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Indian Cookbooks | Home » » The Post-American World: Release 2.0 | | | | | | | Description: | | The New York Times bestseller, revised and expanded with a new afterword: the essential update of Fareed Zakaria's international bestseller about America and its shifting position in world affairs. Fareed Zakaria’s international bestseller The Post-American World pointed to the “rise of the rest”—the growth of countries like China, India, Brazil, and others—as the great story of our time, the story that will undoubtedly shape the future of global power. Since its publication, the trends he identified have proceeded faster than anyone could have anticipated. The 2008 financial crisis turned the world upside down, stalling the United States and other advanced economies. Meanwhile emerging markets have surged ahead, coupling their economic growth with pride, nationalism, and a determination to shape their own future.
In this new edition, Zakaria makes sense of this rapidly changing landscape. With his customary lucidity, insight, and imagination, he draws on lessons from the two great power shifts of the past 500 years—the rise of the Western world and the rise of the United States—to tell us what we can expect from the third shift, the “rise of the rest.” The great challenge for Britain was economic decline. The challenge for America now is political decline, for as others have grown in importance, the central role of the United States, especially in the ascendant emerging markets, has already begun to shrink. As Zakaria eloquently argues, Washington needs to begin a serious transformation of its global strategy, moving from its traditional role of dominating hegemon to that of a more pragmatic, honest broker. It must seek to share power, create coalitions, build legitimacy, and define the global agenda—all formidable tasks.
None of this will be easy for the greatest power the world has ever known—the only power that for so long has really mattered. America stands at a crossroads: In a new global era where the United States no longer dominates the worldwide economy, orchestrates geopolitics, or overwhelms cultures, can the nation continue to thrive? | | | Product Details: | | | Author:
| Fareed Zakaria | | Hardcover:
| 336 pages | | Publisher:
| W. W. Norton & Company | | Publication Date:
| May 31, 2011 | | Language:
| English | | ISBN:
| 039308180X | | Package Length:
| 9.4 inches | | Package Width:
| 6.0 inches | | Package Height:
| 1.2 inches | | Package Weight:
| 1.4 pounds | | Average Customer Rating:
|  based on 29 reviews |
| | | | Customer Reviews: | |
Average Customer Review:
 ( 29 customer reviews )
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27 of 28 found the following review helpful:
 Excellent and InsightfulOct 03, 2011
By J. Gomez
"Book Shark"
The Post-American World: Release 2.0 by Fareed Zakaria
"The Post-American World" is the insightful book about world affairs and America's role. The author makes compelling arguments that it is the "rise of the rest" and not America's decline at the heart of this global era. This 336-page book is composed of the following seven chapters: 1. The Rise of the Rest, 2. The Cup Runneth Over, 3. A Non-Western World? 4. The Challenger, 5. The Ally, 6. American Power and 7. American Purpose.
Positives:
1. Well-written and well-researched book.
2. Accessible book for the masses.
3. A fascinating topic in the hands of a master.
4. An even-handed book. Mr. Zakaria is fair.
5. Engaging prose that offers countless anecdotes and interesting facts.
6. A lot of misconceptions put to rest: "Poverty is falling in countries housing 80 percent of the world's population". "War and organized violence have declined dramatically over the last two decades".
7. Economics in an enlightening manner, "It was not the Great Depression that brought the Nazis to power in Germany but rather hyperinflation, which destroyed the middle class by making its savings worthless".
8. The three forces that impact the global international environment: politics, economics, and technology.
9. The impact of global growth on natural resources and the environment.
10. Fascinating facts throughout the book,"from 2003 to 2020, the number of vehicles in China will rise from 26 million to 120 million". Wow.
11. Does a great job of explaining the various challenges facing the planet.
12. What the global economy has turned into...
13. National debt at the heart of our problem. $14 trillion...
14. Interesting history.
15. How our world is shrinking.
16. Did you know that women's clothing is a powerful indicator of a society's comfort with modernity? You do now...and much more where that came from.
17. Brief but interesting look at religions that form the rising powers.
18. 1979 as a watershed year for the globe.
19. A fascinating look at China, worth the price of the book. An entire chapter.
20. Walmart and its connection to China.
21. Why China and the Unites States need each other.
22. An insightful look at India. An entire chapter. Great stuff!
23. India's nuclear aspirations.
24. Interesting British history and the ways it compares to ours.
25. American military domination.
26. The economic challenges of America.
27. America's strengths and weaknesses.
28. A very interesting look at our educational system and how it stacks up against the world. Educational indeed.
29. What is America's best industry? Find out.
30. The impact of immigration.
31. The biggest economical threats to our country.
32. The impact of free trade.
33. Sensible reforms that should be enacted.
34. Dysfunctional politics.
35. The six guidelines on how the United States can operate in this new world.
36. Positive future, it's up to us.
37. Links worked great. Excellent notes section.
Negatives:
1. Loved the chapters on China and India but would have loved a chapter on Germany and/or Brazil.
2. Excellent notes section but it never hurts to have a separate bibliography.
3. Charts and illustrated would have added value.
4. The author does speculate and may suffer from moments of grandeur.
5. Too little emphasis on finite resources and the impact to the planet.
In summary, I enjoyed reading this book. Mr. Zakaria took me on a wonderful journey to China and India and provided fascinating information. It provides an excellent summary of global affairs and how this will impact the United States. I highly recommend this book!
Further recommendations: "That Used to be US..." by Thomas Friedman , "The End of Growth: Adapting to Our New Economic Reality" by Richard Heinberg, "The Crash Course" by Chris Martenson, and "Aftershock" by Robert B. Reich.
28 of 31 found the following review helpful:
 Kindle version is NOT the revised 2.0 editionJun 12, 2011
By Stephen Holmes
Kindle Edition rating.
