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Oct 14, 2008

Chris rated it:

Brilliant insight into current distortion of Jefferson's claim for Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness. Bacevich, a conservative, can reach across the isle to unite both parties into realizing that limitless consumption and consumerism is not going to have a happy ending.

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Mar 21, 2009

Doug rated it:

Excellent read if you are interested in US politics as it relates to the US' place in the world. The author is a former military officer, and not really "liberal" nor "conservative." The viewpoint expounded in the book might be considered radical by the woefully uninformed average American citizen. However, I found it to be not so radical compared to another of my favorite political authors, Noam Chomsky. The main point of the book is that the US as a nation has been consumin More...

2 comments like (2 people liked it)

Oct 17, 2008

Rick rated it:

Retiring a Colonel after 23 years in the Army, Andrew Bacevich is well acquainted with the political nature of projecting American military power abroad. His work in this volume goes far beyond the present administration's doctrine of preemptive war to the heart of the American illusion of indestructibility and how military solutions are overly relied upon to solve national security threats.

The stunning conclusion is America's war on terror is disproportionately falling on a small s More...

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Oct 11, 2008

Sally rated it:

Sobering indictment and insightful analysis of prevailing American political and military ideology, institutions, and practices since the end of WW II, with its focus on the current situation and the lessons we might correctly draw from it. He points out how unrealistic, ideologically-driven national security decisions accellerating since the 1950s have led to a bloated, dysfunctional national security establishment at odds with an imperial executive branch to which Congress has ceded much of i More...

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Oct 16, 2008

Pat rated it:

I picked up this book after seeing Bacevich interviewed on Bill Moyers Journal. It was a repeat, but I found myself watching it a second time. I'm really impressed with the argument that Reagan set us on the path to consumerism, debt, and abuse of our limited natural resources. And he lied when he told us there wouldn't be a day of reckoning.

Deregulation has just cost us a downpayment of $700 billion on an ongoing financial meltdown. A lack of adequate government oversight has alrea More...

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Oct 08, 2008

Nicholas rated it:

I saw Andrew Bacevich's interview with Bill Moyers on PBS last week and was impressed enough by his demeanor, verve, and intelligence to go out and buy the book off Amazon right away.

Andrew Bacevich is a conservative academic with a distinguished military career, who teaches International Affairs at Boston University. He is a real conservative, not one of those 'I worship triple the size of government, Ronald Reagan Conservatives.' From his writings I actually believe he thinks gover More...

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Nov 25, 2008

Daniel rated it:

This is not the easiest book to read because Bacevich aims a magnifying glass at the current status quo in the United States and deconstructs the historic context that explains how we have become a people so accustomed to living beyond our means who refuse to make sacrifices or do without. He introduces the teaching of the theologian Reinhold Neibuhr who had the foresight during the Cold War to see that America's love of excess would eventually be her undoing.

Throughout this book, B More...

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Sep 17, 2008

Janet rated it:

Bacevich knows history and he uses it to bolster his argument that the national ethic of self-gratification, viewed not as profligacy but as "freedom," has led the nation to disasterous imperial activities under both Democratic and Republican leadership. The Iraqi War is only one example. This corrosive ethic has led us to economic and political crises, as well. Acknowledging the limits on US power does not mean "retrenchment and irreversible decline," rather it requires a More...

1 comment like (1 person liked it)

Apr 19, 2009

Neibaur rated it:

This book could've been done 80 pages into it. While I found Bacevich's perspective interesting, I also found his writing repetitive, using 160+ pages to make the same point over and over again. My advice, read the first 80 or so pages and then the last 12 and you'll have a great sense of the author's point.

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Oct 08, 2008

Nathan rated it:

I'm convinced 'The Limits of Power' may be one of the most important I'll ever read concerning the times I live in.

While Bacevich identifies himself as a conservative this book is anything but. He holds a mirror up to America's face and doesn't flinch in doing so. It's a short book but all the more powerful because of it. Here is the type of straightforward writing and thinking that many Americans might be looking for, and I highly recommend it to anyone who's interested in what cou More...

