Book review: America in Our Time

Just call me Mr. Persistent. [Not Mr. President? ed.] I have finished a long but rewarding slog through America in Our Time by Godfrey Hodgson. It's tough going, like hard-rock mining, but I found so many nuggets that posting them all here would probably take me until the end of year.

Mr. Hodgson is British, and therefore takes a more objective view of America than do most American writers. It's hard to be objective about your own country. Here's what the author says of his feelings for the USA.

Since I have been critical of some beliefs held by most Americans, and of most of the beliefs of some Americans, let me make this defense: that everything I now about the United States has been taught me by Americans and that few of my judgments are not shared by at least some Americans.

In other words, don't be one of those Americans who says no outsider can understand the country.

In America in Our Time, Hodgson deals with the major problems of American society: the war; a faltering economy in which the rich get richer and the poor get poorer; what to do about the growing black (and brown) underclass.

So what's new about that? Nothing. In fact, the book was written in 1976 and the period Mr. Hodgson analyses -- very critically and in profound depth -- is 1960-1972, the era of the Kennedy, Johnson and Nixon presidencies.

The war referred to is Vietnam. The book is full of insights which apply, in spades, to the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. All you have to do is change the names and it becomes plain why we're not winning in the Middle East and are not going to win.

The economy? Hodgson says the economic expansion of the 50s-60s can't continue for ever, especially with the USA exporting ever-increasing amounts of capital and jobs. Right. And he says that, contrary to conventional wisdom, a rising tide does not lift all boats equally.

Moreover, he makes the point that the war was a terrible drain on America's treasure, and therefore at least partly the cause of the failure of the War on Poverty. Right on all counts.

As for the black underclass, Hodgson writes of the rise and fall of the "civil rights" movement. He speaks of the contentious issues of the day: integration of schools, busing, affirmative action. He paints a picture of the disillusionment (and radicalization) of blacks, and the growing backlash of resentment in the white communities.

Even at that close remove, the author could see clearly that true integration had not been and probably would never be achieved. Right again.

Why should you read this book? Because it will remove from your eyes the scales of the prevailing liberal ideology. It will explain why the Tea Party -- which is not a conservative but a populist movement -- holds such attraction for so many Americans today. Here's a quote:

The point of departure of this book was the idea that, for a few years on either side of 1960, American politics and society had been ruled bya consensus, and that this consensus in turn rested on an ideology. ...I have called that ideology "liberal".

The "liberal ideology" was not confined to intellectuals. It was also taken for granted by bankers, industrialists, clergymen, politicians and even by many military men.... It was, in fact, the ideology of the elite.

The liberal ideology was...the operational creed of a great nation at the height of its confidence and power. [But] the great events of the years covered by this book tore consensus to shreds....
The consensus disintegrated, and the liberal ideology fell into discredit.

People! History does repeat itself! Read this 35-year-old book and you will find in it a compelling and valid introspection of the malaise of the present time. How is it that no-one sees that when it comes to foreign policy, race relations, and fixing America's economy, our government is trying to reinvent the wheel?!

We are applying the same bandaids to the same wounds, treating the symptoms -- not the causes -- of the same old diseases? When are we going to wake up?

America in Our Time was published in 1978 by Vintage Books, a division of Random House. It's slow reading, but worth the effort.