World, Beware! American Triumphalism in an Age of Terror

By Theodore Roszak

Between the Lines (March), ($14.95)

Don't be fooled by the title: There's no old-hat lefty hysteria in this book. Roszak, a professor emeritus at Cal State East Bay, gives us a calm blow-by-blow sociological history of the neoconservative movement — the key players, their philosophy, and the unholy and highly effective alliance they've formed with Christian evangelicals and America's corporate elite. We joke about Bush and waste time on red-state/blue-state snarking; all the while the neocons are working steadily and effectively to dismantle the public sector and replace it with a survival-of-the-richest rule by corporate yahoos. It's nothing we haven't heard before in the knee-jerk liberal press, but here the case is backed up with reams of real evidence, and the complacency of the American public is indicted as often as the titular triumphalists are. It's strange to call this book enjoyable, given the existentially frightening information it contains, but the writing is entertaining and engaging, and Roszak breaks the key economic, academic, and sociological forces at play into terms any layperson casually interested in the end of America as we know it can understand.