political scientist, or an academic - just someone who believes that it's important to understand our history so that I can better understand the present and be an informed participant in our democracy. I'm following the events in Iraq and elsewhere with a greater understanding of the US's true objectives and methods.
Book Description
People around the world are confused and concerned. Is it a sign of strength or of weakness that the US has suddenly shifted from a politics of consensus to one of coercion on the world stage? What was really at stake in the war on Iraq? Was it all about oil and, if not, what else was involved? What role has a sagging economy played in pushing the US into foreign adventurism and what difference does it make that neo-conservatives rather than neo-liberals are now in power? What exactly is the relationship between US militarism abroad and domestic politics? These are the questions taken up in this compelling and original book. Closely argued but clearly written, 'The New Imperialism' builds a conceptual framework to expose the underlying forces at work behind these momentous shifts in US policies and politics. The compulsions behind the projection of US power on the world as a 'new imperialism' are here, for the first time, laid bare for all to see. This new paperback edition contains an Afterword written to coincide with the result of the 2004 American presidental election.
Customer Reviews:
Provocative.......2006-05-23
Picking up on a few key theoretical points not included in other reviews. Harvey is pressing an academic point within the broad Marxian tradition-- a point which also has broad practical consequences for confronting imperialism's latest incarnation. A central contention is that the capitalist world has been experiencing a crisis of overaccumulation since about 1973, as evidenced by a lack of opportunities for profitable investment (for which, by the way, he offers no statistical data, but which is not at issue here). Growth prior to the 1973 watershed, he argues, was driven by expanded reproduction with the US exercising hegemonic authority as a result of its WWII reorganization of old European colonialism. However, for various reasons (chiefly Vietnam era inflation) this regime broke down. At that point, he argues, the much-marginalized neo-liberal thinking of von Mises and von Hayek began to get a sympathetic hearing and commenced its long march through the institutions of the capitalist world. This new strategy utilizes neo-liberal measures, such as trade and finance liberalization (IMF, World Bank, GATT, et al.) to force open hitherto closed or regulated foreign markets, thereby helping to employ surplus capital. A related tool is to force devaluation upon a target economy, enabling foreign investors to buy cheaply and improve opportunity for increased profit margins. Thus, in broad outline, a new form of imperialism has arisen, one that remains similar to its classic colonial predecessor in that it still seeks to relieve accumulation problems at home by shifting profitability problems abroad, sometimes forcibly so.
Harvey descibes this new imperialism as accumulation by dispossession, a controversial description since dispossession in classic Marxist thinking is supposed to be restricted to the primitive forms of accumulation of times gone by. Still, the evidence is considerable given the wave of privatization of formerly public assets (water and education, in particular) in many parts of the world, (think also of recent attacks on Social Security). Indeed, these institutional measures inside and outside the US, do in fact resemble the classic "enclosues" of capital's earlier, more primitive stage. Recent attacks on formerly state-sponsored economies such as Yugoslavia's and Iraq's amount to further cases in point. But, again, this revived dispossession need not depend on military invasion; the subtler form attacks through the avenues of capital markets and state-sponsored privatization. Though the current period is dominated by dispossession, Harvey points out that accumulation by reproduction still continues. In fact, he asserts, the two are `organically' related and `dialectically' connected, for which however he offers scant elaboration.
The practical upshot of imperialism by dispossession is to force a shift in anti-imperialist thinking away from the familiar strategies that challenged the pre-1973 expanded reproduction regime. That earlier response stressed organizing the proletariat into a political force in order to seize state power in behalf of socialist principles. Movements outside that exclusive strategy were considered secondary at best, and counter-revolutionary at worst. Though this effort failed in its primary task, the author points out that it's hard to conceive of Europe's social democracies or America's New Deal as taking place without the single-minded drive of communist party politics. However, these methods are now clearly inadequate for confronting neo-liberalism and its capacity to bypass both organized labor and state power (consider neo-liberalism's sabotage of France's Mitterand in his effort to deepen socialist programs in the 1980's). Instead, current forms of resistance are much more diverse and localized, as evidenced by Mexico's Zapatista movement or Bolivian resistance to water privatization schemes. If there's a central rallying cry among these diverse groups, it's opposition to `globalization', at least in neo-liberal form. Generally, the central challenge facing anti-imperialists, as Harvey sees it, is to combine the wisdom of former strategies with the developing modes of today-- a not inconsiderable task, to say the least.
All in all, this is a stimulating read. There is much to digest, especially in grappling with the theoretical aspects. It's important to point out that Harvey approaches the topic as a critical observer and not as an economist, a fact which some may count as a fault since many of the conclusions rest on economic data. Still and all, the work remains an important prism for examining current trends.
American Empire on a New Course?.......2005-12-08
Excellent book...
D. Harvey places in context the recent developments in US foreign policy. He wrote this book before April 2003 yet, he could still easily see through the smoke screen arguments of WMD, democracy!
Concerning Iraq, Harvey argued that the main goal of USA was regime change and to establish a client state there to control the oil reserves & routes of Middle East. He reminds the US had plans set up for a conflict with Iraq much before the first Gulf War.
Harvey notes the existence of a US empire was long recognized by leftists long ago. It was only after 9/11 when the conservatives started also to recognize this empire and in fact argued for the benefits of one. During Clinton years, this American empire was more like the old Ottoman Empire, a tolerant one with light footprints. Now, it is more like the hard-pressing Roman Empire, trying to change cultures wholesale, not satisfied with only the consent of governments. Most Americans don't understand this, but the pressure by USA in less developed countries in fact causes only resentment and anger there.
He also speculates the war may be a method to distract Americans from rebelling against the government because of deteriorating conditions in economy.
Overall, it is an easy short read containing substantial arguments.
Right on the money, though tough reading........2005-07-08
In the last thirty years or so, there has been a growing body of thought and literature in the world that America is the next Empire, maybe not in the Roman mold, but surely as powerful as the old English empire. Contributions to this train of thought have come from numerous corners; peace activists protesting the Vietnam War, anti-globalization groups protesting US corporations, French farmers protesting McDonalds, Muslim scholars and clerics throughout the world, and isolationists within American politics. These groups and their arguments have tended to emphasize the how of empire; how America came to empire, how it is an Empire, and of course, how we will fall like other Empires. This book tries to give a why, and does so from the oldest of corners opposing the American Way: socialism, and the writings of Marx and his followers. As such, it does an impressive job within a very short number of pages.
