This book is so impressive that I have to start my review by stating that I do not currently have the skills I would need to do this book justice.

If you like the political writings of Chomsky and Vidal you'll almost assuredly like this book.

If you liked Orwell's 1984 you will almost assuredly like this book. I would even say that anyone who liked 1984 would find this a modern sequel that is entirely adequate to the task.

In this book we get a very clear and honest look at the current state of the US through the eyes of a man I have a huge amount of respect for. Soros started out as a philosopher, moved on to make his fortune, and since then has used that money to become an inspired and truly impressive philanthropist.

I haven't read about many wealthy people that didn't leave me with some degree of disappointment, whether I thought they were so full of themselves as to become caricatures, arrogant, cold, so self-indulgent that they became functionally less intelligent - usually something less than human. But reading Soros I actually have more hope for humanity. That someone could be so wealthy and still have the integrity and humanity he shows again and again, there really is hope for the future.

In the book Soros discusses his philosophy on thinking and reality, what an open society is and why the US is having trouble being one, the current Bush policies, the war on drugs, the war on terror, how Bush could possibly have gotten re-elected, how key professions have become businesses, how academia has lost its identity and is becoming and end in itself, affirmative action... and at the end of the book Soros shows inspired thinking about how he would approach some of the largest problems facing our planet. What a change after hearing Bush "speak" and watching his disastrous policies make everything they touch worse. (Is there an opposite to the Midas Touch?)

The book is overflowing with such clarity and intelligence that I can't imagine anyone honestly interested in what's going wrong with America would not be fascinated with it.

If you like the political writings of Chomsky or Vidal, Berman's "Twilight of the American Culture", Stiglitz's "Globalization and its Discontents", or are in any way troubled by the disconnect between what Bush says and what he accomplishes... READ THIS BOOK!