Dismantling the Empire

America’s Last Best Hope

By: Chalmers Johnson

Narrated by: Tom Weiner

The author of the best-selling Blowback Trilogy reflects on America's waning power in a masterful collection of essays.

In his prophetic book Blowback, published before 9/11, Chalmers Johnson warned that our secret operations in Iraq and elsewhere around the globe would exact a price at home. Now, in a brilliant series of essays written over the last three years, Johnson measures that price and the resulting dangers America faces. Our reliance on Pentagon economics, a global empire of bases, and war without end is, he declares, nothing short of "a suicide option".

Dismantling the Empire explores the subjects for which Johnson is now famous, from the origins of blowback to Barack Obama’s Afghanistan conundrum, including our inept spies, our bad behavior in other countries, our ill-fought wars, and our capitulation to a military that has taken ever more control of the federal budget. There is, he proposes, only one way out: President Obama must begin to dismantle the empire before the Pentagon dismantles the American Dream. If we do not learn from the fates of past empires, he suggests, our decline and fall are foreordained. This is Johnson at his best, delivering both a warning and an urgent prescription for a remedy.

©2010 Chalmers Johnson (P)2010 Blackstone Audio, Inc.

Critic reviews

“This timely book from accomplished historian Johnson ( Blowback) collects previously published articles that make succinct, hard-hitting attacks on what the author perceives as America's ruinous imperial follies. Johnson is especially critical of the U.S. penchant for covert operations run by the CIA—‘the president's private army’—and its enthrallment to what Eisenhower called the military-industrial complex…. compellingly presented.” ( Publishers Weekly)

imperial or democracy

most striking thing was countries have to decide to be imperial or democracy- like britian chose democracy in 1800. France, German, china, Japan chose imperial.

I never write reviews...

This book will (or should) make you angry, but in a good way. With leadership, comes responsibility, and hopefully, wisdom. It's clear that the United States has abdicated on all fronts. I was initially hesitant to even listen to the book owing to how long ago it was published. I'm glad I did. It would be interesting to hear a revised edition given our current position in the world. At least for me, the book was included for free with my Audible membership. I hope you decide to listen to it.

Was not what I thought

It is an ok read but unlike other books in it's class discussing ALL the steps that America is taking to fall away from greatness, this is an obvious hit piece against the military plain and simple, should be titled I don't like the military and here is why.

Direct and to the point.

I loved it, partly because he didn't wander off subject, and partly because the concepts were more important than the names, rather than the other way around.

The reader was wonderful, as he did not forget to observe and apply the carefully laid out punctuation that an author works to incorporate; often something forgotten.

Knows what he is talking about.

One of the best books of the genre. The military industrial complex is not in this nation’s best interest.