Rating: 
Summary: One of my best reads this year!
Review: While at times Kaplan's commentary is less than congruent, his overall sense of the decline of nationalism and the rise of isolated suburban "pods" is right on. As a citizen of the West as well as a "Cosmopolitan Expatriate", I reveled in the authors simple insights into the mindset of the differet regions he visited and the effects of our consumptive capitalist lifestyle. This book is not a travelog, but a sampling of the rise of the affluent suburban municipality at the cost of the inner cities. The author uses the west as a metaphor for the the justification of self preservation and isolationism. The gap between the wealthy uuper middle class and upper class versus those poor who have more or less been abondoned by most of society too busy accumulating "stuff" and protecting their newly incorporated neighborhoods (and property/sales tax base) to maintain any sense of humanity towards the "have nots", the new "manifest destiny". The similarity to the ethnic strife in other regions of the world is striking. Kaplan's overview of the rise of regionlism and one's sense of loyalty to a landscape as opposed to a state or nation is intriging.
Rating: 
Summary: Intriguing Vision of America's Future
Review: Empire Wilderness, though awkwardly named, is a very readable, very interesting look at how cities and communities are developing in the US. I read Kaplan's previous book, Ends of the Earth and my one criticism of Empire Wilderness holds true for both books. Kaplan's impressions are occasionally surface deep since he breezes in and out of towns in a matter of days or a couple of weeks. I have heard Kaplan argue that he feels that first impressions can be quite telling and that is true. However, the complexities of a community are sometimes deeper than the surface lets on. That having been said, Kaplan's prose is extremely interesting and readable. I think the scenarios he paints are quite plausible and the implications for individuals and policy makers are profound. I hghly recommend this book for anyone who is interested/concerned about what their communities will look like in the next decade.
Rating: 
Summary: Wait for the softcover.
Review: I picked up Kaplan's latest book in the store last night. I enjoyed both "Balkan Ghosts" and "The Ends of the Earth" tremendously and have been looking eagerly for his next book. Then I read the jacket cover. I would trust that an author would take the time to ensure that the marketing for his book would be correct. Instead I find that I will be traveling 'west' to go from Ft Leavenworth, KS to St Louis, MO. Having driven east along I-70 many times to do the same thing makes me wonder just how he accomplished this amazing feat - or is this another around the world book? Either way, I was immediately put off. This is probably foolish, but rather than put the hardcover in my personal library along with the others, I will wait for the softcover.
Rating: 
Summary: a sneak preview
Review: "AN EMPIRE WILDERNESS contains a very large number of new insights, startling observations, and provocative suggestions. The term "fresh look" has become somewhat of a cliche, but even those who disagree with some of the conclusions in this book will find that it fully deserves this characterization. No rehashing here of yesterday's editorials. A true original." -- Amitai Etzioni"The finest foreign correspondent of his generation turns his eye and ear to his own country. Kaplan's tour of the American West is a tour de force of journalism and a provocation to anyone wondering where America's future is coming from and where it is going." -- H.W. Brands "A brilliant and insightful writer whose ability to see the world as it is, not as he'd like it to be, has made him one of the most prescient chroniclers of our time." -- Wade Davis, Vancouver Sun "Like Fukuyama, Kaplan is a broad-brush thinker whose large, provocative ideas serve as a spur to debate." -- Bruce Clark, Financial Times "When you look at the long-run trends that are going on around the world -- you read articles like Robert Kaplan's article in the Atlantic a couple of months ago -- you could visualize a world in which a few million of us live in such opulence we could be starring on nighttime soaps. And the rest of us look like we're in one of those Mel Gibson Road Warrior movies. I was so gripped by the many things that were in that article... And I keep trying to imagine what it's going to be like to bring children into this world in this country." -- President Clinton
Rating:
Summary: Robert Delivers
Review: This is a terrific, thought-provoking, clear-eyed look at what the future may hold. I find this book to be far more powerful and cogent than "Megatrends" and its ilk. Take some time to tour with Robert, see the country he reports, and think about his projections. Then look at the "Red/Blue" maps of the US, and make your plans to move to Kansas, or to Oregon!
Rating:
Summary: KAPLAN EXPLORES ALTERNATIVE CORSES OF HISTORY
Review: Reading this book after being away from the United States for 75% of the past three and a half years I looked at it as a tabula rasa for the future of America. I didn't the book from front to back. In fact I started with the end because initially I was only interested in his travels with the Northwest. What he finds there is one version of how America will embrace the future. Then I read his accounts of East St Louis and Omaha, Vicksburg, MS, and some of his chapters about Orange County.
What Kaplan finds and relates is the new sectionalism developing in America even as distances become shorter with high speed interstates and chain stores which are identical throughout the country. He predicts the formation of city-states and I'm apt to agree with him.
Rating:
Summary: America the Beautiful!
