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After America: Get Ready for Armageddon

4.15 of 5 stars 4.15 · rating details · 705 ratings · 136 reviews

Optimistic About America’s Future?
Don’t Be.

In his giant New York Times bestseller, America Alone: The End of the World as We Know It, Mark Steyn predicted collapse for the rest of the Western World. Now, he adds, America has caught up with Europe on the great rush to self-destruction.

It’s not just our looming financial collapse; it’s not just a culture that seems on a fast...more

Hardcover, 349 pages

Published August 8th 2011 by Regnery Publishing (first published January 19th 2010)

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Sep 28, 2011 Jennifer rated it 4 of 5 stars

It's rare that I rate a book before I'm done reading it, or that I give five stars to any book, let alone a political one (I've liked a a lot of them, it's just that they aren't timeless), but I'm going to make an exception here. Mark Steyn has been compared to Cyrano de Bergerac, and it's really no exaggeration.

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Nov 07, 2011 George rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: lapl-org, nook-2, non-fiction

DEEPLY DISTRURBING.

“Look around you. From now on, it gets worse. In ten years’ time, there will be no American Dream, any more than there’s a Greek or Portuguese Dream.”—page 24

I’m not a big fan of end-of-the-world, doomsday-scenario books, and Mark Steyn’s dystopian screed, ‘After America: Get Ready for Armageddon,’ is certainly one of those. In this book he manages to insult almost everybody on the planet, and, those few he doesn’t insult, he scares the crap out of. Yet much of what he has to...more

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Oct 19, 2012 Kenny rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: current-events

Other reviews have parsed out the main point of this book, which is, in a word, chilling. I'll not add to that bulk, but instead I will simply quote a paragraph from After America, which for me says it all:

Conservatives often talk about "small government," which, in a sense, is framing the issue in leftist terms: they're for Big Government--and, when you're arguing for the samll alternative, it's easy to sound pinched and mean and grudging. But small government gives you big freedoms--and Big Go...more

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Feb 25, 2012 Dale rated it 5 of 5 stars

"If something cannot go on forever, it will stop"

The above quote is from the economist Herbert Stein. Besides being a clever little bit of the obvious, a Yogi Berra-type quote, it is also part of a scary thought about America itself that Mark Steyn points out in After America - America cannot keep doing what it is doing forever and hope to lead the world - it will stop. It cannot keep borrow 40% of its budget forever and hope to keep its economy afloat or offer its children a decent future. Ame...more

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Nov 29, 2011 Patrick rated it 5 of 5 stars

Amazon review:
Steyn takes aim at the people who have driven the US to this economic Armageddon with his usual razor wit. The man seems incapable of writing a dull sentence.

The cover of Steyn's book shows a dead Uncle Sam, flat on his back and with a toe tag. Steyn is not warning about a coming American decline. "We're already in it" he announces with gloomy relish, "What comes next is the fall--fast, sudden, off the cliff" (p 13).

And who is at the helm as this wreck is taking place, it's ... w...more

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Sep 21, 2011 Richard rated it 5 of 5 stars

What an enjoyable read, even as Mark Steyn lays out our stark future in no uncertain terms. Stein is deadly serious about the deep excrement in which we too-blithely reside. Niggling details like impending calamity aside, the book is so much fun. But many readers might want to keep a dictionary handy. While discussing the expansion of wealth, Steyn so effortlessly rips off a sentence like this [pp 34-35]: "But then Mr. and Mrs. Peasant start remodeling the hovel, adding a rec room and indoor plu...more What an enjoyable read, even as Mark Steyn lays out our stark future in no uncertain terms. Stein is deadly serious about the deep excrement in which we too-blithely reside. Niggling details like impending calamity aside, the book is so much fun. But many readers might want to keep a dictionary handy. While discussing the expansion of wealth, Steyn so effortlessly rips off a sentence like this [pp 34-35]: "But then Mr. and Mrs. Peasant start remodeling the hovel, adding a rec room and indoor plumbing, replacing the emaciated old nag with a Honda Civic and driving to the mall in it, and the next thing you know, instead of just having an extra yard of mead every Boxing Day at the local tavern and adding a couple more pustules to the escutcheon with the local trollop, they begin taking vacations in Florida." I admit I had to look up "escutcheon".