To be brief, this book proposes several points. First, America has gradually turned into an empire over the last fifty years. As evidence, the author points to the dozens of military bases the US has around the world. American now has more military installations in more places than any other nation that has ever existed. Many of these bases are located in countries that are not democratic; i.e. the citizens of these countries did not vote to invite America's military in. The only possible conclusions are that the local government stays in power through America's support (financial or otherwise), or are outright puppet governments.
Second, this is not an empire built on the control of land and the founding of colonies in say the English mold, but instead is an empire built on opening up consumer markets for American corporations and controlling non-renewable natural resources such as oil, again for domestic consumption. The first part of this argument is self-evident; America has no colonies in the most literal sense and our ambassadors in most countries are holed-up in concrete fortresses instead of prancing around like local kings of the hill. The second part of this argument is also as self-evident, to those whose eyes and ears are open. Specifically, America's aid, money, attention and soldiers often end up in places that are either important trade posts (Suez and Panama Canals), have oilfields (the entire Middle East), or have a large business community which we do business with (Japan, Taiwan, South Korea, Germany).
Third, America has made this transformation to the ignorance of most of its citizens, but to the alarm and suspicion of almost everyone else. This is probably the most important point of this book. Pull over any American on the street, give her a map of the world and ask her to point out all the countries which have been militarily attacked (bombed, invaded, occupied, etc...) by the US since 1900 (excluding the two World Wars). She should answer Vietnam, Iraq, Afghanistan, and might recall North Korea, Somalia and Serbia. She will probably leave out Haiti, Cuba, Panama, Philippines, Libya and Mexico, and will surely be unawares of Russia (US troops invaded during the Russian Revolution), Cambodia (secret bombings ordered by Nixon during the Vietnam War) and China (prior to World War II). No other nation in the history of the world has intruded upon the soil of so many other countries as has the USA. If this does not qualify America as an empire, than nothing can.
Fourth, this growth of empire has been fueled by the same historical reasons and processes that fueled the growth of the British Empire, the Nazis, the Roman Empire, and other great empires. War serves as a way to divert the public attention from domestic troubles; usually economic. To be exact, the fruits and costs of war alleviate various economic pressures that could doom a nation's leadership if otherwise left to fester. The centuries prior to England's Age of Empire was marked by a stratification of English society. Most of the livable land in England passed into the ownership of a small, wealthy minority. You were either born into it or outside of it. Those born into it were not going to give up wealth to their less privileged brethren, so colonial expansion provided a way by which those born outside of it could achieve wealth and status in life. Population growth was relieved by sending people off to other lands. The poor benefited because emigration kept the labor pool small, thereby keeping up wages. The rich benefited because English colonies provided an outlet for their produced goods, and a source of natural resources (e.g. tea from India) and cheap labor (cotton from the American south). Similarly, war and the resulting influence of other countries economic and political policies help the US economy grow.
Fifth, all of this is not unexpected. The path America has taken was described over a century ago by Karl Marx and his followers as the path all capitalist countries take. After the end of the Cold War, intellectuals the world over concluded that Marxist thought was over; relegated to the trash heap of history. Actually, the historical processes described my Marx have played themselves out numerous times in the 20th century.
Sixth, the current Bush administration marks a watershed in the history of America, akin to the rule of Augustus in Rome. Specifically, the latter's rule marked the official transition from Roman Republic to Roman Empire. The Bush administration, with either the consent or ignorance of the American electorate, have quickly exited the numerous treaties it had bound itself to in the previous five decades, has openly called out enemies to oppose, and has invaded two countries (so far). As such, the span from 2001 - 2008 is when America, in the eyes of others, has decided to transform from world leader to world bully, akin to the transition from Roman Republic to Roman Empire.
Seventh, like all empires, America clothes its actions abroad (i.e. foreign policy) in morals and ethics, but they are mostly driven by self-interest. The author does not argue this point fully, primarily because it is elaborated elsewhere. This keeps the page count down, but reduces the impact and persuasiveness of the book. In response to the other (incredibly ignorant) review for this book, I will take up this argument here.
a. In World War II, the US declared war on the Nazis ONLY AFTER they declared war on the US. If the US was such a high-minded nation as the other review implies, America would have declared war on Germany the moment Nazi troops entered Poland. Related to this, millions of Jews tried to flee Europe during the 1930's and 1940's. Many of them tried to enter the US. The US rejected most of them and only allowed in those with political connections, those with money, and those with training in quantum physics, nuclear physics, weapons technology (Einstein, Oppenheimer, etc...), and others that could help US science and technology. If the US was such a moral nation, it would have allowed in all the Jews. We, America, defeated the Nazis because they declared war on us, and posed a mortal threat to us. This is no different and no better than one street gang eliminating another street gang that steps on its turf.
b. During the Cold War, the US intervened militarily in other countries to prevent the spread of communism. This was often and usually done without the explicit consent of the populations of the host countries. Vietnam is a prime example. Throughout the 1960s, the US military frequently held secret, mock elections in villages throughout South Vietnam. The Communist candidates nearly always won, even when the US-backed candidates had more funding and resources to bribe the electorate. Why? Because the Communist candidates offered what the people wanted. This is why there was never an election in South Vietnam during the US occupation. America did not care about what the South Vietnamese wanted; we only cared about what we wanted.
c. During the Cold War, the US provided aid to other countries that publicly supported the fight against communism. An example is South Africa. As long as the white government publicly opposed communism, the US government and US corporations turned a blind eye towards apartheid. It was only the civil rights movement, and especially black activists that brought this to a halt in the 1980s.
These and other experiences in countries around the world prove beyond a doubt that America did not care about liberty, justice, freedom and democracy in other countries, but only that they oppose communists. The question then begs as to why America was so interested in opposing communism. This leads to the last point argued in this book. Every empire needs an opposite; Greece had Persia, Rome had Carthage, the English had first the Spanish and then later Napoleon. We had communists. Communists are bad for business because they believe in communal, non-transferable rights to everything, which is anathema to the concept of individual, transferable ownership of anything, the basis of capitalism and business. Who runs America? Not civil rights leaders like Caeser Chavez or Martin Luther King Jr. Not progressive politicians like Eugene Debs or Ralph Nader. No, America is run by businessmen (current and ex) and those who cater to business interests. It was Robert McNamara, JFK and others connected to the business world who led America and its naïve president LBJ into Vietnam, not those who were fighting for freedom and liberty like MLK Jr. or Malcolm X.
