THE RETURN OF HISTORY AND THE END OF DREAMS

The title of this book refers to the belief that the new century would bring world order and an end to hostile competition. What this book posits is that this dream was short lived and unrealistic. Indeed, what has emerged is a return to global politics on the scale of nineteenth-century Europe, rather than the idealism of the late twentieth century. What is needed, Kagan says, is a more equitably shared global balance of power and a U.S. foreign policy that recognizes that balance. Holter Graham narrates with authority but without artifice or too much gravitas, which would be all too easy. He varies his cadence to emphasize points and to allow the listener to catch up with the concepts. R.C.G. © AudioFile 2008, Portland, Maine [Published: AUGUST 2008]