But you don't always need a dictionary. This is clear enough: "Permanence is always an illusion. Mighty nations can be transformed mighty fast, especially when history comes a-calling." [p 190]

Yes, Steyn exaggerates to make his points. Put that aside and consider the essence of what he is saying. The blurb on the inside cover reads, "Optimistic about America's future? Don't be." We need to quit screwing around, get back to our founding principles, defend our liberty, and rediscover our morals and even the need for morality. Or it's Welcome to the Third World Nightmare... Everywhere. And it's coming sooner than you think.

I didn't like the one chapter called "After: A Letter from the Post-American World" which is really dark. Considering the subject matter and Steyn's outlook, it wasn't the darkness that bothered me so much, but I found the chapter hard to follow. Perhaps if Steyn had toned down the lexical pyrotechnics in this one chapter, his main points would have been more clear.

In summary, an excellent book.

(Note: This review is for the 424 page After America published September 2011. Goodreads shows this as being published in January 2010 and only 256 pages long. I'm thinking there is a mistake in the listing. Goodreads' ISBN matches the one printed in my year 2011, 424 page copy. Goodreads' cover also matches the newer, longer copy I have.)
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Dec 06, 2012 Ru rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Brilliant commentary by one of the best political scholars in the world today. This book is essentially a follow-up to Mark Steyn's excellent "America Alone", but "After America" deals more with financial, social, and political fallout that could ultimately lead to the ruination of the United States on its current track. At its core, this is an indictment of the Obama administration and its excesses, ridiculous math, and overabundance of government on the backs of the citizenry; the largest effe...more

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Oct 10, 2011 Keith rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: 2011, political-science, social-commentary, ebooks

Having just read Niall Ferguson's Civilization The West and the Rest, which details ways in which the West came to dominate the world, as well as how quickly it might disappear, I followed with Mark Steyn's latest which details the details of our decline. Steyn addresses the problem of American decline in great depth but with great wit. The book's blurb line is far too accurate as well: "Optimistic about America's future? Don't Be." What are the sources of impending disaster? Much of what we hav...more Having just read Niall Ferguson's Civilization The West and the Rest, which details ways in which the West came to dominate the world, as well as how quickly it might disappear, I followed with Mark Steyn's latest which details the details of our decline. Steyn addresses the problem of American decline in great depth but with great wit. The book's blurb line is far too accurate as well: "Optimistic about America's future? Don't Be." What are the sources of impending disaster? Much of what we have to fear can be seen today in Europe: a declining birthrate, uninhibited government spending, an unsustainable debt level, an ever growing government sector that makes clients out of citizens as it promises more and more "benefits." Added to this is unceasing regulation of small business, regulations that have to be paid for via enforcement, user fees, inspections and so on. Steyn's metaphor for much of this is H.G. Well's The Time Machine with it's rude division of society into Eloi and Morlock. The difference is that Steyn posits that the time traveller had only to travel 80 years into the future, i.e. our present, to observe profound and unsettling differences. It's a conceit to be sure but once surrounded by a wealth of anecdotal detail much of the conceit seems relevant. After 400-odd pages of unsettling analysis Steyn finishes with a call to action, a manifesto centered on undoing things - decentralize, de-governmentalize, de-regulate, de-monopolize, de-credentialize, de-complicate. Steyn, a long-time resident of New Hampshire concludes with "Live Free or Die." What he suggests here is not taking up arms, although such might be the case, but living free and unbeholden to Big Government. In the book Steyn observes, in an echo of Tocqueville, "big government makes small citizens," surely an end not to be desired. Change has to be recognized as needful and there are many who reject such tales of decline (witness Adam Gopnik in his review of Ferguson's book, The New Yorker, Sept. 12, 2011) but for those who have eyes to see and ears to hear . . .
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Jan 26, 2012 Rhonda rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: read-in-2012

Second book I read by this author...first one was "America Alone" how other countries are falling all around us, but we still stand. THIS book is now about how America is on a fast track to do the same thing, America is in a downward spiral...
backed by tons of data and examples...not that everyone can't see it already.