In all, this is a great book to read, though the text is tough and hard to work through.
Pure lies.......2005-06-20
Let us examine the argument herein:
1) The U.S is an empire
2) U.S interests conspire to dominate the world bank, the IMF and the U.N to push american interests.
Let us see how this was done. In 1941 when the Nazis had overun all of Europe and the Japanese tried to take over Asia, America dared to be an evil imperialist by opposing Nazism, after all Nazism was actually 'anti-colonial'.
When the Russians took over Eastern Europe and ensalved their own people and those of 15 other nations America dared to stand up for its imperial interests and defend Europe and the world. Instead America should have done nothing and let the world all end up like North Korea so that every nation can end up like cambodia where 1/3 of the population is killed and 1/3 put in a Gulag.
In the 2000s when Militant Islam went on a rampage in Europe, in Nigeria, the Phillipines, Indonesia, Thailand, Sudan, Israel and India, slaughtering innocents, America dared to retaliate when 3000 of its citizens were killed.
This is the empire of America. The WTO and IMF bail out starving nations, helps build dams and infrastructure and that is bad. Yes America is an empire and if these are the sins America is accused of then America must keep going full steam ahead, and keep opposing religious fundamentalism, Nazism and th enslavement of the world.
Seth J. Frantzman
Book Description
What is behind the American-led war in Iraq? Has the long and uninterrupted march towards globalization and world economic interdependence reached a zenith and begun to regress? What will be the consequences for the United States and for the world? The author explains the fundamental shift that foreign and domestic policies have taken under George W. Bush, since September 11, 2001. Besides attempting to focus a critical light on the new international geopolitical situation against the backdrop of the war in Iraq, the book adopts the larger perspective of the evolution of Western civilization over the last five and a half centuries, that is, since the fall of Constantinople in 1453.
Customer Reviews:
Informative and Original.......2006-08-16
This is a very informative book and a must read for anyone interested in understanding why the Bush administration is so prone to launching wars in the oil-rich Middle East region. The author, a renowned economist, is very knowledgeable about the economics and domestic politics that support such warmongering efforts. He identifies the pro-Israel Neocon movement and its alliance with the lunatics of the religious Right as important forces in the push toward involving the U.S. in wars abroad. The military-industrial complex and the strategic importance of Middle East oil are represented by Vice President Dick Cheney in the Bush administration, and are also prime movers of war.
Probably the most original part of this book is its chronology of empires and how Western civilization started its ascendency after the fall of Constantinople in 1453. This chapter (chap. 16) is worth buying the book in itself. The author's style is direct and pulls no punches. An excellent book.
A Way Out of the Mess?.......2006-06-23
As an amateur student of American foreign policy, I am appalled by the wave of anti-americanism it has generated over the last few years. The policy of systematically meddling in the internal affairs of other countries, especially in the Middle East, has been most counter-productive.
There is no doubt that unbridled interventionism, often done illegally and under murky influences, is the root cause of why there is so much anti-americanism around the world. And case in point is the gratuitous violence imposed on some Muslim countries, i.e. Iraq and Palestine. This is creating tons of resentment all over the Muslim world, turning many to hatred and some to terrorism.
Tremblay's book offers a way out of this circular dilemma: Apply to the Muslim world the same treatment given to the Communist world with the 1975 Helsinki Accords. As he puts it (p. 152-53), the Helsinki Accords, signed by 33 Eastern and Western European countries, the United States, and Canada, played a fundamental role in opening up the communist bloc to liberty, freedom and reforms. I doubt that bombs would have brought the same result.
Former President Mikhail Gorbachev has said that the Helsinki Accords opened the door to reforms that would not have taken place otherwise. Why can we not adopt a similar approach with the Muslim world, instead of jumping all the time on the war wagon? This is a well-written and well-researched book. It is highly recommended.
The On-going Drama in the Middle East.......2006-05-17
People who want a condensed introduction on how the Bush administration walked into a quagmire in Iraq should read "The New American Empire". I don't agree with all of Tremblay's arguments, but in my opinion he hits the nail on the head when he identifies the real reasons why Bush II invaded Iraq, i.e oil, Israel, military bases and domestic politics. By the way, the same scenario seems to be repeating itself with Iran, with the same deception about the real reasons for intimidating Iran.
So, even if you do not agree with everything the author has to say, this book is worth a ton of newspapers articles or hours of TV reporting. The chapters on `Oil' and on the `History of Empires' are worth buying this book.
Behind the Iraqi Mess.......2006-04-03
Among the many books written on the Iraq war and the Bush administration's fixation with militarism, this book by economist Tremblay is one of the most readable and most informative.
The fact that George W. Bush was planning a premeditated attack on Iraq to secure 'regime change' in that country, even before he took power in January 2001, should make people pause and think. So should the Neocon blueprint for a complete American take-over of the Middle East ("Rebuilding America's Defenses"), drafted in Sept. 2001, by Cheney, Rumsfeld, Wolfowitz, Jeb Bush and Lewis Libby.
Now that Iraq is a mess, that thousands and thousands of people have been killed, and hundreds of billions of dollars have been wasted, the American people are entitled to know the real reasons why the Bush administration launched an illegal war of aggression against Iraq, with no provocation but with a lot of bad faith. All the official reasons have been proven false. After reading this book, one knows the real reasons behind one of the most foolish enterprises ever undertaken by a U.S. government abroad. I have learned a lot also from prof.
Tremblay's new blog: http://www.TheNewAmericanEmpire.com/blog.
The truth shall set you free!
Very Informative.......2006-03-11
I found this book fascinating. It is full of insights. This is a book hard to put down.
If you want to know why there are so many wars, read this book.