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Sep 03, 2008

jim rated it:

Every American needs to read this book, and read it soon. Bacevich, a retired Army Colonel and now History Prof in Boston, puts forth the case that we, the American people, have allowed our present economic, military and political status to come about through our own non-involvement and obsession with consumption at any price. It is a convincing argument and although I was somewhat dismayed that the conclusion settled for hopelessness with a touch of condescension, the book as a whole is a gran More...

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Sep 25, 2008

Mike rated it:

An excellent discussion on the roots of our current dilemmas - in Iraq, with Iran, N Korea etc. He posits thre primary addictions - cheap oil, cheap goods, and cheap credit - and how we use our military in unilateral fashion to attempt to enforce it an open source. Further, he discusses the ways we look to the world as the source and aggravation of ALL of our problems rather than look within and "get our own house in order. Written by a retired colonel Now a college professor in Boston) w More...

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Mar 29, 2009

David rated it:

As I read this book, I thought some people could see Bacevich as a conspiriacy theorist. He begins with WWII and shows how the American government starting with Nitze in the Truman administration put forth propaganda to keep American afraid. He then draws a line from Nitze to Rumsfield to show fear has been used to build up the military and start wars when threats weren't real. Remember Iraq's WMD's? Our foreign policy is more driven by egos than any practical purpose.

He also sho More...

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Mar 11, 2009

Alan rated it:

This book offers a provocative argument: that the ideals contained in the Declaration of Independence for life liberty and the pursuit of happiness have become perverted over time. Now, the author says, "happiness" for many Americans has become associated with endless consumption. Freedom has become "just another thing to buy." Our over-consumption has become unsustainable with disastrous effects both on oursleves and the entire world.
So far so good. But then the autho More...

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Jan 28, 2009

Regina rated it:

This is a serious, balanced commentary on the recent history of American wars, with a focus on the war in Iraq. Bacevich is considered a conservative historian and is an ex-member of our military, which makes his critique of America’s hunger for political and economic power abroad and the price we pay for it at home all the more compelling. One could argue that part of what informs him is his personal tragedy --- he lost a son in Iraq --- but he does not strike me as someone with an agenda and More...

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Aug 16, 2008

Marie marked it as to-read

"The pursuit of freedom, as defined in an age of consumerism, has induced a condition of dependence on imported goods, on imported oil, and on credit. The chief desire of the American people is that nothing should disrupt their access to these goods, that oil, and that credit. The chief aim of the U.S. government is to satisfy that desire, which it does in part of through the distribution of largesse here at home, and in part through the pursuit of imperial ambitions abroad," - Andrew

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Jun 19, 2011

Franz rated it:

Highly recommended. Bacevich, a former army colonel and now a military historian at Boston University, sees the last decade, and especially the Bush years, as the culmination of a national deterioration that began economically in the Reagan era, politically with Kennedy, and militarily in the immediate post-WW II era. The chapter on the profligacy crisis describes the bill of goods that political leaders since Reagan have sold the American people that they could have what they wanted when they w More...

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Sep 04, 2010

Benjamin rated it:

Mr Bacevich has written an incredibly thought-provoking book on where the US lies currently in it's trek along the "great experiment." I like to fancy myself a student of history, especially US history and have been troubled for quite some time about where my country is on its time line. I try to be optimistic and hope we are still on the rise but its difficult not to compare us with the fall of previous empires. Mr Bacevich has cleared up my thoughts considerably.

This boo More...

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Oct 03, 2009

Lynne rated it:

I was more impressed with this book than I expected to be. Here's a sample quote from the book [pg 174:]:

"To hard-core nationalists and neoconservatives, the acceptance of limits suggests retrenchment or irreversible decline. In fact, the reverse is true. Acknowledging the limits of American power is a precondition for stanching the losses of recent decades and for preserving the hard-won gains of earlier generations going back to the founding of the Republic. To persist in preten More...

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Jun 13, 2009

Rhonda rated it:

Author writes a compelling book on the need for America to get back to its realist tradition before it's too late.

Lots of good "stuff" in here...all backed up by sources.

Favorite quotes:

"...define what it means to be an American in the twenty-first century. If one were to choose a single word to characterize that identity, it would have to be more. For the majority of contemporary Americans, the essence of life, liberty, and the pursuit of hap More...