The book starts with a scenario of a man in the last nineteenth century, in an ordinary home around 1890. Look at his surroundings. Then fast forward him in a time machine just 60...more Second book I read by this author...first one was "America Alone" how other countries are falling all around us, but we still stand. THIS book is now about how America is on a fast track to do the same thing, America is in a downward spiral...
backed by tons of data and examples...not that everyone can't see it already.

The book starts with a scenario of a man in the last nineteenth century, in an ordinary home around 1890. Look at his surroundings. Then fast forward him in a time machine just 60 years, to 1950, and he would be astonished with all the changes...refrigerator, washing machine, radio, vehicles, furnace, telephone, vaccines for polio, insulin, penicillin! Just imagine the differences these 'machines' and medicines all made to our lives...

then fast forward just another 60 years...

but it's not that different, buttons instead of dials, etc,
EXCEPT for the computer. Other than a few small changes, like a CD player and cup holders in the car, icemakers, etc. the only major change is the computer, and all the advancements have been made to technology of the computer (cell phones, etc)
No cures for cancer, Alzheimers, etc. but we now have vaccines for venereal diseases and drugs for E.D. !! wow!
What used to take short periods of time for getting a drug to the public, now takes forever to get through regulations...

We need to lessen the amount of government interference in our lives...

Favorite Quotes:

"Education is the biggest single structural defect in the U.S. No country needs to send a majority (never mind 'all,' as is Pres. Obama's ambition) of its children to college, and no country should: not every child has the aptitude to benefit from college, and not every child who has wants to go, or needs to . For most who wind up there, college is a waste of time, and money, and life. Hacks pretend to teach, slackers pretend to learn, and employers pretend it's a qualification. ...I long ago gave up marveling at how little American education asks of its inmates. By universalizing university, you let K-12 off the hook. College becomes the new high school---which is exactly the opposite of what a dynamic, efficient society would be doing: middle school should be the new high school. Early-year education is the most critical; if you screw up the first eight grades, keeping the kid in class till he's thirty isn't going to do much to fix things. " p 149

"Americans face a choice: you can rediscover the animating principles of the American idea---of limited government, a self-reliant citizenry, and the opportunities to exploit your talents to the fullest---or you can join most of the rest of the western world in terminal decline. " p 348
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Feb 01, 2012 Matthew rated it 4 of 5 stars

This book is both funny and well-written, but I can't say I enjoyed it. How can one enjoy predictions that the country you love and the prosperity it has enjoyed are most likely things of the past. While the book shares my prejudices and political view, I believe I can say confidently-putting aside any predictions of doom and gloom-that it is a realistic appraisal of our current cultural and political straits.

The doom and gloom may seem a bit much, but Steyn gives a frightening look into a not-s...more This book is both funny and well-written, but I can't say I enjoyed it. How can one enjoy predictions that the country you love and the prosperity it has enjoyed are most likely things of the past. While the book shares my prejudices and political view, I believe I can say confidently-putting aside any predictions of doom and gloom-that it is a realistic appraisal of our current cultural and political straits.

The doom and gloom may seem a bit much, but Steyn gives a frightening look into a not-so-distant future of racial and class segregation, an over-class consisting of "credentialed" betters who produce nothing but govern over a restless, unemployed permanent underclass and an ever-shrinking productive class. Steyn, though, puts aside the doom and gloom at least for the last chapter in an appeal to America's children to fight back against the hedonistic generations of their parents and grandparents that have spent their future on the present.