Book Description
The basis of the 1959 film starring Peter Sellers, this classic cold war satire-cum-parable-cum-political farce was first serialized in the Saturday Evening Post almost 50 years ago, appearing under the title The Day New York Was Invaded. At the time, the U.S. was afraid of a nuclear attack by Russia — the idea of an attack by a small country was so absurd as to seem comical. Wibberley’s tiny European nation is furious about unfair U.S. trading practices, so they send an army to invade New York City, march up Broadway, and accidentally capture the world’s newest and most destructive bomb. Then they have to figure out what to do with it. A whimsical cross between Kubrick and Kafka, The Mouse That Roared is a quirky classic of world literature, a poignant tale of political morality, and a hilarious, ultimately triumphant portrait of international relations from the perspective of the little guy.
Customer Reviews:
Quite a good book.......2007-08-23
I had to read this for 10th grade English, and it is one of the (very) few good books i have read for school.
The author tells the story in a humorous, interesting manner, and the story line is good. If I had not already known, I would have never guessed that is was written in the 50's. Being a political satire, the novel poses many things to think about besides the story. This is fairly quick and easy read also. I would recommend it.
Pleasant story.......2007-05-22
We are spending part of the weekend at my brother's house. When I visit family and friends I like to spend a few minutes and look through their bookshelves. You can tell a lot about people by the kinds of books they read. I've been checking out my brother's books.
Last night I happened across The Mouse That Roared by Leonard Wibberly in one of my brother's bookshelves. (Yes, he had a nice collection of books.) Years ago I had watched part of the movie version with Peter Sellers. It seemed like a pleasant movie, but for some reason I had never watched the whole movie. I started the book last night and finished today.
The book takes place in the 1950s, during the height of the Cold War. The book creates a country named Grand Fenwick up in the Alps of Europe. It was founded 600 years ago by an Englishman. This small country is five by seven miles with 4,500 people. The country is suffering economically. An American company is illegally ce making the exact same wine that Grand Fenwick sells. Grand Fenwick tries to go through diplomatic channels for redress and is ignored. Finally they decide to declare war on the United States, with the expectation that they would lose, but that the United States would invest money into them. There was precedent for this, after World War II the United States spent billions helping Germany and Japan rebuild.
Since this is fiction there is little surprise that Grand Fenwick wins the war about two thirds of the way through the book. The rest of the book is about how Grand Fenwick handles its unexpected victory.
I enjoyed the book. It was fun and light hearted. I don't plan to track down the other four books. Maybe some day I'll happen across one of the sequels.
Excellent Book!.......2006-05-03
I did not put this book down, it was very amusing and creative! It is definitely worth a read!
Funniest Book I've Ever Read.......2006-02-06
I first read this book when I was in high school, and I liked it so much the first time that I read it again. Years later, when I was preparing my "lesson" plan for a literature class I was to teach for advanced high school-aged students, I picked this as one of the novels to study. Unfortunately, at that time it was out of print, but we found enough copies for our class and had a great time learning and laughing with the book.
Unfortunately, the topics are still as relevant today as they were in the 60's and 70's. America is still waging war. America is still a "super power" willingly flexing its collective muscles whenever and wherever. We're still seen as this huge corporation with no knowledge of or regard for the people we (often negatively) affect. It's like in the movie Hotel Rwanda, the hotel owner thanks the cameraman for filming the massacre and states a belief that it will cause an international outcry, and the cameraman states that he thinks people will see the images, say, "How horrible!" and go back to eating their dinner.
Thankfully, Leonard Wibberly did not just say, "How horrible!" but chose to write about it in a humorous and entertaining way. Maybe someday, we'll heed the message :). Until then, I'm thrilled to see that the book is back in print and has found a new audience.
Short & Refershing!.......2005-06-27
The book captivated me from beginning to end. Its observations were dead on, the plot was hilarious, the language was elegant and the characters were loveable. I couldn't ask for anything more.
Book Description
While other histories of the British empire have focused on administration, politics and policy, this collection of essays examines the cultural impact of empire on British and colonial people's sense of self, as well as on their social relations in the eighteenth century. The contributions by leading scholars analyze the ways in which theater, sociability, artistic and literary production, history, slavery and identity were affected by Britain's contacts with America, India, Africa and the South Pacific.
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Post-Colonial Shakespeares (New Accents)
Ania Loomba
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Book Description
Unique in its focus, Post-Colonial Shakespeares examines how our assumptions about key ideas such as 'colonization', 'race', and 'nation' derive from early modern English culture and looks at how such terms are themselves embedded in "colonial" forms of knowledge. Featuring original work by some of the leading critics within the field, this impressive volume explores the multiple ways of reading Shakespeare in our postcolonial context. Contributors: Andreas Bertoldi, Jerry Brotton, Jonathan Burton, Jonathan Dollimore, Terence Hawkes, Margo Hendricks, David Johnson, Michael Neill, Avraham Oz, Nicholas Visser.
Book Description
This book will address a number of urgent themes in education today that include multiculturalism, the politics of whiteness, the globalization of capital, neoliberalism, postmodernism, imperialism, and current debates in Marxist social theory. The above themes will be linked to critical educational praxis, particularly to teaching activities within urban schools. Finally, the book will develop the basis for a wider political project directed at resisting and transforming economic exploitation, cultural homogenization, political repression, and gender inequality.
Customer Reviews:
McLaren and Farahmandpur -Contra-Band Pedagogy.......2005-01-03
With the precision of a surgeon, the vision of a sage, the passion of a teacher, and the cynicism of a philosopher, McLaren and Farahmandpur examine globalization, Imperialism, Marxism, and teaching policy through well researched past, a brilliant handle on a present, and a passionate call for a future of critical revolutionary pedagogy.
McLaren and Farahmandpur address an audience ranging from theorists to elementary school teachers; thus the appropriate use of language and sentence structure. In addition, the subtle sense of humor, entwined with a rich content, make this book a must read. I give it five stars
Book Description
This innovative volume brings together original essays by leading historians of the Atlantic World, representing the latest developments in historiography of the period. The volume takes a comparative approach, with individual essays examining governance in British, Portuguese, French, Dutch and Native America. As a whole, these essays present the argument that coercive imperial authority has been vastly overrated in previous scholarship due to factors like distance, the primacy of trade over politics, and the refusal of "colonized" peoples to recognize European authority.While some of the essays look at the relationships between imperial centers and colonial peripheries, others examine interactions and experiences of people at the peripheries of their respective empires, including Native Americans, African Americans and Euroamericans. No other book collects essays on the New World empires in one volume.
