Tom Engelhardt – författare

In a substantial new afterword to his classic account of the collapse of American triumphalism in the wake of World War II, Tom Engelhardt carries that story into the twenty-first century. He explores how, in the aftermath of September 11, 2001, the younger George Bush headed for the Wild West (Osama bin Laden, ""Wanted, Dead or Alive""); how his administration brought ""victory culture"" roaring back as part of its Global War on Terror and its rush to invade Saddam Hussein's Iraq; and how, from its ""Mission Accomplished"" moment on, its various stories of triumph crashed and burned in that land.

The creator of the indispensable website TomDispatch.com dissects the US urge to dominate the world. Since 2001, he has written regular reports for his popular site providing a badly needed insight into US militarism and its effects both at home and abroad. Engelhardt documents Washington's ongoing commitment to aggressive militarism and reveals damning information about the reliance of the US on their air force. He also exposes how the US empire has deep historical roots that precede the Bush administration and continue into Obama's reign.

In 2008, when the US National Intelligence Council issued its latest report meant for the administration of newly elected President Barack Obama, it predicted that the planet's 'sole superpower' would suffer a modest decline and a soft landing 15 years hence. In his new book, The United States of Fear, Tom Engelhardt makes it clear that Americans should don their crash helmets and buckle their seat belts, because the US is on the path to a major decline at a startling speed.

In 1964, a book entitled The Invisible Government shocked Americans with its revelations of agencies playing fast and loose; a secret government lodged inside the one they knew that even the president didn't fully control. Almost half a century later, Tom Engelhardt takes in something new: what is no longer a national security state, but a global security one, fighting secret wars that have turned the US president into an assassin-in-chief. Shadow Government offers a powerful survey of a democracy of the wealthy that older generations wouldn't recognise.

As veteran author Tom Engelhardt argues, despite having a more massive, technologically advanced, and better funded military than any other power on the planet, in the last decade and a half of constant war across the Greater Middle East and parts of Africa, the United States has won nothing. Its unending wars, in fact, have only contributed to a world growing more chaotic by the second. From its founding, the United States has been a nation made by wars. Through incisive analysis and characteristic wit, Engelhardt ponders whether in this century, its citizenry and government will be unmade by them.

Tomdispatch.com has established itself as the go-to blog for contemporary US politics, and the favored website for leading commentators; its powerful, no-holds-barred essays resonate throughout the global online media. This comprehensive volume offers readers a chance to catch up on some of the finest political analysis of our age, from Afghanistan and Iraq through Guantánamo and extraordinary rendition, Hurricane Katrina, global warming, black gold, and the misbegotten 'clash of civilizations.' Introduced and edited by Tomdispatch's creator Tom Engelhardt, The World According to Tomdispatch is the essential primer for anyone seeking guidance along the highways and byways of our post-9/11 world.