The Myth of America's Decline: Politics, Economics, and a Half Century of False Prophecies
Josef Joffe (Author)

About the Author
Josef Joffe was educated at Swarthmore College and Harvard University. A frequent contributor to Foreign Affairs and Foreign Policy, he is a founding board member of the American Interest. He is a Fellow at Stanford University’s Hoover Institution and the Freeman-Spogli Institute for International Studies.

About this book
A provocative and contrarian work - filled with great lessons from history - that challenges the pervasive notion that America is on the decline.
Once every decade, it is "decline time" in America. In recent years, it has been the unstoppable rise of China that has spelled "finis America." What the Chinese juggernaut is today, the Soviet Union ("We shall bury you") was in the 1950s. The Vietnam decade of the 1960s was described as America's "collective suicide attempt," while in the 1970s, the United States succumbed to Jimmy Carter's famous "malaise," as the dollar dangerously plummeted. The 1980s unquestionably belonged to a resurgent Japan, the "Rising Sun," whereas in the 1990s, Europe shone forth as an "empire by example." In the naughts, it was "Asia Rising" that became the flavor of the decade.
Despite a litany of prognostications, these contenders have all fallen back, one by one. While it may be catnip for the media to play up America as a has-been, Josef Joffe, a leading German commentator and Stanford University academic, compellingly shows that declinism is not a cold-eyed diagnosis but a device in the style of the ancient prophets: "Thou shalt perish, unless..."
Gloom is a prophecy that must be believed so that it will turn out wrong. Joffe repeatedly demonstrates how the "economic miracles" that propelled the rising tide of challengers flounder against their own limits. Hardly confined to Europe alone, declinism has also been an especially nifty career builder for American politicians, among them Kennedy, Nixon, and Reagan, who all rode into the White House by hawking "the end is near."
Effortlessly mixing keen historical insights with brilliant diplomatic and economic analysis, The Myth of America's Decline becomes a remarkable reflection on our nation's standing in the world and an eye-opening account that challenges the pervasive and now tired notion that America is on the decline.

Brief contents
Introduction: America as Has-Been
CHAPTER ONE “IT’S DECLINE TIME IN AMERICA:” A SHORT HISTORY
    The 1950s: The Russians Are Coming!
    The 1960s: The “Unraveling of America”
    The 1970s: America’s “Malaise”
    The 1980s: Japan’s “Rising Sun”
    The Twenty-First Century: The Chinese Are Coming!
CHAPTER TWO POLITICS AND PROPHECY, OR THE USES OF DECLINISM
    The Structure of Doomism
    The Functions of Doomism
    Why Glee, Why Doom?
CHAPTER THREE THE POWERS AND THEIR POWER: MEASURING WHAT MATTERS
    The Facts and the Figures
    Frames vs. Films
    What Is Power?
CHAPTER FOUR HYPE AND HISTORY: WHY TOMORROW IS NOT LIKE YESTERDAY
    The High Rollers of the Twentieth Century
    A Tale of Tigers and Dragons
CHAPTER FIVE THE NEXT NUMBER ONE: CHINA AND YESTERDAY’S HIGHFLIERS
    A Superstar Is Born
    Modernitarianism: New Dragon vs. Old Tigers
    State Capitalism 2.0
    The Four Fault Lines of State Capitalism 2.0
CHAPTER SIX CHALLENGERS AND CHAMPIONS: WHY AMERICA’S EDGE WILL ENDURE
    Demography and Destiny
    Power Today and Tomorrow: Education
    The Power of Invention
    The Power of Immigration
    Modernitarianism vs. the Liberal Model
CHAPTER SEVEN AMERICA, THE WEST, AND THE REST: WHO WILL OWN THE TWENTY-FIRST CENTURY?
    The World’s New Power Map
    The Lure of Liberal Empire
    Liberal Empire Made in U.S.A.
    America as XXL Britain
    The Default Power
    The Prospects of American Power
Acknowledgments
Notes
Index

Publisher: Liveright Publishing Corporation (January 15, 2015)
Language: English
ASIN: B00Y2UV2Q0