Contributors:Ida Altman, H.V. Bowen, Philip Boucher, Amy Turner Bushnell, Leslie Choquette, Christine Daniels, Jack P. Greene, Mary Karasch, Wim Klooster, Elizabeth Mancke, Peter S. Onuf, John Jay Tepaske, David J. Weber, Michael Zuckerman.
Book Description
America is at a strategic crossroads. As the worldÂ's lone superpower, we face savage hostility, at home and abroad, from critics furious over our power and success—and their own failure. Should we retreat from the struggle for human freedom to please religious extremists, decayed European powers, and an irresponsible global media?
Absolutely not, according to Ralph Peters, a strategist with an unrivaled record of predicting future threats. AmericaÂ's heroic past should make us proud, but we should embrace the possibility of an even greater future. New glory will augment the old in the years ahead—if our leaders make the right decisions today.
In this sweeping, eye-opening book, Peters delivers an insiderÂ's critique of our intelligence system and our overstretched military before describing an innovative strategy befitting the greatest (and most virtuous) power in history. BACKCOVER: “Peters has produced a dynamic, intellectually challenging, must-read bookÂ…It needs to be in the hands of all policy-makers—and all those who vote for them.”
—The New York Post
“Peters is an astute and historically informed observer of the worldÂ's cultures and politics, so the vision he offers in New Glory manages to be not just inspiring but also highly realistic.”
—The National Review
“For all its thunder and lightning, New Glory is a work of optimism, written by an author steeped in history—and theology and geopolitics and even fine art. Academics will dismiss this book. Then Again, Peters has little use for academics, and says so.”
—The St. Louis Post-Dispatch
Customer Reviews:
A must read!.......2007-01-10
This book is amazing! Awesome (and I hate the overuse of that word)!
A coherent, cogent, realistic look at the status of the US in the world and a proposed strategy that would work.
Prophetic.......2006-06-10
I find the breathe of his knowledge and his ability to weave current Middle Eastern events into the context of history to be astonishing. One of the best books I've ever read.
DECENT AND INTERESTING SECURITY ASSESSMENT.......2006-04-15
Ralph Peters must have thought he was back at the Command and Staff School at Fort Leavenworth when he came up the idea to write this book. New Glory: Expanding America's Global Supremacy is an excellent example of the type of paper that most majors at Leavenworth are required to write to demonstrate the ability to conduct a strategic assessment, develop strategies and policies to address the strategic reality, and identify the type and scope of military resources required to implement those strategies and policies.
What makes this book better than the 1000 or so papers on the exact same subject generated at the various war colleges or military schools is both Ralph Peters flowery and distinct writing style and the radical positions that he advocates both for his assessment of the nature of reality and his recommended strategies. Indeed, while no one ever "flunks out" at a military graduate program, any student as radical as Mr. Peters would have a tough road arguing his positions against the "standard" school assessment.
Yet, Mr. Peters gets more right than wrong in this analysis of the world security situation. If anything, his radical assessment of Europe is, in this reviewer's opinion, a bit conservative. Europe is headed for a demographic crises combined with a complete inability to assimilate its immigrant population from the Middle East. For far too long, being European has been defined as a state of being rather than a collection of actions and beliefs. Peters idea that AIDS might have a modernizing effect on Africa similar to what the Black Death had on Europe is interesting and seems plausible.
Some of Mr Peters positions are a bit less defensible. His assault on Think Tanks and former politicians is based on his experience and observations, but Mr Peters misses the point. In our society, the way to deal with factions and interest groups has always been to develop competing factions and interest groups to slug out the war of ideas in the public arena. If RAND has developed an unhealthy symbiotic relationship with the DOD (as Mr. Peters argues), then one need look no further than the Marine Corps relationship with the Potomac Institute's Center for Emerging Threats and Opportunities (CETO) to see a more effective effort at developing new ideas from a Think Tank. It seems a safe bet that either as personalities and relationships change, some think tanks will become more or less effective over time and the dollars will chase the institutions that have the best ideas.
Mr Peters attacks on "...chubby, ex politicians that only know about war from books..." is a bit misplaced. War is ever changing with the only constant being human nature, therefore even the most experienced warrior will, from time to time, face new scenarios and new requirements that will require academic study and thought. However, he is spot on that civilian leadership needs to be more open to debate, dialogue, and discovery from the uniformed members - especially those that have special combat or intellectual qualifications.
Overall, this is an excellent book and I highly recommend it.
A powerful vision of American power in the 21st Century.......2006-03-14
During the 1990s there was much talk of "the end of history" which really meant the end of armed conflict. Ralph Peters, a retired Army officer and articulate writer, debunks that notion in this incisive book. As Peters explains, "clashing is what civilizations *do*..." Peters explains that other civilizations, at present the Islamo-fascist being the best example, are humiliated and antagonized by the very existence, pervasiveness, humanity, and success of modern American-Western civilization. Elements of other civilizations (as opposed to their often powerless citizens) are often implacably antagonistic towards the West, primarily its leader, America. This will mean that the 21st Century will have no shortage of conflict, some of it armed conflict. The alternative is simply defeat.
Peters is no Republican apparachnik. He thoroughly condemns elements within the Bush Pentagon for pushing expensive and unused weapons systems such as the F22 Raptor while our soldiers in Iraq are waiting for next-generation body armor and armored vehicles. Peters' real message, as I interpreted it at least, is that armed conflict will be a defining characteristic of the 21st Century, and armed conflict means casualties and sacrifice. The notion of bloodless "technological" war, pushed mainly by reporters and others who never served in the military and know little about war or armies, comes in for ridicule.
This is a persuasive, well-written, even beautifully written piece that will not fail to engage the reader. Some of my own sacred cows came in for a thrashing by Peters, and he left me thinking and in some cases, yes, doubting. I predict that this will be the reaction of most readers and all thoughtful ones. It is no exaggeration to say that all Americans and indeed all citizens of Western nations would benefit by reading Peters' book. Whether the reader agrees with everything Peters has to say or not, Peters has a well-thought-out point of view based on a vast study of empirical data (facts). Peters may very well change minds with this one. A book that can do that is worth reading. Highly recommended.
Must Read for Every American.......2006-03-09
Tom Peter's book is a Must Read for every American, and it is especially useful for analyzing the war on terror and the future world we are moving into. Unlike other reviewers I think Mr. Peters is critical of the USA, and the way the war has been handled thus far. He makes no bones about saying Mr. Rumsfield doesn't know what he is doing and that the President (Bush) has made errors in the invasion of Iraq.