I Just downloaded the Kindle version of this book only to discover it is the first edition from 2009. It is an interesting read, however it was confusing to notice that I was buying the older edition - not the recently revised and updated version as I clicked on the Kindle Edition link on the V2.0 edition page to download it.
12 of 13 found the following review helpful:
It's About Growth, StupidJun 20, 2011
By Middle-aged Professor
Zakaria is remarkably self-assured. He knows what the future will bring. He knows what America needs to do. And what is the number one thing? Grow. Grow, economy, grow. In that sense, Zakaria's prescriptions are somewhat conservative: less regulation, less taxation, less litigation, less concern about environment, etc. In other ways, though, Zakaria is liberal: our diversity is our greatest strength, quality and universal education and health care are our biggest economic imperatives, nation building is out and international consensus is in. All together, it makes for an interesting and thought provoking brew.
Although the book is called the Post-American world, that title too seems designed to be provocative, for in fact, he expects America to stay #1 (measured by size of economy, what else?). On the whole, Zakaria is more optimistic about America than most Americans. What is the biggest threat we face? Our own dysfunctional politics!
A healthy portion of the book, at least half, is really not about America all, but rather about the two key emerging economies Zakaria identifies: China and India. The book is no less self-assured in this area and is highly informative about both of these countries (or, at least, of Zakaria's understanding of them). Frankly, I learned a lot from those parts of the book, and they were the highlight for me. Definitely recommended for readers who like this sort of thing.
5 of 5 found the following review helpful:
 A focused and realistic view of the worldJun 10, 2011
By Charles Lewis Sizemore, CFA
"Charles Sizemore"
Fareed Zakaria has emerged in recent years as one of America's best minds with respect to foreign policy and international relations. His recent book, The Post-American World, touches on several issues near and dear to our own research. The gloomy title aside (this book got quite a bit of notoriety when then-candidate Barrack Obama was seen reading it during his campaign), Zakaria is actually rather optimistic about the economic prospects of the United States. He does discuss the role of demographics in America's position in the world, which is a good start.
As this book has already been reviewed by countless others, we will steer clear of the sections most often reviewed, which are generally foreign policy related and compare the United States today with the British Empire last century. We'll start instead with Mr. Zakaria's commentary on the US health and pension system, which echoes our own work on the subject:
"Consider the automobile industry. For a century after 1894, most of the cars manufactured in North America were made in Michigan. Since 2004, Michigan has been replaced by Ontario, Canada. The reason is simple: healthcare. In America, car manufacturers have to pay $6,500 in medical and insurance costs for every worker. If they move a plant to Canada, which has a government-run health care system, the cost to the manufacturer is around $800 per worker. In 2006, General Motors paid $5.2 billion in medical and insurance bills for active and retired workers. That adds $1,500 to the cost of every GM car sold. For Toyota, which has fewer American retirees and many more foreign workers, that cost is $186 per car. This is not necessarily an advertisement for the Canadian health care system, but it does make clear that the costs of the American healthcare system have risen to a point that there is a significant competitive disadvantage to hiring American workers."
Zakaria also makes the point that tying healthcare to employment tends to tie people to their jobs and lesson their ability to leave lest they lose their health insurance. It also tends to make them fear free trade and globalization. The result is that the American economy is less dynamic and productive that it would have been under a more fluid labor market.
Moving on, Zakaria also refers to demographics as America's "secret weapon," at least vis-à-vis Europe and East Asia:
"All in all, Europe presents the best short-term challenge to the United States in the economic realm. But Europe has one crucial disadvantage. Or, to put more accurately, the United States has one crucial advantage over Europe and most of the developed world. The United States is demographically vibrant. Nicholas Eberstadt, a scholar at the American Enterprise Institute, estimates that the U.S. population will increase by 65 million by 2030, while Europe's will remain 'virtually stagnant.' Europe, Eberstadt notes, 'will by that time have twice as many seniors as older than 65 than children under 15, with drastic implications for future aging. (Fewer children now means fewer workers later.) In the United States, by contrast, children will continue to outnumber the elderly.... Some of these demographic problems could be ameliorated if older Europeans chose to work more, but so far they do not, and trends like these rarely reverse.'"
This goes to show that, with demographics, it's all relative. The United States does indeed have a better long-term demographic prognosis than Europe or East Asia. But that doesn't mean that the prognosis is good. "Less bad" doesn't mean good.
Furthermore, Zakaria falls into the same trap as most economists that have approached this issue. He focuses on demographics as it applies to workers. The Sizemore Investment Letter focuses instead on the demographic characteristics of consumers. As Japan has proven for nearly two decades, a country can still produce with an aging workforce, but it ceases to consume at the same pace. And in an economy dominated by consumer spending, this is a problem.
The Post-American World is full of other interesting points that deserve more space than we can offer here. We highly recommend this book for your summer reading. History buff will also like some of Zakaria's prior works, including From Wealth to Power
4 of 4 found the following review helpful:
Fascinating book on world relationsJul 18, 2011
By M. Hyman
"Artist at large"
a fascinating book about international relations and the strengths and weaknesses of the USA in interacting with the evolving world. Fundamentally, is American on a decline? Should we be afraid? How do our actions compare to those of previous great empires such as England? What motivates China and India? How will the world economy shift?
These and many other questions are posed and discussed in the book. It is an excellent, well thought, well presented read that gives much perspective on the role of America and how that is changing with the collapse of the American economy, the post-Bush era foreign policy, and the growing strength of emerging markets such as China, Brazil and Russia.
I won't share with you the book's conclusions, but if you are interested in politics, policies, or are a business leader of some sort, this book is a highly valuable read.
See all 29 customer reviews on Amazon.com
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