The Decline of American Power: The U.S. in a Chaotic World

The internationally renowned theorist contends that the sun is setting on the American empire in this "lucid, informed, and insightful" account (The New York Times).

The United States currently finds itself a] superpower that lacks true power, a world leader nobody follows and few respect, and a nation drifting dangerously amidst a global chaos it cannot control.

The United States in decline? Its admirers and detractors alike claim the opposite: America is now in a position of unprecedented global supremacy. But in fact, Immanuel Wallerstein argues, a more nuanced evaluation of recent history reveals that America has been fading as a global power since the end of the Vietnam War, and its response to the terrorist attacks of 9/11 looks certain to hasten that decline. In this provocative collection, the visionary originator of world-systems analysis and the most innovative social scientist of his generation turns a practiced analytical eye to the turbulent beginnings of the twenty-first century. Touching on globalization, Islam, racism, democracy, intellectuals, and the state of the left wing, Wallerstein upends conventional wisdom to produce a clear-eyed--and troubling--assessment of the crumbling international order.

" Wallerstein's thought] provides a new framework for the subject of European history . . . it is compelling, a new explanation, a new classification, indeed a revolutionary one, of received knowledge and current thought." --Fernand Braudel

Author: Immanuel Wallerstein
Publisher: New Press
Published: 08/01/2003
Pages: 324
Binding Type: Paperback
Weight: 0.75lbs
Size: 7.40h x 5.20w x 0.90d
ISBN: 9781565847996


Review Citation(s):
Kirkus Reviews 06/01/2003 pg. 797
Reference and Research Bk News 02/01/2004 pg. 61

About the Author
Immanuel Wallerstein is a senior research scholar in the department of sociology at Yale University and director emeritus of the Fernand Braudel Center at Binghamton University. He is also a resident researcher at the Maison des Sciences de l'Homme in Paris. His many books include The Modern World-System and Historical Capitalism. The New Press has published After Liberalism, The Decline of American Power, and a collection of his works, The Essential Wallerstein. He lives in New Haven, Connecticut, and Paris, France.