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Liked It1 of 1 members found this review helpful “Excellent insight into the declining state of western civilization and the dangers we are facing from Jihad-minded Muslims. A wake-up call worth heeding and a fun read!” see full review » see other reviews » |
Didn’t Like It “From the Ignatius Catalog: Someday soon, you might wake up to the call to prayer from a muezzin. Steyn argues America should proclam the obvious: we do have a better culture than our enemies, and we should spread America's influence around the world -- for our own sake as well as theirs. |
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“Eye opening!”
edie h wrote this review Tuesday, November 10 2009. ( reply | permalink ) Was this review helpful? Yes | No
“I enjopyed the book immensely. It is refreshing to read a point of view that is not PC and still very fair to all sides. I wish I would have read it when it came out but I can't wait to read more from him. He is intelligent, concise, and still witty. ”
Maureen d wrote this review Thursday, October 29 2009. ( reply | permalink ) Was this review helpful? Yes | No
“This book is an incredible read. Steyn has the ability to persuade without being bombastic. I recommend this highly for anyone concerned about current events. The documentary "Demographic Winter" is a great trailer for this book.”
Liam Roberts wrote this review Saturday, June 6 2009. ( reply | permalink ) Was this review helpful? Yes | No“From the Ignatius Catalog: Someday soon, you might wake up to the call to prayer from a muezzin. Steyn argues America should proclam the obvious: we do have a better culture than our enemies, and we should spread America's influence around the world -- for our own sake as well as theirs.
Shannon C wrote this review Friday, July 17 2009. ( reply | permalink ) Was this review helpful? Yes | No
I so wanted to like this book. I made it halfway through. Steyn presents good information. He is right that we should not bury our heads in the sand. Still, this book left me less-trusting, less hopeful, more worried, more troubled, There was a "wrong spirit" to it. ”“Great read. Though I must admit that Mr. Steyn paints a frightening picture.”
Pamela G wrote this review Monday, April 20 2009. ( reply | permalink ) Was this review helpful? Yes | No
“Far out. ”
Janet H wrote this review Monday, April 13 2009. ( reply | permalink ) Was this review helpful? Yes | No
“One of the more fascinating attempts at explaining the decline of the West is Mark Steyn's "America Alone." Though the main thrust of the book is the threat of Islam, Steyn examines numerous sources of decay in Western society, the upshot being that we are vulnerable to the threat only because of our weakness, confusion, and self-defeating behavior.
Gary Wolf wrote this review Monday, March 2 2009. ( reply | permalink ) Was this review helpful? Yes | No
Steyn offers the reader reams of evidence to back up his assertion that a "significant strain of Islam" (which today happens to be the overwhelmingly dominant one) is wreaking havoc across the planet. Everything from riots in the Parisian banlieue to the massacre of schoolchildren in Beslan to the Palestinian death cult is exposed in all its horror. It is virtually everywhere, and it is constant:
"We switch on the news every evening and, though there are many trouble spots around the world, as a general rule it's easy to make an educated guess at one of the participants: Muslims vs. Jews in 'Palestine,' Muslims vs. Hindus in Kashmir, Muslims vs. Christians in Africa, Muslims vs. Buddhists in Thailand, Muslims vs. Russians in the Caucasus, Muslims vs. backpacking tourists in Bali, Muslims vs. Danish cartoonists in Scandinavia."
Instead of confronting the threat, or even acknowledging it for what it is, Western elites drag their populations into an anesthetized state of denial. Discussion of the issue (if it exists at all) is filtered through the layers of the multiculturalist narrative, which leaves it sanitized and devoid of real content. Says Steyn:
"Bomb us, and we agonize over the 'root causes.' Decapitate us, and our politicians rush to the nearest mosque to declare that 'Islam is a religion of peace.' Issue blood-curdling calls at Friday prayers to kill all the Jews and infidels, and we fret that it may cause a backlash against Muslims. Behead sodomites and mutilate female genitalia, and gay groups and feminist groups can't wait to march alongside you denouncing Bush and Blair. Murder a schoolful of children, and our scholars explain that to the 'vast majority' of Muslims 'jihad' is a harmless concept meaning 'healthy-lifestyle lo-fat granola bar'."
As Steyn makes clear, the problem would never have gotten so out of hand were it not for the meltdown of intellect that has occurred among the "educated" portion of the Western world. The jihadis take full advantage of this breach, and they are aided and abetted at every turn by their "progressive" enablers.
The West has lost its will to fight. We consistently defeat ourselves. The Islamists
"know they can never win on the battlefield, but they figure there's an excellent chance they can drag things out until Western Civilization collapses on itself and Islam inherits by default. An army is only one weapon a civilization wields, and the weapon of last resort, too. But when you add up those elements of national power--military, judicial, diplomatic, economic, informational--it's hard not to conclude that (as was said of the British after the fall of Singapore) at least four of those five guns are pointing in the wrong direction. The point of the media is to speak truth to (domestic) power, the point of transnationalism is to constrain American power, the point of law is to upgrade the defendant--and the upshot of economic power in a time of plenty is that every time you gas up you're funding an enemy who's flusher than he's been since the fall of Constantinople. Meanwhile, we fight the symptoms--the terror plots--but not the cause: the ideology. The self-imposed constraints of this war--legalistic, multilateral, politically correct--are clearer every day."
