Renowned contemporary commentator Anatol Lieven anatomizes American nationalism - its roots, its defining features, and its recent radicalization - and just how greatly this is contributing to the paralysis of effective government in what remains the world's most powerful and important country

• Preface


• Introduction


• 1: An Exceptional Nationalism?


• 2: Splendor and Tragedy of the American Creed


• 3: The Embittered Heartland


• 4: Fundamentalists and Great Fears


• 5: The Legacy of the Cold War


• 6: American Nationalism, Israel, and the Middle East


• Conclusion


• Notes


• Index

Anatol Lieven is a professor in the War Studies Department at King's College London, and a senior fellow of the New America Foundation in Washington DC. From 2000 to 2007 he worked at think tanks in Washington DC and studied US foreign and domestic policies in the wake of the 9/11 terrorist attacks. His areas of expertise include US strategy and political culture; Islamist terrorism and insurgency; contemporary warfare; the countries of the former Soviet Union; and the Greater Middle East, especially Pakistan, Afghanistan, and Iran.

From 1989 to 1998 he worked as a journalist in the former Soviet Union and Eastern Europe (for The Times, the Financial Times, and the BBC). He is the author of several books on Russia and its neighbours. His most recent book, Pakistan: A Hard Country was published in 2011 by Penguin. It is based on his time as a journalist in Pakistan in the late 1980s and extensive research on the ground in recent years.