A New Republic: A History of the United States in the Twentieth Century

A New Republic: A History of the United States in the Twentieth Century, by John Lukacs

Mr. Lukacs offers a descriptive summary of this period, then an analysis. Chapter headings illustrate his approach, e.g. "The Leap Across the Sea: The Development of an American Nation", "The Bourgeois Interlude: The Half Century When American Civilization Was Urban and Urbane"; "The Elective Monarchy: The Degeneration of Popular Democracy to a Publicity Contest". He is deeply disturbed by what he foresees as the possibly disastrous effect of the explosion of bureaucratization everywhere, of the inflation both of money (built-in now) and of ideas, and the erosion of the goal of becoming an "American". A serious, carefully constructetd, deeply intelligent examination of the United States past and present.
-Nancy