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Jul 31, 2009

getAbstract rated it:

A conservative historian’s frank, searing analysis

Author Andrew J. Bacevich dedicates this book to his son, a first lieutenant in the U.S. Army who was killed by a roadside bomb in Iraq. Bacevich has long been a strong conservative critic of U.S. policy in Iraq, but it’s difficult to escape the impression that the impassioned indictment set forth here draws on a deep reservoir of personal anguish. With unblinking, unwavering directness, he attacks the illusions, self-deceptions and More...

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Feb 02, 2009

Tripp rated it:

Andrew Bacevich is one of the great influential critics of American foreign policy today. His critiques of American consumerism and foreign policy are not too distant from those of leftie giants like Chalmers Johnson, so the left-leaning find it easy to like him. On the other hand, he says out front that he is a conservative and revives an older tradition of conservatism that opposes growing government power and entangling overseas adventures, so the right can be comfortable with him as well. To More...

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Nov 19, 2009

John rated it:

This is a book with some great ideas. Bacevich argues that the American Empire (yes, its an empire) is over extended. He argues that there is a limit to the power of the nation state, and that we have reached it, without recognizing it. Our profligate desires are out of step with reality, forcing our government to seek control over the Middle East, to control the source of oil that drives our nation's economy and helps fulfill our ever expanding desires.

He reviews the steps taken More...

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Oct 24, 2009

Ed rated it:

Another must for Kate. An excellent book that really made me re-frame to whole of US national security policy and its deployment post 1945. He succeeds in connecting the weakness of the US economy with US foreign policy. Simply put rather than address the deep seated problems of the US economy, presidents especially since Reagan have built an imperial foreign policy designed to prop up a heavily imported oil addicted and foreign goods importing deficit economy. Reagan is exposed as the first of More...

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Feb 15, 2010

Callista rated it:

I learned some things about what has led to recent American military and foreign policy decisions, things that have been brewing for a lot longer than I ever realised. However, much of the book served to simply reinforce my already cynical suspicions about American society, the federal government, and "preventive war." I wish, though, that after Bacevich pointed out all that is wrong, he might've provided more concrete suggestions for how we can make things better.

4 comments like (2 people liked it)

Nov 17, 2010

Zach rated it:

The Limits of Power is a fascinating deconstruction of the ideology that drives US political and military institutions. Though short, it's a very dense read, with a lot of hard hitting information packed into a relatively small amount of text.

Bacevich challenges the US self image of a freedom and peace loving country, always possessed of benign intentions, which constantly finds itself involved in conflicts created by 'evil' figures intent on denying us the peace we seek. Observating More...

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Jun 08, 2009

Carole rated it:

After listening to interviews of Andrew Bacevich by Bill Moyers and Amy Goodman, I wanted to read more. His book is succinct and clearly written as he draws a very cogent argument for our increasingly deluded use of power. Fundamentally, he believes that our national hunger for cheap consumerism based on oil, and our deluded sense of being beyond the dictates of history have led us into economic and political policies of greed that will be our downfall. As a liberal, I do not read all that ma More...

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Mar 03, 2009

Sharon rated it:

If you watched the Daily Show interview with Mr. Bacevich, you know he has a personal axe to grind. I have no problem with that. The over-arching theme of the book centers on the premise that America's government is a collection of stupid self-interested morons who have no intention of governing on behalf of the electorate. And it's the electorate's fault. The problems facing America can only be solved if its citizens choose to solve them. This would require Americans to change their behavior a More...

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Feb 06, 2009

Eric rated it:

This was a very good book that narrated a particularly interesting and convincing story of the the eclipse of the US republic and the rise of the national security state that we live in today. Bacevich, in three chapters, examines the problem of the mutation of the American Dream from the right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness to the right to consume cheaply and without limits. This mode of consumption is fueled by the availability of cheap oil. This desire for material prosperity More...

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Dec 16, 2008

Karla rated it:

WHY I CHOSE THIS BOOK:
My dad sent it to me :-)

NOW THAT I'VE READ IT:
While by no means light reading, Bacevich's The Limits of Power offers a compelling and historical look at Americans' ever changing view of what is meant by life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. In an almost refreshing way, Bacevich explains how the American public is responsible for the situations that face us today- namely the ongoing wars in the Middle East, our crippling dependency on foreign More...

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