Andrew Bacevich is the author of The Limits of Power, Washington Rules, and, most recently, The Age of Illusions: How America Squandered Its Cold War Victory. His writings have appeared in the New York Times, the London Review of Books, and the American Conservative, among other publications. Having served in the army for twenty-three years, he is currently a professor emeritus of history and international relations at Boston University and founder and president of the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft, a Washington think tank dedicated to foreign policy. He lives in Walpole, Massachusetts.
Few critics [of the Iraq and Afghanistan Wars] have been more penetrating than Andrew Bacevich . . . One can only hope that Bacevich is read and understood by a generation young enough to see through and reject those dismal elites. --The New York Times Book Review (Editors' Choice) A timely, angry, deeply necessary book about the habits of mind that have damaged America, and how to change them. --Peter Beinart, author of The Crisis of Zionism In a sane country, the estimable Andrew Bacevich would be Secretary of a much-shrunken Defense Department. Deepened by his sense of history, this up-to-the-minute book is his answer to the big question: why is the most powerful nation on earth so ill-prepared to deal with the world it faces? --Adam Hochschild, author of Spain in Our Hearts The proliferating crises of our moment have found their interpreter. In this piercing account, Andrew Bacevich explains how distinctively American attributes--from our national security state to our original sin of racism to our very self-concept as the world leader--have, in the 21st century, conspired to render the American people vulnerable where they live. Bacevich points the way forward in terms that Americans across party lines are likely to appreciate. Will their leaders? --Stephen Wertheim, author of Tomorrow, the World: The Birth of U.S. Global Supremacy After the Apocalypse is a welcome act of heresy . . . that drives a central point home: America has stumbled, badly, and will complete its precipitous fall unless measures are taken to radically reform its failed and flawed relationship with itself and the world . . . A must read for any student or practitioner of American statecraft. --Scott Ritter, former US Marine Corps intelligence officer An excoriating call for change . . . Bacevich's arguments are well-informed and stoked by a sense of moral outrage. Readers will agree that U.S. foreign policy needs a massive rethink. --Publishers Weekly With a reputation for knowledgeable, incisive, and provocative readings of history, Bacevich delivers his latest addition to a growing body of thought-provoking work . . . Broad in its scope yet concise, this is an important nonconformist interpretation of American history. --Kirkus Reviews