Read online Sam D. Sieber - Second-Rate Nation : From the American Dream to the American Myth PDF, DOC
9781594510915 English 1594510911 A scathing indictment of America's failure to keep up with other advanced nations and to achieve its own most cherished goals. The chapters of the book focus on: the media, the economy and corporations, foreign assistance and military affairs, health and health care, education, crime and punishment, the environment, inequality, and more. This is the one book to read this year about current events and the United States' many recent failures, which have demoted them to the status of a second-rate nation. The book will be useful for policymakers, journalists, teachers, students, activists and public speakers, and anyone with an interest in the U.S. today. Drawing on copious international and domestic evidence, the author shows that America lags significantly behind other advanced countries in such domains as health care, education, crime, civil liberties, racial and ethnic equality, environmental protection, foreign relations, and key features of the economy, including persistent poverty. The gap extends even to some surprising areas: press freedom and democratic representation. Sieber examines the questions of how and why the peculiar gulf between America's extraordinary self-esteem and the true state of affairs has evolved. He is concerned with understanding how the nation's idealized self-image is sustained in spite of overwhelming evidence of impairment in almost every important domain. In an election year the book is a valuable resource for assessing the challenges the U.S. faces. Apart from the author's powerful thesis, the book is a rich compendium of up-to-date statistical data on a variety of issues, presented without either technical obfuscation or oversimplification. It should therefore be useful to policymakers, journalists, commentators, teachers, students, activists, public speakers, and anyone wishing to know more about the true state of affairs in the U.S. today., Drawing on ample comparative evidence, this book shows that America lags significantly behind other advanced countries in health care, education, crime, civil liberties, racial and ethnic equality, environmental protection, and key features of the economy, including persistent poverty. The gap extends even to some surprising areas: press freedom and democratic representation. In an election year the book is a valuable resource for assessing the challenges the nation faces. Apart from the author's powerful thesis, the book is a rich resource of up-to-date statistical data on a variety of issues, presented with neither technical obfuscation nor oversimplification.Sieber argues that a full-fledged American Myth has largely replaced the traditional American Dream. He shows how the nation can better assess and meet these challenges for the well-being of future generations., Drawing on copious international and domestic evidence, the author shows that America lags significantly behind other advanced countries in such domains as health care, education, crime, civil liberties, racial and ethnic equality, environmental protection, foreign relations, and key features of the economy, including persistent poverty. The gap extends even to some surprising areas: press freedom and democratic representation.Sieber examines the questions of how and why the peculiar gulf between Americae(tm)s extraordinary self-esteem and the true state of affairs has evolved. He is concerned with understanding how the natione(tm)s idealized self-image is sustained in spite of overwhelming evidence of impairment in almost every important domain.In an election year the book is a valuable resource for assessing the challenges the U.S. faces. Apart from the authore(tm)s powerful thesis, the book is a rich compendium of up-to-date statistical data on a variety of issues, presented without either technical obfuscation or oversimplification. It should therefore be useful to policymakers, journalists, commentators, teachers, students, activists, public speakers, and anyone wishing to know more about the true state of affairs in the U.S. today., This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1879 edition. Excerpt: ...trusted trustworthy. To those who believe in n God, the success of hope and faith in enabling man to raise up his brother men is no less a proof that hope and faith are in accordance with Gods spiritual laws, than the success of a scientific experiment is a proof that the principle upon which the experi-is based is in accordance with the laws of material nature. Why do we believe in the law of gravitation? Because it works. And for the same reason we ought to believe in hope and faith because they work. Whenever, therefore, we see a knave, though we shall think of him and treat him in all sincerity as a knave, yet we shall also treat him and think of him as a being capable of becoming, and destined ultimately to become, something better than a knave. More than this: sometimes where fault has been committed under strong temptation, or where we have so powerful an impulse to trust an offender that we feel we can honestly (and not in a mere servile and lifeless imitation of the words of our Master) pronounce that best of all formularies of forgiveness, I trust you for the future, we ought to surrender ourselves willingly to the impulse in the belief that it will be blessed by Him who alone can vitalise our poor attempts at bearing the burdens of one anothers sins. But, in other cases, where we feel that we cannot honestly pronounce those solemn words, we shall humbly and sadly acknowledge our inability to ourselves, and (avoiding hypocrisy in forgiveness more than in anything else, because, as forgiveness is the noblest, so the parody of it is the vilest of actions), we shall simply strive to deal with our brother in as kindly a spirit as is consistent with perfect sincerity. Yet, after all, we shall not do well to be too fastidious about...
