Power Rangers

An excellent piece by Josh Marshall in next month's New Yorker:

Why did the British imperium come to an end? The standard
histories tell us about great-power rivalries, a diminishing
technological gap between overlords and subjects, growing independence
movements among the colonized. Some conservative scholars have
suggested, however, that the British Empire fell apart because of
war-induced impoverishment and national fatigue. Finally, they say, the
Brits just lacked will. But in 2002 America had will in abundance, and
more money and guns than the British had ever had. Ferguson was
challenging us simply to face up to what we already were. In the
closing pages of his book, he wrote, �Americans have taken our old
role without yet facing the fact that an empire comes with it.� We
were, in his view, an empire �that dare not speak its name . . . an
empire in denial.�

Posted by flow Frazao on January 27, 2004 at 03:02 PM | Permalink