Steyn's overarching theme is that as America's government (at all levels but especially the federal) has grown, those institutions-family, church, schools, economic associations-that allow free citizens to thrive have been weakened such that Americans are becoming more dependent on government for things they used to do for themselves. He describes a vicious cycle where by government begets more government. An elite class, which Steyn analogizes to H.G. Wells's Eloi, that has acquired the politically correct prejudices of our age through a bankrupt (bankrupt and yet awash in money) educational system presides over a bureaucracy that bestows favors on a class dependent upon government provision. These classes combine to form a majority or near majority political interest. It is in the interest of both groups (or at least the governing class's) that the other continues to grow. More dependents equals more government jobs equals more bureaucrats equals more political power...

The problem, as Steyn reminds us through the words of Margaret Thatcher, is that you eventually run out of other people's money. That is where America finds itself after the first decade of the twenty-first century. Instead of correcting course, however, the government continues to metastasize and is even accelerating its growth under the Obama administration with giant government intrusion into healthcare and financial markets. It continues to do so despite the example of Europe's failing welfare states.

Steyn's more subtle theme is that this is in part our fault. It is easy to point fingers at Obama and Bush or whomever, but freedom requires a citizenry jealous of its liberty. It requires citizens that participate in civic life to guard that liberty. It is not simply electing the right people Steyn explains, quoting Milton Friedman. Freidman said that the goal is not merely to elect the right people but to make it politically profitable for the wrong people do the right thing.

Right now it continues to be politically profitable to spend away the future. Borrowing is much less painful in the short term than reigning in government which requires taking away jobs and handouts from the governing and dependent classes. And reigning in is what is needed, not just spending but scope. Americans are no longer self-governing in any meaningful respect. The government has taken over vasts swaths of public life that a free people handle without Washington or the state capital. The result has been the destruction of the family and other institutions of civic life. By and large, Americans don't even elect the people who govern them any more. More and more "law" is made by executive or "independent" agencies staffed by bureaucrats who cannot easily be removed.

How to turn it around? As I said Steyn ends with a call to arms of sorts, and although his heart may be in it, it doesn't seem hopeful. Steyn pleads to today's grade-schoolers to push back against the profligacy of their grandparents. America must de-centralize, de-governmentalize, and reclaim its founding spirit. Anyone who wants the twenty-first century to be another American century should read this book.(less)

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Jan 17, 2012 Greg Perciak rated it 4 of 5 stars

Like the paranoid who occasionally has something genuine to fear, Mark Steyn is the alarmist with something to be alarmed about, and he writes about it with a healthy dose of gallows humor. We're looting the future to bribe the present. And the demography is not in our favor - with birthrates being what they are, we're running out of people to stick with the bill. Worse yet, big government makes for small citizens, as the nanny state makes more of our decisions, drains our ambition, and assumes...more

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Dec 26, 2011 Bernie rated it 4 of 5 stars