9781594510915 English 1594510911 A scathing indictment of America's failure to keep up with other advanced nations and to achieve its own most cherished goals. The chapters of the book focus on: the media, the economy and corporations, foreign assistance and military affairs, health and health care, education, crime and punishment, the environment, inequality, and more. This is the one book to read this year about current events and the United States' many recent failures, which have demoted them to the status of a second-rate nation. The book will be useful for policymakers, journalists, teachers, students, activists and public speakers, and anyone with an interest in the U.S. today. Drawing on copious international and domestic evidence, the author shows that America lags significantly behind other advanced countries in such domains as health care, education, crime, civil liberties, racial and ethnic equality, environmental protection, foreign relations, and key features of the economy, including persistent poverty. The gap extends even to some surprising areas: press freedom and democratic representation. Sieber examines the questions of how and why the peculiar gulf between America's extraordinary self-esteem and the true state of affairs has evolved. He is concerned with understanding how the nation's idealized self-image is sustained in spite of overwhelming evidence of impairment in almost every important domain. In an election year the book is a valuable resource for assessing the challenges the U.S. faces. Apart from the author's powerful thesis, the book is a rich compendium of up-to-date statistical data on a variety of issues, presented without either technical obfuscation or oversimplification. It should therefore be useful to policymakers, journalists, commentators, teachers, students, activists, public speakers, and anyone wishing to know more about the true state of affairs in the U.S. today., Drawing on ample comparative evidence, this book shows that America lags significantly behind other advanced countries in health care, education, crime, civil liberties, racial and ethnic equality, environmental protection, and key features of the economy, including persistent poverty. The gap extends even to some surprising areas: press freedom and democratic representation. In an election year the book is a valuable resource for assessing the challenges the nation faces. Apart from the author's powerful thesis, the book is a rich resource of up-to-date statistical data on a variety of issues, presented with neither technical obfuscation nor oversimplification.Sieber argues that a full-fledged American Myth has largely replaced the traditional American Dream. He shows how the nation can better assess and meet these challenges for the well-being of future generations., Drawing on copious international and domestic evidence, the author shows that America lags significantly behind other advanced countries in such domains as health care, education, crime, civil liberties, racial and ethnic equality, environmental protection, foreign relations, and key features of the economy, including persistent poverty. The gap extends even to some surprising areas: press freedom and democratic representation.Sieber examines the questions of how and why the peculiar gulf between Americae(tm)s extraordinary self-esteem and the true state of affairs has evolved. He is concerned with understanding how the natione(tm)s idealized self-image is sustained in spite of overwhelming evidence of impairment in almost every important domain.In an election year the book is a valuable resource for assessing the challenges the U.S. faces. Apart from the authore(tm)s powerful thesis, the book is a rich compendium of up-to-date statistical data on a variety of issues, presented without either technical obfuscation or oversimplification. It should therefore be useful to policymakers, journalists, commentators, teachers, students, activists, public speakers, and anyone wishing to know more about the true state of affairs in the U.S. today., This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1879 edition. Excerpt: ...trusted trustworthy. To those who believe in n God, the success of hope and faith in enabling man to raise up his brother men is no less a proof that hope and faith are in accordance with Gods spiritual laws, than the success of a scientific experiment is a proof that the principle upon which the experi-is based is in accordance with the laws of material nature. Why do we believe in the law of gravitation? Because it works. And for the same reason we ought to believe in hope and faith because they work. Whenever, therefore, we see a knave, though we shall think of him and treat him in all sincerity as a knave, yet we shall also treat him and think of him as a being capable of becoming, and destined ultimately to become, something better than a knave. More than this: sometimes where fault has been committed under strong temptation, or where we have so powerful an impulse to trust an offender that we feel we can honestly (and not in a mere servile and lifeless imitation of the words of our Master) pronounce that best of all formularies of forgiveness, I trust you for the future, we ought to surrender ourselves willingly to the impulse in the belief that it will be blessed by Him who alone can vitalise our poor attempts at bearing the burdens of one anothers sins. But, in other cases, where we feel that we cannot honestly pronounce those solemn words, we shall humbly and sadly acknowledge our inability to ourselves, and (avoiding hypocrisy in forgiveness more than in anything else, because, as forgiveness is the noblest, so the parody of it is the vilest of actions), we shall simply strive to deal with our brother in as kindly a spirit as is consistent with perfect sincerity. Yet, after all, we shall not do well to be too fastidious about...