by Bill Greene
|
| Average Rating: |  |
| Lowest New Price: | $15.50 |
|
 |
|
Product Description
How to avoid the decline of great societies?
Let the common people show the way!
What makes a society prosperous? Why have prosperous societies eventually fallen into decay? Is such decline inevitable?
Bill Greene takes the reader on a fascinating stroll through history-- looking at societies that created prosperity. Greene looks at the Phoenicians, the Greeks, the Vikings, the Basques, and other successful societies, all the way up to the current-day success of the United States.
Greene considers what factors were responsible for their successes, and the same answer keeps coming up: When the common people are free to be creative and productive, societies prosper. Nothing more is required.
And of the decline of such societies? He finds that, invariably, the rise of an intellectual class--which critiques what the common people have created with little understanding of that process--brings on the decline.
Greene calls for a return to relying on common sense and shows how listening to the intellectuals is leading America down the path of destruction. He hopes his message arrives in time to change that path and to protect the legacy of freedom and prosperity for the generations to come. A fascinating perspective!
Customers who bought this item also bought
Average Customer Review:
6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
The Ultimate Revision of History, 2008-01-10
Basically, this book is a celebration of anti-intellectualism. He demolishes the idea that anything that intellectuals (abstract thinkers, casuists, and metaphysicians)and politicians have ever contributed was positive to society. Going from Carthage to Greece and then to Scotland and America, the author shows conclusively that "deep thinkers" emerge only when a society is successful enough to create a class of people who are lazy or rich enough to do nothing but think. Society functions bottom to top in those cases before, but after, intellectuals work their darnedest to arrange a top-down society.
In every case societies are destroyed when intellectuals unleash their "talents" on people. The freethinkers flood the marketplace of ideas with tracts on relativism and atheism (e.g. Plato), socialism and racism (e.g. Marx and Nietzsche), and sedition and anti-patriotism (Dewey and Chomsky) I mention the names but the situation is literally the same in every prosperous society.
This book is fast and fun and punctures the worthless writings of people like Descartes and Hume. Illustrated with pictures of men and women of action, the book also studies the great anti-idealist religions of man (Christianity and Judaism) and how they kept people grounded from the stupid works of intelligent people. His conclusion reiterates the obvious: intellectuals have nothing to tell us and by their profession, along with politicians, operate negatively.
I would also recommend the books Uncle Sam. The Monopoly Man, and Society Against the State: Essays in Political Anthropology, as two other quick reads that overturn so many of intellectuals' bad ideas that cloud today's world.
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
Simply superb., 2008-01-06
It was hard for me to believe that there could be a totally new theory of history. And, in truth, it isnt totally new, many others have come close to describing it. Or at least several aspects of it. But Mr. Greene ties all of a myriad of sources together and draws the only possible (and startlingly simple) conclusions from them.
Kudos. Dont miss this.
Price is accurate as of the date/time indicated. Prices and product availability are subject to change. Any price displayed on the Amazon website at the time of purchase will govern the sale of this product.
|
Store Categories
|