The myth of America's decline : politics, economics, and a half century of false prophecies /
While it may be catnip for the media to play up America as a has-been, Josef Joffe, a German commentator and Stanford University academic, proposes that Declinism is not a cold-eyed diagnosis but a device in the style of the ancient prophets. Gloom is a prophecy that must be believed so that it will...
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| Format: | Book |
| Language: | English |
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New York :
Liveright Publishing Corporation, a division of W.W. Norton & Company,
[2014]
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| Edition: | First edition. |
| Subjects: |
| Summary: | While it may be catnip for the media to play up America as a has-been, Josef Joffe, a German commentator and Stanford University academic, proposes that Declinism is not a cold-eyed diagnosis but a device in the style of the ancient prophets. Gloom is a prophecy that must be believed so that it will turn out wrong. Joffe claims that '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.' |
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| Physical Description: | xvi, 327 pages : illustrations ; 25 cm. |
| Bibliography: | Includes bibliographical references and index. |
| ISBN: | 9780871404497 (hbk.) 0871404494 (hbk.) |