I loved America Alone. Steyn's analysis there was spot-on and witty, and though ominous, at least a good American could cling to the belief that unlike Europe and the rest of the Western World, his fellow citizens could be trusted to excercise enough virtue and wisdom to step away from the cliff. The assessment in "After America"? Not gonna happen. It seems America is tied at the ankle to the declining and stumbling Western World, and while She may be at least able to slow the West's descent, th...more I loved America Alone. Steyn's analysis there was spot-on and witty, and though ominous, at least a good American could cling to the belief that unlike Europe and the rest of the Western World, his fellow citizens could be trusted to excercise enough virtue and wisdom to step away from the cliff. The assessment in "After America"? Not gonna happen. It seems America is tied at the ankle to the declining and stumbling Western World, and while She may be at least able to slow the West's descent, there is no mountaineer ready with an extra rope to save her. Therefore, not only will there be a fall for the US, but it will be sharp, fast, dramatic, and inevitable. True, if we are able to reverse our "Hopey-Changey-in-Chief", Mr. Obama, and his suicidal allies in the "Barakracy" Steyn concedes, we might be able to delay the fall, but it will, he asserts, happen. The problem is systemic, and the systematic problems have passed the point of possible return. Steyn spends most of the book giving witty and trenchently convincing evidence for why this is true and what the world will be like when it happens. Because America has by in large been a great force for good in the world, the global snapshot of its fall isn't pretty, though Steyn's deligtful wit helps the medicine go down. But is it really medicine, or rather is Steyn's prescience in his "After" chapter concerning the world after America, just a recitation of logical inevitability? After the read, I was depressingly more inclined toward the latter. This being so, his epilogue, "The Hope of Audacity" seemed supremely weak and alrmingly cynical. In this chapter he gives some eight or ten things that can be done to turn the situation around, that, given the weight of the rest of the book seem a mere spitting into the wind. One can only hope that he's either underestimated the audacious resolve of US citizens and overestimated the trouble stalking the country, or that he views a frank assessment of the desperate situation as the only way to strengthen audacious resolve. Mark Steyn accurately brings the reader to face same stark choice described in 1862 by Abraham Lincoln: whether to "nobly save, or meanly lose, the last best hope of earth." If you are one of the deluded that believes that the United States has NOT been a force for good in the world, this book will only be irrelevant. But if you are convinced of the opposite, it's a must-read. (less)

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Jun 13, 2012 Scott rated it 5 of 5 stars

If you think America isn't being strangled to death by over regulation, then I challenge you to read this book. I knew before I even read "After America" that our city, state, & especially the federal government has been steadily creeping into our personal lives over my life time, with the ultimate intrusion being the passing of the monstrosity of Obamacare which forces you to buy something just because you exist. However, I had no idea how intrusive the nanny state had become already. If yo...more

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Sep 29, 2011 Thomas Dean rated it 5 of 5 stars

Mark Steyn dares to go where no one is brave enough to venture. The focus of this book is to show how the choices Americans and politicians are making with government are in fact destroying us. He compares America to empires of the past such as Rome and Britain; in this comparison, he points out the mistakes those empire made that led to their destruction and how America is not very different. He delves into America's inevitable decline and asks how steep or gradual will we decline. According to...more

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Oct 30, 2011 Seth Heasley rated it 3 of 5 stars

Having previously read and enjoyed Mark Steyn's America Alone: The End of the World as We Know It, I figured to enjoy After America: Get Ready for Armageddon. So when I was offered a review copy by the good folks at Regnery, I couldn't pass it up.

But then I realized that I hadn't so much enjoyed the previous book as found it enlightening and really quite disturbing. Either fortunately or unfortunately, After America had a similar effect on me. Now, this is not to say that I didn't enjoy anything...more

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Nov 09, 2011 Patsy Gantt rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: hated-it

I've only read the prologue at this point. However, it really has the logical mind realizing how close America is to becoming extinct. At the America and the Baby Boomers and our forefathers knew. If something cannot go on forever, something must be done to stop it or it's going to stop anyway - and the stop will be sudden and hard. The simple fact is that our Federal debt cannot rise forever - it must be stopped or it will stop America dead in her tracks.In this prologue the author writes "The...more

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Apr 01, 2012 Al rated it 3 of 5 stars

A follow-up to Mr. Steyn's earlier polemic, America Alone. He's right on the basic issues, although he often overstates his cases. This stridency can be forgiven since he is undoubtedly motivated by a) the desire to get people's attention and b) the need to sell books. Mr. Steyn has numerous targets, and he does better with some than with others, but the overall effect is quite compelling and scary. It's not the first time we've been lectured on the decline of America, and perhaps others have d...more

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Sep 05, 2011 Andrew rated it 5 of 5 stars

I don't think I've enjoyed another book this much in at least the past year. It's hard to say whether I liked this or America Alone better, but both were excellent and are highly recommended.