Mr. Peter's has the ability, and it is unique, to summarize a thousand years of history into one pithy paragraph. His historical observations are accurate, and his summaries of how the west and the east have evolved to their present positions are worth the price of the book all by themselves. I am not saying all his observations are absolutely correct; however, they are direct, easy to understand and the vast majority of them are accurate.
Mr. Peters believes the USA is missing huge opportunities to expand democracy in India, Africa, and South America. He sees trends there that will favor more open and modern societies that America should take advantage of; however, he believes we are failing to do this and that we will pay a large price for focusing on Europe and old European ideas of nationhood rather than focusing on the new emerging ideas of democracy and more open and modern societies that are developing around the world. He has nothing but disdain for our diplomacy, and, if he is correct in his factual statements about how our diplomats are acting, his conclusions are correct and we are in trouble.
The most important reason to buy the book and READ it is to stimulate thinking about the world and how America can play a positive roll beyond the wars in the Middle East and the old thinking of Europe. America can be a positive force in the world whether or not we "win" the war in Iraq. This books tell us how to do that in very clear and concise terms.
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- Comparison With Guns, Germs, and Steel
- Interesting Theory
- A landmark (but dated) study on the ecological dimension of European expansion
- Book Review: "Ecological Imperialism"
- Triumph of the pig, the rat, the dandelion, the smallpox virus... and the European humans who gave them a ride across the ocean
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Ecological Imperialism: The Biological Expansion of Europe, 9001900 (Canto)
Alfred W. Crosby
Manufacturer: Cambridge University Press
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Book Description
People of European descent form the bulk of the population in most of the temperate zones of the world - North America, Australia and New Zealand. The military successes of European imperialism are easy to explain; in many cases they were a matter of firearms against spears. But as Alfred Crosby explains in his highly original and fascinating book, the Europeans’ displacement and replacement of the native peoples in the temperate zones was more a matter of biology than of military conquest.
Customer Reviews:
Comparison With Guns, Germs, and Steel.......2007-10-04
In the first sentence of the prologue, Alfred Crosby defines his thesis for this book. He says: "European emigrants and their descendants are all over the place, which requires explanation." It is an interesting statement to ponder and an even more interesting one to answer. Crosby does so in a very readable, sometimes humorous style and with convincing arguments. Originally published in 1986, this has become a classic for those studying or just interested in environmental history. He delves into the subjects of not only the migrations of people, but also their animals, domesticated plants and diseases. Does this sound at all familiar? Jared Diamond took up the same subject in his Pulitzer Prize winning book, Guns, Germs, and Steel. One can't but help but compare them.
The first question to ask is Diamond's book is so popular and Crosby's not so well known? After all, Ecological Imperialism also won an award, the 1987 Ralph Waldo Emerson Prize given by Phi Beta Kappa, and justifiably so. It is solid scholarship presented in a manner accessible to anyone interested enough to pick up the book. In fact, I found it much more readable than Diamond's book, which presents so much information, it is a little hard to take it all in. Diamond expands upon several of Crosby's assertions--that not only the people from Europe successfully invaded the New World, but so did their plants, animals and germs.
A part of the history of the European invasions (or Neo-Europes as Crosby defines them) which Diamond does not cover are the attempts to settle in a new land that failed. Chapter 3 entitled The Norse and the Crusaders takes an interesting look at why the initial Norse settlements in "Vinland" did not work, and why the attempt to conquer the Holy Land for Christianity failed. In the first instance, the Norsemen came to Vinland, or what is today Newfoundland by way of Greenland, not directly from Norway. Their boats were not seaworthy enough to have made the journey directly across the Atlantic Ocean. Thus when the settlement in Greenland withered and died, so did the connection with Vinland. Crosby points out that ironically, because of the viability of the land, Vinland could have supported the colony in Greenland, but it was not possible the other way around.
These failures helped set the stage for what was to become one of the most important changes in human and ecological history. Crosby tells this story with interest and ease. Why then, has Diamond's book been so popular as opposed to Crosby's? Diamond's contains a lot more detailed information, although in my opinion this makes it more difficult to read. Diamond may have been more well known, having won the MacArthur Foundation fellowship prior to the publication of his book. But it may have been a matter of timing--the public was more interested in the topic at the time of publication, but probably there was also just some amount of sheer luck. Whatever the reason, you won't regret the time you spend with Crosby. It is a thought provoking and interesting read.
Interesting Theory.......2007-01-22
"Ecological Imperialism: The Biological Expansion Of Europe, 900-1900"
by Alfred W. Crosby. Cambridge University Press, 1986.
The implication of this book's theory is that the Europeans succeeded in the "New" World due to the imperialistic strength of European flora and fauna. European cattle and European horses conquered the plains of both North America and Argentina, making them "neo-Europes". When Columbus introduced the pig, (either inadvertently or consciously), he knew that that the porcine animal species would "conquer" their local environment. The author's excellent writing follows this theme throughout his book, but, in my opinion, he spends too much time on New Zealand ... pages 217 to 268.
Yet, if the author's thesis is correct, the book becomes a disparaging comment on human efforts. For example, compare the Pilgrims' landing in 1620 with the landing of Hernando De Cortez (1485-1547) at Vera Cruz in 1519. The Pilgrims snuck ashore, onto that Rock in Plymouth, on a cold winter's day. There was no one to meet them, as the locals (or "indigenes" as Crosby likes to call them) had all been killed off by strange and new diseases. The diseases were probably brought over by Englishmen; otherwise where did Squanto, the Indian chief, learn his rudimentary English? (Just as my aside, if the Scots, who first settled in Ulster, Ireland and then came to North America, are known as Scots-Irish, why weren't the Pilgrims known as "Anglo-Dutch"?)
In February 1519, more than a century before the Pilgrims, Hernando De Cortez landed at the Rich Villa of the Holy Cross, Vera Cruz, with some 500-600 men, to face not thousands, but hundreds of thousands. To instill courage in his men, Cortez burnt his boats. The Spanish had to go forward and they conquered an empire. On the other hand the Pilgrims occupied a dead village. In both cases, European diseases were the deciding factor, but the achievement of either group was entirely different. Crosby's book treats them as if they were equal.
