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20:21 Vision

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20:21 Vision

Twentieth-Century Lessons for the Twenty-first Century

FSG,

15 min read
10 take-aways
Audio & text

What's inside?

Today’s crystal ball is fogged by journalism, bounced by globalization and deflated by the weight of power politics.

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Editorial Rating

7

Qualities

  • Innovative

Recommendation

This lengthy philosophical treatise from the editor-in-chief of The Economist wanders all over recent history and offers some cautious, well-hedged ruminations about the shape of things to come. It’s a pleasure to read, like lounging in a posh boat and drifting down a slow river of thought. The current of thought is almost directionless. Emmott shifts from subject to subject, time period to time period, perspective to perspective easily, with no restraint. He has a little pro-Americanism here, a little underestimating of the Chinese there, but nothing sharp-edged. Readers looking for a succinct point of view will be disappointed; so will those seeking fresh, new ideas. But getAbstract.com understands that those who enjoy considering and decoding the complex web of political and economic forces will be delighted.

Summary

The United States and Its Power

Winston Churchill said, "The Americans will always do the right thing...after they’ve exhausted the alternatives." But John Maynard Keynes said of the U.S., "I always regard a visit as in the nature of a serious illness, to be followed by a convalescence."

Europeans are fond of denigrating the United States as a rude, ignorant, incurious society. Asia resents America’s power. Some think America is too meddlesome; others think it is too isolationist; others think it is simply awkward. America is much stronger than any previously dominant power. Take the top 15 countries in the world, ranked by defense spending. America plans to spend ten times more on defense than the next 14 put together. America has not built an old-fashioned empire, but technology has put the entire world under America’s influence. Americans were somewhat reluctant imperialists. Unlike the colonial powers of the nineteenth century, America did not set out to conquer all or large portions of the world and establish a self-centered trading system. America does tilt the playing field somewhat in its own favor, but it is more fair to those under it than any previous empire...

About the Author

Bill Emmott has been Editor in Chief of The Economist since 1993, and has written several books on Japan and the global economy.

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