I have always enjoyed Mark Steyn's witty writing style. He'll make you laugh when you probably should be crying, given the grim topic. This book is no exception. His topic is the civilizational suicide being committed by Western nations (not exempting America, as he did in his previous book). He argues that...more

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Jun 11, 2012 Dan Haley rated it 4 of 5 stars

First thing first: I used the Kindle highlight function do frequently in this book that I pretty much negated the whole purpose of highlighting. So many of Steyn's declarations are just so dead-on. The fact that the vast majority of my highlights describe a source of profound frustration, anger, or bafflement says something: this certainly isn't an uplifting read. And it is unfortunate that it's audience will be limited to pre-existing Steyn fans and like-minded new recruits. Contra-thinkers, e...more

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Dec 27, 2011 Tom rated it 5 of 5 stars

Read this book. You'll laugh a lot. You'll cry a lot. You'll wet your pants.

I really don't want to believe that we're as far down the path of ruin as Steyn says we are. But the facts he presents, and the logic behind his analyses is hard to argue with. We are soooo screwed, I'm afraid, and it will all become glaringly clear to everyone sooner than anyone imagines. We are living in the waning days of a golden "empire", and even though the signs and portents abound around us, most of us are as una...more

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Dec 10, 2011 Jeff rated it 3 of 5 stars

I'm a big Mark Steyn fan; love reading his essays and listening to him occasionally on the radio. This book was a bit of a disappointment in that a lot of the material is nearly identical to some of his previous essays - and in some cases word-for-word identical - so that I wasn't reading anything new. I don't have much argument against the message, and there was a least one laugh-out-loud moment in the book, but nonetheless I wasn't really able to "get into" this one. The best point he makes is...more

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Dec 05, 2011 Tanya rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: political

This book could scare you silly if you let it. I should think everyone should read it if for no other reason than to really understand why big government doesn't work, why socialism as we know it on earth is a failure, and the background as to why none of these things work. We need to understand what is happening in Europe. With my faith, I couldn't get to scared, perhaps because I still see good in the World even though Mr. Steyn seems incapable of seeing such things, at least in this book.

Wha...more

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Dec 30, 2011 David Murphy rated it 4 of 5 stars

Steyn chronicles the statist decay of Western Civilization (collecting/recycling material from his newspaper columns) and predicts a Sino-centric world in the not too distant future. Frightening stuff. Steyn takes the blinders off so we can see how many aspects of our private lives have become dominated by the government and does so in such an imperative way as to force introspection (Can I justify my existence as a grad student funded by government grants? Wouldn't I be happier if I were actual...more

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Dec 05, 2011 Mark rated it 5 of 5 stars

Although some of Steyn's ideas are speculative, he is one of the most entertaining authors I've read in years. And he is brave enough to express himself in a Western world that's been infected with a virulent strain of PC-itis.

I applaud authors who challenge the boundaries of a Western society that shackles free speech in the names of "self-hatred" and "cultural relativism" – an abstract and useless notion.

But I must add that just because a society has stopped breeding for now, it doesn't mean t...more

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Dec 21, 2012 John rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

One of the doomiest and gloomiest books I've ever come across, but in a good way. Steyn writes with a wit sharper than razor wire, and even such (over)celebrated authors as Christopher Hitchens can only pale in comparison. Yes, it's relentlessly bleak in its take on where the world is headed, but Steyn presents his brand of alarmism in such logical, believable terms that I found it surprisingly easy to buy into his MAD MAX-esque vision of what the near future might have in store. Even if Steyn's...more

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Dec 31, 2011 Dennis rated it 4 of 5 stars

I recommend reading this book as a wake up call for those who believe this country is on the wrong track and for those who are blissfully ignorant. It is so easy to see what is taking place and has taken place in Europe and Canada that one wonders why we continue as we do. Unsustainable, a word much used these days, is a warning the author offers on many fronts. Steyn has an interesting sense of humor that is both instructional and descriptive of so much of what is wrong in America. In the final...more

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May 14, 2013 Paul rated it 4 of 5 stars

This was basically a 5-star book, but the obnoxious writing style - while at times quite helpful - was a bit over the top some times. Still, this is a must-read. I purchased several more copies to loan out.