I believe that Alfred W. Crosby has hit on something that bears further investigation. In the late summer of 2004, I attended a wedding in Slovenia. As we drove through Germany, I noticed goldenrod by the sides of the corn fields. I asked and I was told that goldenrod was introduced as a flowering plant but was not doing so well in Europe. I wonder if Crosby's thesis was borne out by the lack of success of goldenrod ...and other American plants? Don't get me wrong: since I am allergic to goldenrod, I am happy it was NOT successful in German farm fields, but why?
A landmark (but dated) study on the ecological dimension of European expansion.......2006-07-16
Alfred Crosby is widely credited for popularising the ecological dimension of the history of imperial expansion. For this reason, and perhaps this reason alone, his book is worth a read.
The book, first published in 1986, revolutionised the way we think about European imperial expansion into the New World. How a few hundred disoriented Europeans armed with spears and misfiring guns managed to overwhelm entire Inca and Aztec civilisations in the early sixteenth century, for example. Crosby convincingly casts aside traditional political or military explanations by attributing the astonishing Portuguese and Spanish victories to bacteriology: how diseases such as smallpox and measles that the Europeans unwittingly carried with them wiped out thousands of New World inhabitants, severely crippling their defences.
The larger point that Crosby drives across is a profound one. Historical events - in this case, European expansion and imperialism - can be explained predominantly by ecological factors. In the clash of `biotas' between the Old and the New World, the Old World won. Convincingly. Hence the presence not just of Europeans in the Americas, but also of pigs and dandelions. According to this thesis, ecology shaped European expansion; creating `Neo-Europes' in the New World that facilitated European migration, precipitating the `Caucasian wave' from the 1820s to the 1930s. Unlike in most other histories, in Crosby's ecological history, humans form the backdrop and inexorable ecological forces take centre-stage.
Refreshing as this perspective is, the way that Crosby has rendered it is problematic in on a number of accounts. By excluding humans from the picture; or at best relegating human developments to the sidelines, Crosby emerges with a dangerously reductive picture of historical development. Deterministic ecological explanations cannot alone account for European expansion - after all, we must not forget that the first European transoceanic voyages were motivated by curiosity rather than necessity. More problematic is the book's implicit assumption that ecological influence was unidirectional. In concentrating on explicating the Old World's ecological victory over the New, Crosby neglects to examine the influence that New World ecology had on the Old.
Nonetheless, Crosby's work remains a landmark study that deserves a read. Moreover, it packs a punch as a piece of writing - its lucid narratives and provocative assertions laid out with the bold and elegant strokes of a master-artist. Yet Crosby's work is also increasingly a dated study that has been qualified over and over by new works in the field, or in the related field of environmental history. Those interested in the subject should by no means stop at Crosby's book.
Book Review: "Ecological Imperialism" .......2006-04-10
Book Review: "Ecological Imperialism"
In his book, Ecological Imperialism: The Biological Expansion of Europe, 900-1900, Alfred W. Crosby investigates the roots of European domination over the western world. He calls the places where early Europeans settled "Neo-Europes" with special emphasis on North and South America , Australia , and New Zealand . In his prologue he ponders whether Europeans dominated their environment and other cultures because of their technology, or whether the consistent "success of European imperialism has a biological, [and] an ecological, component.". Crosby 's thesis is that Europeans were successful imperialists because wherever they went their agriculture and animals thrived; and the indigenous populations and local ecosystems collapsed under their biological advance.
Crosby begins at the beginning, discussing the one big continent, Pangaea, supposed to have existed in pre-history and the slow development of life forms other than reptilian, in particular Homo sapiens. The break up of Pangaea (this hypothetical super-continent) caused the "the decentralization of the process of evolution," that is, when the land cracked apart flora and fauna were spilt between the newly created continents. That continental split is the reason similar species are found in Europe and North America.
Eventually Crosby brings the reader up to the end of the Ice Age. Ten thousand years ago humans were exploring the islands of the Eastern Atlantic including Australia . Once on these islands humans domesticated plants, piled up mounds of garbage, spread disease, and hunted animals into extinction. Normally the despoilment of indigenous flora and fauna occurs over tens of thousands of years. In locations where humans arrived with mature hunting skills a sudden extinction of local plant and animal life occurred. These sudden prehistoric, or Pleistocene, overkills were the first concentrated impact humans had on virgin ecosystems.
The virgin ecosystem of Porto Santo Island was the destination of Portuguese settlers during the 1400s. Porto Santo Island was completely uninhabited and filled with untouched flora and fauna. One Portuguese ship captain brought a mother rabbit and her babies to the island. The rabbits loved Porto Santo and thrived in the island environment. So much so that soon the settlers were blasting away at the rabbits in an attempt to exterminate the entire local rabbit population. It seems the rabbits could not determine the difference between the crops meant for human consumption and the crops meant for bunny consumption. The rabbits won in this instance and for a time the settlers moved elsewhere, "defeated by their own ecological ignorance."
The experience of Spanish invaders in the Canaries showed them that no matter where they went, even if they could not out-fight their opponents, Europeans could dominate their enemies anyway. "In all these [new] places, the newcomers would conquer the human populations and Europeanize entire ecosystems." The Spanish learned from their experiences in the Canaries that their livestock and crops would succeed in these new environments; they also learned they could easily defeat the local natives without traditional warfare. The various "plagues" and "sleeping sicknesses," which the Spanish called peste and modorra, killed off and weakened natives who had no natural immunity to ailments common to the Spanish. In essence, sore throats and colds were the winning weapons of the conquerors; it was the flu that subjugated the Canaries.
The unfortunate natives of the Canary Islands , the Guanches, did not survive their meeting with the Spanish sailors. These previously isolated people died rapidly from dysentery, pneumonia, and venereal disease. According to Crosby "few experiences are as dangerous to a people's survival as the passage from isolation to membership in the worldwide community that included European sailors, soldiers, and settlers." When the Spanish conquered the Canaries the Guanches lost their land and therefore their livelihood. Some Guanches joined the Spanish army and went to fight in the Americas ; the Spanish sold others into slavery. The majority of Guanches however died of disease and the entire population became extinct.