Steyn devotes quite a bit of ink to the issue of demography. The Muslim world, including the recent transplants into Europe, are benefiting from a high birthrate (the "upper reaches of the fertility hit parade") whereas the native populations--especially in Spain, Italy, and Greece--are falling far below replacement rate. The U.S. is chugging along at slightly above replacement level.
This phenomenon is of vast historical significance:
"In the fourteenth century, the Black Death wiped out a third of the Continent's population; in the twenty-first, a larger proportion will disappear--in effect, by choice. We are living through a rare moment: the self-extinction of the civilization which, for good or ill, shaped the age we live in."
Steyn points out that in Europe, the Muslims are young; they are also energetic, confident, aggressive, and ready for sacrifice. The native populations are aging, and they are sluggish, guilt-ridden, fat, and dependent upon the welfare state. It does not take a sophisticated analyst to project scenarios one or two decades into the future. The picture is not pretty.
America Alone is a good read. Steyn's wit lies in wait at every turn of the page, and his observations on a wide range of peripheral topics are thought-provoking, to say the least. Take, for example, this perceptive comment on anti-Americanism:
"All dominant powers are hated--Britain was, and Rome--but they're usually hated for the right reasons. America is hated for every reason. The fanatical Muslims despise America because it's all lap-dancing and gay porn; the secular Europeans despise America because it's all born-again Christians hung up on abortion; the anti-Semites despise America because it's controlled by Jews. Too Jewish, too Christian, too godless, America is George Orwell's Room 101: whatever your bugbear you will find it therein, whatever you're against, America is the prime example of it."
Which is followed by this marvelous segue:
"That's one reason why [America's:] disparagers have embraced environmentalism. If Washington were a conventional great power, the intellectual class would be arguing that the United States is a threat to France or India or Gabon or some such. But because it's so obviously not that kind of power, the world has had to concoct a thesis that the hyperpower is a threat not merely to this or that rinky-dink nation state but to the entire planet, if not the entire galaxy. 'We are,' warns Al Gore portentiously, 'altering the balance of energy between our planet and the rest of the universe.' ... You wouldn't happen to have the statistical evidence for that, would you?"
If things continue on their course, predicts Steyn, we may find that
"the world will be well on its way to a new Dark Ages. Now, as then, Europe has its do-nothing kings--les rois fainéants--thought these days we call them European commissioners and chancellors and prime ministers. Now, as then, we have a Great Plague--the virus of Islamism--and the great migrations--the continent-wide version of 'white flight' already under way in Holland, as the beleaguered Dutch leave their native land for Canada, Australia, and New Zealand. Now, as then, we must all bow before the 'edict of toleration'--as laws and customs are rearranged to abase themselves before the gods of boundless multicultural tolerance."
A classic case of this abasement is detailed in the recently added introduction, "Soon to be Banned in Canada." When excerpts from the book were published by the news magazine Maclean's, the Canadian Islamic Congress filed a complaint with the Canadian Human Rights Commission. The Muslim group objected to the "flagrant Islamophobia" contained in the book.
The Canadian Human Rights Commission has established itself as an extra-judicial star chamber for the enforcement of politically-correct orthodoxy. These little Soviet-style kangaroo courts, staffed by bureaucrats and specializing in "hate speech," have cast serious doubt over the future of Canadian democracy.
Discussing the complaint over his "flagrant Islamophobia," and the ensuing witch hunt, Steyn remarks:
"The head of the Canadian Islamic Congress is a man called Mohamed Elmasry. In a TV interview in 2004, Dr. Elmasry said it was legitimate to kill any Israeli civilian, male or female, over the age of eighteen. He is, thus, an objective supporter of terrorism. Yet he's accusing me of 'hate speech,' and is apparently the new poster boy for liberal progressive 'human rights' in Canada.
"And, in a nutshell, that paradox is what this book is about: What happens when a Western world so in thrall to platitudes about boundless 'tolerance' allows the forces of intolerance to carve it out from the inside? In seeking to stifle the arguments of America Alone, the Canadian Islamic Congress is making my point more eloquently than I ever could--that a significant strain of Islam is incompatible with the rough and tumble of a free society."
Food for thought. ”
“A good examination of current global issues and the seemingly hopeless survival attempts of western culture. Steyn has fascinating observations and humorous comments making this book far less stale than it could have been.”
Sam V wrote this review Saturday, January 3 2009. ( reply | permalink ) Was this review helpful? Yes | No“Some excellent writing, good arguments and interesting data are clouded by what seems to be unbendable author bias. The facts appear forced to fit the argument at times. The writing is clever (with chapter and section headings like "the four horsemen of the Eupocolypse") and partially convincing. For me, it's hard for me to put my finger on "the straw man that broke the camel's back" but I found, by pushing his views so far, straining logic and language to do it, the author lost me.”
Gillian B wrote this review Tuesday, November 11 2008. ( reply | permalink ) Was this review helpful? Yes | No
“Should be required reading - demographics tell the story....”
bookophile wrote this review Monday, September 1 2008. ( reply | permalink ) Was this review helpful? Yes | No
