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mmoore94's review against another edition
2.0
While I really enjoyed this book at the start it became a slog to finish. There were some chapters that were timeless and fascinating, I could have read a whole book on the changes in language or more on the question of Afghanistan. However, it is really clear that Fawcett was more focused on the economy of America and it's role as a global power and that these other chapters were just there to break it up a bit. It's pretty dated now. Some good short essay type topics though.
wanderlustsleeping's review against another edition
4.0
This was extremely informative, and talked about a lot of great topics!
I must mention a couple things that annoyed me though. I felt that the first half was a perfect blend on each topic, but then the last half of the book was entirely about recession and depression in the economy, and having that for half the book made it harder to get through. It just got to be boring. Either he should have used the later half as an entire book, or just stuck to one part of his recession and depression points to talk about. Along with this point, the last half could have been way shorter as he ends up repeating himself a lot. I like when nonfiction authors repeat certain points every once in a while because it helps tie things together, but he just did it so much. I swear I read some of the almost same sentences so many times, I began to roll my eyes at one point.
Therefore, I still give this book 4/5 stars because it truly was fascinating, informative, and brought up some fantastic questions! I just had some had some things I needed to nitpick about it.
I would recommend it!
I must mention a couple things that annoyed me though. I felt that the first half was a perfect blend on each topic, but then the last half of the book was entirely about recession and depression in the economy, and having that for half the book made it harder to get through. It just got to be boring. Either he should have used the later half as an entire book, or just stuck to one part of his recession and depression points to talk about. Along with this point, the last half could have been way shorter as he ends up repeating himself a lot. I like when nonfiction authors repeat certain points every once in a while because it helps tie things together, but he just did it so much. I swear I read some of the almost same sentences so many times, I began to roll my eyes at one point.
Therefore, I still give this book 4/5 stars because it truly was fascinating, informative, and brought up some fantastic questions! I just had some had some things I needed to nitpick about it.
I would recommend it!
themadmaiden's review against another edition
2.0
It started off well, talking about how invading Afghanistan was always more trouble then it's worth but even the chapter about disease wasn't enough to hold my interest after it started to slant ever more towards America and the economy. This was not the book I was expecting.
I'm highly disappointed there wasn't a chapter about how invading Russia in the winter is a terrible idea but I really shouldn't be surprised. This was so American centered, it was blinding near the end. The last line where they attempted to mention the EU was almost laughable since the entire chapter had been about comparing America to Rome.
The few history parts were interesting but we're nearly enough. I thought we'd get stuff about dictatorships and the wars and things people do in fear. Stuff about history that we're not realizing and just doing over and over again. But no, apparently we had to spend the entire last half of the book talking about American economics. If you're going to make the book mostly American at least have the decency to put America in the title so the rest of us know not to be looking for world centered things.
A lot less interesting then I thought it would be.
I'm highly disappointed there wasn't a chapter about how invading Russia in the winter is a terrible idea but I really shouldn't be surprised. This was so American centered, it was blinding near the end. The last line where they attempted to mention the EU was almost laughable since the entire chapter had been about comparing America to Rome.
The few history parts were interesting but we're nearly enough. I thought we'd get stuff about dictatorships and the wars and things people do in fear. Stuff about history that we're not realizing and just doing over and over again. But no, apparently we had to spend the entire last half of the book talking about American economics. If you're going to make the book mostly American at least have the decency to put America in the title so the rest of us know not to be looking for world centered things.
A lot less interesting then I thought it would be.
amy142's review against another edition
2.0
I'm afraid I'm going to have to echo the sentiments of many others here- the first half of the book was interesting, if not a little jumbled, but the second was a real struggle to get through. There is far too much focus on the US. At one point you start to wonder whether any other countries had recessions/depressions, because only US examples are used for a number of chapters. These chapters also spend far too long analysing and explaining the 'current' political situation in the US (now a few years old) which was not only not what I was reading the book for, but will also date it extremely quickly.
I was relieved to finally reach the last two chapters, which moved away from the drudgery of economics which had consumed half the book, only to discover they were basically just re-caps of all the examples used in the previous chapters and added almost nothing new.
In conclusion: if you're interested, pick it up for the first few chapters, and then put it down hastily as soon as the word 'recession' appears.
I was relieved to finally reach the last two chapters, which moved away from the drudgery of economics which had consumed half the book, only to discover they were basically just re-caps of all the examples used in the previous chapters and added almost nothing new.
In conclusion: if you're interested, pick it up for the first few chapters, and then put it down hastily as soon as the word 'recession' appears.
moriartyandherbooks's review against another edition
4.0
This was extremely informative, and talked about a lot of great topics!
I must mention a couple things that annoyed me though. I felt that the first half was a perfect blend on each topic, but then the last half of the book was entirely about recession and depression in the economy, and having that for half the book made it harder to get through. It just got to be boring. Either he should have used the later half as an entire book, or just stuck to one part of his recession and depression points to talk about. Along with this point, the last half could have been way shorter as he ends up repeating himself a lot. I like when nonfiction authors repeat certain points every once in a while because it helps tie things together, but he just did it so much. I swear I read some of the almost same sentences so many times, I began to roll my eyes at one point.
Therefore, I still give this book 4/5 stars because it truly was fascinating, informative, and brought up some fantastic questions! I just had some had some things I needed to nitpick about it.
I would recommend it!
I must mention a couple things that annoyed me though. I felt that the first half was a perfect blend on each topic, but then the last half of the book was entirely about recession and depression in the economy, and having that for half the book made it harder to get through. It just got to be boring. Either he should have used the later half as an entire book, or just stuck to one part of his recession and depression points to talk about. Along with this point, the last half could have been way shorter as he ends up repeating himself a lot. I like when nonfiction authors repeat certain points every once in a while because it helps tie things together, but he just did it so much. I swear I read some of the almost same sentences so many times, I began to roll my eyes at one point.
Therefore, I still give this book 4/5 stars because it truly was fascinating, informative, and brought up some fantastic questions! I just had some had some things I needed to nitpick about it.
I would recommend it!
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