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Jun 14, 2011hertz rated this title 3.5 out of 5 stars
If I had to recommend a book to a stranger that would offer insight into the global position America finds itself in today, this would be at the top of my list. Especially at the beginning, it does offer a gleaming vision of optimism about our state of human progress and achievement. Some criticisms: A tendency to gloss over highly complex issues with general-isms and stereotypes in convenient arguments. For instance, claiming that Americans as a whole are insular, save little, and are bent on consumption. Also, while the American Muslim community may be moderate on the surface, I am sure there is a wealth of diversity, just as every human being cannot be categorized neatly. Also, I have to lament the growing tendency to over-emphasize numbers and materialism. How soul-grinding to read pages of arguments about GDP's, population growth rates, IPO's, and naval statistics. Life is more than a set of figures, and should never be deadened to the fetish of accounting. Lastly, China and India are rightly given plenty of space, yet other important emerging nations, such as Brazil, Mexico, Russia, and Indonesia, are barely acknowledged as fellow nations in the global scene.