I was initially reluctant to read this book for a reason I cannot quite articulate.  I think my feeling was, and still is, something like ‘it’s too simplistic’ or ‘illogically overgeneralized’.  I think it is a mark of maturity to take criticism well and learn from it, both as an individual and as a society or nation, but being told that one is just “screwing it up” tends to provoke a bad reaction instead of a mature one, and tends not to help one improve very much (this is my main problem with some of the work of Noam Chomsky, an example of which I am discussing in a 9-part series on this site).  Also, in one sense it is not accurate.  America is not ’screwing up the world’, but certain prevalent trends in America and certain actions and trends of our leaders are causing a lot of unnecessary harm to a lot of people, and should be opposed.  The lack of clarity of the title of the book in this case is unfortunate, as the author of this book is very mature, and much of the book reads like an abstract or concise summary of the major problems of America and the world, many of which we can address, and some of which will not be known to the general reader as they do not or have not recieved much attention in the popular press. 

The author is John Tirman, executive director of the Center for International Studies at MIT, a leading scholar in the field of international affairs and contributor to the New York Times, Washington Post, Wall Street Journal, and The Nation.  Given this, I wonder if the title and structure of the book (references given online instead of in the book) are part of a marketing scheme with an understandable, if somewhat questionable logic to it.  I have seen this kind of logic in science writing.  I think it was Stephen Hawking who warned that for every equation you put in a popular book, your sales decrease by half.  His long-time collegue, Roger Penrose, obviously disagrees, as his books and especially his latest popular work, The Road to Reality, are filled with equations in fields of mathematical physics that many who don’t follow the sciences much aren’t likely to have ever even heard of.  I am not sure which is the better strategy; I suppose it depends upon intent.  If one wants to be more widely read but not get all the points across with supporting evidence, then perhaps the way of Tirman and Hawking is the best.  However, any serious student of international affairs or mathematical physics may find Hawking and Tirman trivial. 

If it was Tirman’s aim to give a summary of the most important problems in American foreign policy today with the option of further research for the general reader, he has done his job well.  Most readers will find much to agree with in this book, as Tirman, like any honest and objective scholar, comes off as mainly non-partisan and only vaguely ideological in his analysis.  The selection of topics is based on reasonable principles but also reflects to some degree the personal preferences and desires of the author.  So we find essential chapters on America’s significant contribution to global warming and the destruction of the natural environment, support for oppressive regimes, defiance of international law and basic moral and political norms, etc., along with some discussion of the likes of Mel Gibson, Paris Hilton, and Michael Jackson.  Tirman designates the last ten issues on his list “Ten Annoyances” to indicate that he finds them comparitively trivial, but includes them, I think, because they do in fact say something significant about the American popular mind (it is an interesting question why the celebrity culture even exists, isn’t it?).  For good measure, and no doubt to also pre-empt the vacuous charge of “American hating leftist” (or whatever), Tirman includes a section on “Ten Things America Does Right in the World”, including fairness, secularism, creativity, and human rights as appropriate topics.

The picture all of this very general discussion gives is of an often dangerous and destructive but potentially glorious nation run on principles of justice, tolerance, and freedom as liberation of the spirit of the common people.  Walt Whitman, who in his life and work would make my list as one of the greatest contributions America has given the world, argued in Democratic Vistas that America finds it’s greatness not in it’s institutions or national leaders or wealth but in the common people, and may find it’s ultimate unforeseeable justification in a better future brought about by those very people.  John Tirman’s book, despite it’s possible marketing flaws and lack of detail, fits squarely in the best of the American tradition and looks forward to just such a future.

- Peter Broady

Read other reviews of 100 Ways here.