The encouraging news is that this book is a national best-seller. The discouraging news is that we have a long road ahead of us to recover from the damage done to our country.

Steyn takes the best of the Libertarian-Tea Party type thinking, applies it into more of a conservative vocabulary, an...more

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Feb 04, 2013 Pat rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Such an incredible mind. Mark Steyn shines an unforgiving spotlight into the corners and under the sofa of America, accurately detailing how the mess got there, and what can be done about it. Unlike today's MSM, you won't find baseless accusations or unverifiable nonsense here. Fully documented, this book brings together details that support the author's points about the current administration and where it is taking us. In typical Mark Steyn fashion, expect to be entertained by his sharp wit and...more

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Nov 04, 2012 Elizabeth Holter rated it 4 of 5 stars

"It starts with the money....who holds your bonds holds your soul (that would be China for us).......power follows the money....."
And, my personal favorite, a citiizen''s response to a question about where the money for federal aid payments comes from: "I don't know! From Obama's stash!"
Mark Steyn sets out a clear, and mordantly funny, description of the path we are following and its inevitable destination. If it makes you too uncomfortable, just put your head back in the sand.
I should have gi...more

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Aug 20, 2011 Roland Bruno rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: essay, non-fiction

A magnum-opus of observation on the decline of western civilization. I couldn't put it down. Beyond the cavalcade of evidence, both anecdotal and actual, Steyn carves out the heart of the belief system of the multi-cultural, moral relatavist and barbecues it. Steyn paints with a broad brush and while there are topics where he misses the greater picture,(Peak Oil being a key one for me.) if you finish this title and walk away unconvinced then clearly you suffer from delusions about the state of h...more

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About Mark Steyn

Canadian born American conservative political commentator, and cultural critic.

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Quotes from After America: Get Rea...

“Abraham Lincoln, a predecessor of Barack Obama in both the White House and the Illinois state legislature, had eighteen months of formal education and became a soldier, surveyor, postmaster, rail-splitter, tavern keeper, and self-taught prairie lawyer. Obama went to Occidental College, Columbia University, and Harvard Law School, and became a "community organizer." I'm not sure that's progress--and it's certainly not "sustainable.” — 5 people liked it

“Tinkerers built America. Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Edison, Henry Ford, all were tinkerers in their childhood. Everything from the airplane to the computer started in somebody's garage. Go back even further: the Industrial Revolution was a revolution of tinkerers. The great scientific thinkers of eighteenth-century England couldn't have been less interested in cotton spinning and weaving. Why would you be? It was left to a bloke on the shop floor who happened to glance at a one-thread wheel that had toppled over and noticed that both the wheel and the spindle were still turning. So James Hargreaves invented the spinning jenny, and there followed other artful gins and mules and frames and looms, and Britain and the world were transformed. By tinkerers rather than thinkerers. "Technological change came from tinkerers," wrote Professor J.R. McNeill of Georgetown, "people with little or no scientific education but with plenty of hands-on experience." John Ratzenberger likes to paraphrase a Stanford University study: "Engineers who are great in physics and calculus but can't think in new ways about old objects are doomed to think in old ways about new objects." That's the lesson of the spinning jenny: an old object fell over and someone looked at it in a new way.” — 4 people liked it

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BBCode	[url=http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/6443841-after-america?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_book][img]http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1327948639l/6443841.jpg[/img][/url] [url=http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/6443841-after-america?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_book]After America: Get Ready for Armageddon by Mark Steyn[/url]

After America: Get Ready for Armageddon

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