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Title: The United States of Europe: The New Superpower and the End of American Supremacy
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Manufacturer: Penguin Press HC, The
List Price: $25.95
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| The United States of Europe: The New Superpower and the End of American Supremacy by Penguin Press HC, The Informative, well written, fairly current | Having lived in Europe for 7 months, I found this book to be very resourceful. It covers a wide range of topics from political and industrial development, to Eurovision and the younger generation.
One chapter seemed to ramble a bit about the details of the life of an American CEO, but nothing too distracting. I wish the author would discuss more about the role of India and China as future competitors with the European Union and not just America. Either way, I couldn't put this book down. An enjoyable, informative social read. | | The United States of Europe: The New Superpower and the End of American Supremacy by Penguin Press HC, The Enlightening. A concise read! | This book is a few years old. I picked it up in a Boston Logan airport bookstore last month and finished reading it by the time I landed in Paris. At first I had pegged it as a book on business. But the author does not write about negotiation secrets or anything. What he does do is present an outstanding narrative on describing the powerhouse that is the European Union. First he sets about laying out how Americans have not been taking the EU seriously. He uses the example of a typical American couple that goes on a road trip and buys/uses what it thinks are "very American" products. And I felt a little embarrassed because he could have just as well been describing me. My concentration in college, as part of my Political Science major, was in International Relations and so I felt a bit miffed at myself for learning about the significance of the EU through this book. But I guess that is more or less how Jack Welch, whose head-on conflict with Mario Monti (the EU Competition Commissioner) has been described with glee through a whole chapter by the author, must have felt on a particular day back in 2001.
The author also describes his family's personal experience with the EU's universal healthcare system, which I found very enlightening (and now I know why that lamb dinner I had in Reykjavik last year cost me a pretty penny). Other topics such as how the lack of a stronger military presence (when compared to the military of the US) in the EU isn't necessarily a bad thing for the Europeans and the benefits of having implemented a much simpler cellular phone format over there are also discussed about in concise detail.
The best thing about this book is the organization and its prose. I actually read some of its chapters in no order and did not feel confused at all. The author's writing is clear and very easy to understand. I could have been chatting with him in a quiet bar in downtown Boston. | | The United States of Europe: The New Superpower and the End of American Supremacy by Penguin Press HC, The A Good Way to Start | I discovered this book while browsing through the catalogues of a library in Singapore, and found that it was quite an entertaining read.
It's a good way to start knowing about the EU if you know little about it. The book is written in conversational, easy-to-read, easy-to-absorb English that anyone can understand.
A friend is residing now in Ireland and I thought sending him this book could give him a crash course of what he got himself into.
| | The United States of Europe: The New Superpower and the End of American Supremacy by Penguin Press HC, The Good idea - Fatally flawed | Perhaps this book was written 25 years too early? The United States of Europe offers a great read to anyone who has never doesn't know anything about international relations, the EU, or economics and has a cynical view of America. For the rest of us, the book offers a decent perspective on what Europe COULD be like years from now, but the EU is too young to start erasing borders and addressing all of the different countries inside of it as a whole. Reid makes huge and obvious generalizations and glaring misconceptions about European welfare systems. When telling the story about writing trying to write a check for visiting a British emergency room, he at one point discourses about how European health care is paid by extremely high taxes on everything, yet then claims at the end the health care was free. My personal favorite part is that the UK, although a member of the EU, is far from being an heavily integrated EU country and even identifies itself more with the US and Common Wealth nations than France or Germany.
Reids view on Europe's economy is far from realistic, ignores or in a sentence brushes off almost EVERY SINGLE MAJOR ECONOMIC OR SOCIAL PROBLEM they face. Instead the book compares certain American problems where Europeans have succeeded, ignoring where Europeans have failed and America has. He makes huge generalizations about cross-Atlantic corporation relations that pretty much ignore the truth, he ignores some European countries are even more free-market oriented than the USA (Ireland).
I think this book was written more for the shock value Reid could deliver to uninformed readers than anyone who follows global events. The comparisons between the two is elementary and biased if best, facts in favor are overstated and facts agaisnt are absent. Reid overly draws on his own personal examples to make a broad point that is usually flat out nonsense. The economics in this book are flat out bad or missing. Reid's view of a Utopian Europe is far from true.
America and Europe are two different societies that have a lot to gain by learning from each other. America certainly needs to become more socially conscious about its poor, its health care systems and education structure, but many European countries also need to regain their economic prowess and shed some of their financially burdensome welfare systems just to sustain themselves. Neither of us are better than the other.
I recommend Robert Kagan "Of Paradise and Power" for a more realistic view of the EU-American relationship Of Paradise and Power: America and Europe in the New World Order
| | The United States of Europe: The New Superpower and the End of American Supremacy by Penguin Press HC, The js | | This is a well written book which is very enlightening. As a US citizen it is important to recognize our diminishing stature worldwide. Its time for America to take some cues from Europe to improve our standard of living, save America's middle class, and become globally competative. | | The United States of Europe: The New Superpower and the End of American Supremacy by Penguin Press HC, The Product Description | | To Americans accustomed to unilateralism abroad and social belt-tightening at home, few books could be more revelatory—or controversial—than this timely, lucid, and informative portrait of the new European Union. Now comprising 25 nations and 450 million citizens, the EU has more people, more wealth, and more votes on every international body than the United States. It eschews military force but offers guaranteed health care and free university educations. And the new “United States of Europe” is determined to be a superpower. Tracing the EU’s emergence from the ruins of World War II and its influence everywhere from international courts to supermarket shelves, T. R. Reid explores the challenge it poses to American political and economic supremacy. The United States of Europe is essential reading. | | The United States of Europe: The New Superpower and the End of American Supremacy by Penguin Press HC, The Amazon.com | | While the United States flexes its economic and military muscles around the world as the dominant global player, it may soon have company. According to the Washington Post's T.R. Reid, the nations of Europe are setting aside differences to form an entity that's gaining strength, all seemingly unbeknownst to the U.S. and its citizens. The new Europe, Reid says, "has more people, more wealth, and more trade than the United States of America," plus more leverage gained through membership in international organizations and generous foreign aid policies that reap political clout. Reid tells how European countries were willing to discontinue their individual centuries-old currencies and adopt the Euro, the monetary unit that is now a dominant force in world markets. This is noteworthy not just for exploring the considerable economic impact of the Euro, but also for what that spirit of cooperation means for every facet of Europe in the 21st century, where governments and citizens alike believe that the rewards of banding together are worth a loss in sovereignty. Reid's most compelling portrait of this trend is in the young Europeans known as "Generation E" who see themselves not as Spaniards or Czechs but simply as Europeans. To illustrate America's obliviousness to this trend, Reid tells of former GE CEO Jack Welch, who never bothered to factor European objections into a proposed multi-billion dollar merger with Honeywell, leading to the deal being torpedoed and Welch disgraced. But what is most striking in The United States of Europe is the contrast between the new Europe and the United States. The Europeans cannot match the raw military size of the U.S., but by mixing wealth with diplomacy and continental unity (helped along by antipathy toward George W. Bush's brand of Americanism), they are forming an innovative and powerful superpower. --John Moe |
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