Unlike the Guanches of the Canaries, the Maoris of New Zealand did survive despite great odds. When invaded by Europeans the Maoris assumed they would become extinct. European rats annihilated the Maori rat, an animal that was a food staple for the natives. The Maori fly might have help ward off the incursion of sheep that quickly destroyed the local flora, but invading European houseflies wiped out the local flies. Clover took over where ferns had been, and the Maori waited for their own extinction. The Maori population hit bottom in 1890 but then began a mysterious recovery and 280,000 people claim to be Maori by 1981.
In the 1500s Europeans arrived in the Americas with horses, technology (weapons), domesticated plants (crops), farm animals, germs, insects, diseases, weeds, and varmints. The garbage piled up by farmers encouraged varmint populations (mainly mice and rats) which spread disease and attacked human food supplies. Crosby devoted an entire chapter to the spread of weeds around the world. Weeds are not specific plants. "Weed" is a general term applied to a plant that spreads rapidly and encroaches on other plants. The study of where specific weeds appeared and when, aids in tracking population movements. The weeds brought by Europeans were actually another unintentional imperial victory. Weeds repaired damaged top soils and provided feed for livestock. " Rye and oats were once weeds." "Weeds are the Red Cross of the plant world; they deal with ecological emergencies." "Weeds thrive on radical change, not stability. That, in the abstract, is the reason for the triumph of European weeds in the Neo-Europes..." Weeds were resilient and thrived in soils laid bare by European plows, and damaged by drastically altered ecosystems.
European populations exploded in the Americas and Australia . What distinguished these Neo-Europes were the large food surpluses they generated. Neo-Europes led the world in food production "relative to the amount locally consumed." Other cultures actually produced more food per capita and per hectare, but the Neo-Europes exported more food than any other society. Especially successful exports from Neo-Europes were wheat, soybeans, pig products, and beef. Europeans consistently chose to settle in temperate climates where their animals and crops thrived. This was prudent and logical, it would have made no sense for Europeans to settle in torrid climates where their livestock would have suffered, and their favorite crops could not be grown.
The wind also aided European imperialists. When faced with strong winds the Portuguese marinheiros, true sailors, did not turn around and go home or sit sail-less in the water until the winds changed. Marinheiros would "sail around the wind." Sailors would tack close enough to the contrary wind to keep moving and then find a wind that they could use to continue their course. The Portuguese who perfected this "crabwise slide" called it the volta do mar, literally "going back to the sea." This understanding of winds allowed marinheiros to sail out on trade winds and back home on the westerlies.
Smallpox was the big killer of the Aztecs and the Incas in Peru ; the Huron and Iroquois in Mexico ; and the Amerindians of the United States . Crosby claims the victories of the Conquistadors over the Amerindians were "in large part the triumphs of the virus of smallpox." Besides smallpox Europeans brought dysentery and influenza; those epidemics killed almost the whole indigenous population of North America . In effect, the domination over ecology and culture by European invaders was more of a biological accident, than a well-executed military takeover.
Virgin soil epidemics spread through populations who had no prior contact with European diseases. These populations had no immunity to protect them. Virgin soil epidemics had many dramatic consequences. First, the epidemics effectively committed genocide, killing entire populations of native people around the world. Second, certain diseases (measles, influenza, tuberculosis) effected people fifteen to forty years of age more than others. These young adults were responsible for most of the labor involved in supplying food, procreation, raising children, and defending the society. The third and fourth effects of virgin soil epidemics were cultural optimism on the part of the conquerors, and cultural fatalism on the part of the conquered. When Europeans arrived and slew their rivals without raising a sword they believed that God must be on their side and this belief affirmed the rightness of their imperialistic actions. When the indigenous people died by the hoard from mysterious ailments they developed a fatalistic view of their own destiny and supposed the white man's Gods were the more powerful.
Ecological Imperialism is interesting, occasionally humorous, and easy to read. Crosby accomplishes his goal of writing a big book. This author presents a convincing and encompassing explanation for the incredible success of European imperialists. The book leaves the reader with more questions. How aggressively imperialistic were the original conquerors if all they had to do was show up and their opponents fell to the wayside? Crosby argues convincingly that Europeans were triumphant because the places they chose to conquer had ecosystems and indigenous populations that surrendered to the biology of the invaders.
Triumph of the pig, the rat, the dandelion, the smallpox virus... and the European humans who gave them a ride across the ocean.......2006-02-26
The most impressive and pleasant aspect of this new approach to world history is the non-anthropocentric perspective Crosby adopts. He tells the story of the expansion of a tightly connected group of European organisms, which includes humans alongside with other domesticated animals, crops, weeds, viruses and bacteria.
The book shows that humans were the leading elements in this great expansion beyond Europe and across the oceans - but they would not have managed to successfully invade, occupy and dominate vast areas of the planet such as America, Australia and New Zealand if they had not been supported by a powerful combination of fauna, flora and germs. In fact, often enough these supporting organisms even took the lead in making the "new-found" territories hospitable for Europeans. Once they had arrived to faraway lands with similar climatic conditions as Europe - but with much less people, germs, domesticated animals and plants - the horses, pigs, cows, sheep, bees, rats, weeds and endemic diseases carried by European vessels began spreading quickly in these totally unexposed areas, and thrived mainly by destroying the native organisms.
Another important point developed by Crosby is that this apparently aggressive invasion and occupation of other continents was actually the consequence of a long process started many thousands of generations before, and of which Europeans were totally unaware. They were simply the ones most prepared and willing to cross unknown oceans (in fact, for centuries they had to painfully learn all about winds and currents - for which many a vessel with all its human and non-human crew had to be sacrificed) and settle down many 1000 of kilometres away from their original home, because the "old continent" had become overpopulated, deforested and overgrazed. Their "ecological imperialism" was in the end part of their struggle to survive and reproduce (to the disadvantage of other human and non-human organisms).
Thus, Crosby urges his readers to think of this propagation of certain humans and their accompanying flora, fauna and germs in detriment of others as a natural phenomenon. In fact, he often compares the European ecological expansion with an "avalanche" or a "bursting dam", i.e., something that had to inevitably happen given the circumstances. In this scenario, it becomes clear that these organisms were vehicles for a great "biological revolution" (in the words of the author), where humans were the spearhead of the movement - but hardly the all-knowing, dominant, free agents they mostly imagine(d) themselves to be.
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