Twilight of the American Century

by Andrew J. Bacevich

Andrew Bacevich is a leading American public intellectual, writing in the fields of culture and politics with particular attention to war and America’s role in the world. Twilight of the American Century is a collection of his selected essays written since 9/11. In these essays, Bacevich critically examines the U.S. response to the events of September 2001, as they have played out in the years since, radically affecting the way Americans see themselves and their nation’s place in the world. Bacevich is the author of nearly a dozen books and contributes to a wide variety of publications, including Foreign Affairs , The Nation , Commonweal , Harper’s , and the London Review of Books . His op-eds have appeared in the New York Times , Washington Post , and the Wall Street Journal , among other newspapers. Prior to becoming an academic, he was a professional soldier. His experience as an Army officer informs his abiding concern regarding the misuse of American military power and the shortcomings of the U.S. military system. As a historian, he has tried to see the past differently, thereby making it usable to the present. Bacevich combines the perspective of a scholar with the background of a practitioner. His views defy neat categorization as either liberal or conservative. He belongs to no “school.” His voice and his views are distinctive, provocative, and refreshing. Those with a focus on political and cultural developments and who have a critical interest in America's role in the world will be keenly interested in this book.

Genres: History, Politics

504 pages, Paperback

Published November 15, 2018

About the author

Andrew J. Bacevich, a professor of history and international relations at Boston University, retired from the U.S. Army with the rank of colonel. He is the author of Washington Rules: America's Path to Permanent War and The Limits of Power: The End of American Exceptionalism and The New American Militarism. His writing has appeared in Foreign Affairs, The Atlantic Monthly, The Nation, The New York Times, The Washington Post, and The Wall Street Journal. He holds a Ph.D. in American Diplomatic History from Princeton University, and taught at West Point and Johns Hopkins University prior to joining the faculty at Boston University in 1998. He is the recipient of a Lannan Award and a member of the Council on Foreign Relations.

http://us.macmillan.com/author/andrew...

Reviews

[William Bahr · Rating 5 out of 5]

A capital collection of admirable articles

Herein lies an excellent compendium of some of Professor Bacevich's best articles, arranged by topic. Dip in and out of it as you please. Highly recommended by a fellow author.

[Andrew Figueiredo · Rating 5 out of 5]

Bacevich obliterates conventional labels. He addresses islamophobia and colonialism as root causes of terrorism, doesn’t regret supporting Obama twice, and notes Trump’s incompetence (score one for the left). But he also derides the centralization of government and massive deficit spending (score one for the right). To throw everybody off, he critiques the rise of consumerist individualism on both left and right (score for the post-liberals). He simultaneously proclaims that we should pull back from our NATO commitments and hints that a border wall might be a good idea, but also that media is wrong to focus more on terror in Europe than terror in Africa or Asia. He went to West Point and served extensive time in the military, yet he reprimands America for how its deferential attitude to “the troops” sometimes blinds it to excesses of American adventurism. These seeming contradictions don't weaken Bacevich's claims, as they form a cohesive small-c conservative realist foreign policy. Indeed, these essays captivate me and will influence my views for years to come.

Because "Twilight of the American Century" is a collection of essays, it showcases Bacevich at his best and outlines ideas around many concepts. There are book reviews, pieces that deal with religion, homages (roasts?) of figures in government. But most of it, predictably, is about foreign policy and history. For Bacevich, history is told all wrong. According to him, we need to take a more critical approach towards American history and interventionism. The 20th century must be entirely reframed without falling for moral equivalence (280). For instance, the US coup in South Vietnam is a huge historical mistake or the US massacres of Filipinos after the Spanish-American war. And yet most historians ignore these events! And according to Bacevich, we have to discard the notion that concern for Europe's Jews really motivated intervention in WWII. He urges rejection of the "short 20th century" for a more expansive look than the exceptionalist narrative.

I have my critiques (he's unnecessarily harsh on Israel, brushes off Russia and China as true challenges, and too easily discards isolationism as a strawman), but those are not huge in such a voluminous work.

This book is a great takedown of the arrogance, pretensions to righteousness, and imperialization of American foreign policy. Bacevich connects his diverse critiques remarkably well. He views a flawed individualistic paradigm at home as dependent on prosperity, sold to us as only possible through expansion. Our ideas of liberation at home distract, and deficit spending shields people from the costs of imperialism. It allows for wars waged by a small percentage of society on behalf of a small segment of society without the demos feeling the effects. Therefore, the failures of liberalism at home (he doesn’t say it explicitly, but the argument surfaces) fuel the American empire. In turn, the drive for war leads to the centralization of power in the state and its negative impacts. This reminded me of Bill Kaufmann's arguments about statism and warfare. Really good stuff. So instead of adventurism, Bacevich supports a foreign policy attuned to stability and an America first ideology separate from the one Trump promises.

My favorite essay is "Christopher Lasch - Family Man", probably because I also love Lasch. In it, and essays in Section 4, Bacevich articulates his small-c conservatism in a way with strong appeal to me. His respect for traditional norms, local community, and a more responsible foreign policy is worth considering. And yet, he skewers both left and right, reserving the most anger for neoconservatives. Leaders today would do well to heed his advice, but I don't foresee many Democrats going for his skepticism of progressivism or Republicans accepting that "the challenge is to save America First from Trump" (222).

[Farquar McSpadden · Rating 2 out of 5]

With a book titled like this and dedicated to New Yorkers, if you pick up this book and expect anything more than a shrill screed against nearly every aspect of the United States since its founding, the joke is on you. I purchased the book thinking that it would be a measured examination of what is clearly an empire in its decline. Measured: no. That Bacevich is a Progressive is fine. That he simply churns out the same Progressive line, unexamined, is not fine. Get ready for the party bore nagging your ear off with "Twilight..." That said, it must be understood that Bacevich isn't your newest liberal Vox- or Buzzfeed-writer, recently plopped out of the Ivy League mold. He's been at this for a long time. He's a West Point graduate. His son, Andrew, died in 2007 in one of our pointless wars. Still, with such serious chops, I would expect a more complex view of the great American path. I do not expect any kind of war-is-great patriotism. But has America done nothing good, at all, in its last 250 years?