a book
The Retreat of Western Liberalism
Edward luce · 2017 · 226 pages
Product Description
MP3 CD Format In his widely acclaimed book
Time to Start Thinking,
Financial Times chief U.S. columnist and commentator Edward Luce charted the course of America's relative decline, proving to be a prescient voice on our current social and political turmoil.
In
The Retreat of Western Liberalism, Luce makes a larger statement about the weakening of western hegemony and the crisis of liberal democracy—of which Donald Trump and his European counterparts are not the cause, but a terrifying symptom. Luce argues that we are on a menacing trajectory brought about by ignorance of what it took to build the West, arrogance towards society's economic losers, and complacency about our system's durability—attitudes that have been emerging since the fall of the Berlin Wall. We cannot move forward without a clear diagnosis of what has gone wrong.
Combining on-the-ground reporting with intelligent synthesis of the literature and economic analysis, Luce offers a detailed projection of the consequences of the Trump administration, the rise of European populism, and a forward-thinking analysis of what those who believe in enlightenment values must do to defend them from the multiple onslaughts they face in the coming years.
Review
Edward Luce provides a terrifying view of the challenges facing the West. We have to hope that his prophecies are self denying-something that is more likely if his penetrating analysis gets the wide attention it richly deserves.-- "Lawrence Summers"
About the Author
Edward Luce was a speech writer for the Secretary of the Treasury Lawrence Summers and now works as the chief U.S. columnist for the Financial Times. He is the author of the national best seller In Spite of the Gods, and lives in Washington, D.C.
MP3 CD Format In his widely acclaimed book
Time to Start Thinking,
Financial Times chief U.S. columnist and commentator Edward Luce charted the course of America's relative decline, proving to be a prescient voice on our current social and political turmoil.
In
The Retreat of Western Liberalism, Luce makes a larger statement about the weakening of western hegemony and the crisis of liberal democracy—of which Donald Trump and his European counterparts are not the cause, but a terrifying symptom. Luce argues that we are on a menacing trajectory brought about by ignorance of what it took to build the West, arrogance towards society's economic losers, and complacency about our system's durability—attitudes that have been emerging since the fall of the Berlin Wall. We cannot move forward without a clear diagnosis of what has gone wrong.
Combining on-the-ground reporting with intelligent synthesis of the literature and economic analysis, Luce offers a detailed projection of the consequences of the Trump administration, the rise of European populism, and a forward-thinking analysis of what those who believe in enlightenment values must do to defend them from the multiple onslaughts they face in the coming years.
Review
Edward Luce provides a terrifying view of the challenges facing the West. We have to hope that his prophecies are self denying-something that is more likely if his penetrating analysis gets the wide attention it richly deserves.-- "Lawrence Summers"
About the Author
Edward Luce was a speech writer for the Secretary of the Treasury Lawrence Summers and now works as the chief U.S. columnist for the Financial Times. He is the author of the national best seller In Spite of the Gods, and lives in Washington, D.C.
recommended by 2 people
sourced from public statements
Andrej Karpathy
“This book offers a pessimistic view on the future of liberal democracy, and interprets its recent spread not as an unstoppable or monotonic trend of history, but as a fragile system, open to an attack from both within (e.g., election of Donald Trump), and outside (e.g., Russia, China). The West is not a natural outcome of a linear progress of history and it might not represent mankind’s enlightenment on morality and virtue. As the book puts it, “We are on a menacing trajectory brought about by ignorance of what it took to build the West, arrogance towards society’s economic losers, and complacency about our system’s durability”. Overall, this book is a great way to become more depressed about humanity’s future. The topics are interesting but I’ve come to dislike the author’s writing stye. Perhaps this is because my mathematical training begs for a very clearly stated sequences of statements that are supported by arguments at each stage. Instead, I found Luce’s writing to be sprawling, overly abstract, unfocused and even rambling. As if each section started as a 2am entry into a “random thoughts” bed-side journal, and was later put through a best-effort conversion into a book by an editor. The book is quite short, and hence worth a read if you're interested in the topics, or if you are too optimistic about the future.”