Review: Robert Kaplan is a writer for whom I have much admiration. I have followed his work for a while and I eagerly read his dispatches in ???The Atlantic???. His writings about the third world- the Balkans, Asia and Africa -is stunningly good work. He brings a critical eye to these regions and reports little known or appreciated facts about these places. ???An Empire Wilderness??? is about Kaplan???s travels through North America???s faster-growing Western regions. Along the way Kaplan reports on what he sees as being the big cultural and economic forces at work in these places: immigration from Mexico and Asia, the collapse of America???s urban centers, the globalization of American business, the spread of the new type (post-urban) suburbs, etc. Along the way, Kaplan makes a number of startling statements and discoveries: Kaplan???s declaration about a bus trip that American buses were less safe than ones he had been on in the third world did startle me. The notion that America has some of the forces acting upon it the same way Kaplan saw those forces acting on the Third World societies he has visited probably terrifies most Americans and explains why Kaplan is on record as being frustrated at what he perceives to be an inaccurate assessment of ???Empire Wilderness??? by newspaper reviewers as a tract pessimistic about the future of the United States. Kaplan sees the future as bright . . . for most people. With the decline of the middle class, those who are in the upper-middle class bracket (with advanced degrees) are the ones who will prosper and succeed. Ethnicity will not entirely matter. Many- or maybe even most -East and South Asian immigrants will make far more money than do middle class or poor whites. And in any case, white racism is rapidly dying. (As Kaplan points out in Vancouver, white men *do* like Asian women.) The city is also dead. This is an observation of Kaplan???s that I can verify just by looking out my window. (I live in Pittsburgh: after seven at night this city???s downtown section is utterly deserted. Few people live here, and even fewer live here by choice. Middle-class and wealthier workers flee for the suburbs. Eventually the city???s taxes on business are going to drive businesses out to the suburbs.) Across the country, communities are springing up around the black hole that is the city. Thus, the spider-web of little autonomous communities outside of St. Louis that Kaplan saw is hardly unique. Everyone wants to preserve their independence from urban mismanagement. Nobody wants to commute anymore either, which is why the quasi-urban business districts in Orange County are so important as well. The growth of industrial parks will eviscerate cities. What is interesting is to see is how Kaplan grapples with where America is going. Kaplan is a classical realist who believes that ancient history is the clearest indication of where a society is going. Throughout his travels in the Near East Kaplan refers to ancient historians like Livy and Herodotus and to classical works of history like Gibbon???s ???Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire??? to chart the future path of the nation he is in. The problem with America is that our history is without a paradigm to fall back on. Kaplan refers to Gibbon a few times in the text, but mostly I get the sense that he ignores the past and believes that history, here in the Americas, is still being written. Kaplan envisions North America as a massive region of free trade, movement of peoples, immigration, wealth and prosperity with regional city-states that form the hub of American enterprise. To that end, Kaplan envisions America in the next century as being a loose Confederation than a closely controlling Federal government. The old rules don???t apply because America is a young country. Second and third generation immigrants from Asia and Latin America hardly consider themselves as citizens of China or Mexico as their parents might. They are Americans. One of the things that I love about Kaplan???s books is the wealth of little-known information that he gives the reader. I found the chapter on the tensions between the Hopi and Navajo in the Balkanization of Arizona to be fascinating. Kaplan???s keen eye picked it out, remembering tensions between the Serbians and Croatians in Yugoslavia and comparing them to the Hopi and Navajo. Is he correct? Maybe. Maybe the Hopi and Navajo have more in common than Kaplan thinks, but at the same time, maybe the people who look at the Hopi and the Navajo and see ???Indians??? without seeing the distinctions between their cultures are the ones who are wrong. In general I found Kaplan???s cultural observations rang true. America is getting more multi-cultural and our national identity is becoming internationalized. E.g.: My parents in suburban Philadelphia recently got an upscale grocery store that heavily features ethnic foods from France, Germany, Thailand, etc. That sort of thing didn???t exist a decade ago, or even five years ago, but it is the wave of the future because Americans are hardly nationalist in their culture. Americans want to embrace the outside world and make it a part of our own. Inter-marriage of the sort Kaplan observed in Vancouver between whites and Asians is progressively more and more a part of America???s cultural mosaic and will ultimately make us a stronger and more cohesive nation. America???s paranoia about immigration from Mexico in the 1990s and our post-9/11 fear of Middle Eastern immigrants is both silly and ultimately destructive to America. Immigrations built America into the colossus it is, and immigration will continue to maintain America as a powerhouse. Out of all of Kaplan???s books, I found this one to be the most different and the most interesting. Kaplan???s keen eye sees a new and different America. I highly recommend.
Rating:
Summary: At the Nation's end.
Review: America may exist as an idea, but it has ceased to exist as a nation. The country remains on the map, of course. But one ought no longer to assume that its citizenry share the same bed-rock values or cultural heritage that formerly united us. In brief, earlier assumptions of national unity no longer stand up to real scrutiny. That is the message of Robert D. Kaplan's journey through the American west. Kaplan asserts that this part of the country best exposes the rents in the national fabric. As an experienced foreign reporter, Kaplan has subjected other countries to similar scrutiny: Afghanistan, the Balkans, west Africa. He finds that America, despite its apparent prosperity, is not exempt from a growing crisis of national authority throughout the globe. Politicians and professional public commentators (noticeably locked on America's two prosperous coasts) continue to presume national unity. Their jobs, after all, depend on keeping up appearances. But the idea of the nation-state is wearing thin, here as elsewhere around the globe. This appears to be the result of inevitable economic forces. It is well nigh impossible to keep mobile, competitive industries from gravitating toward cheap labor. What is scary is that many of our elites (academics, think-tankers, business people) actually applaud this move away from nationalism. Very few of our elites advocate on behalf of a cosmopolitan and non-racist form of patriotism. Robert D. Kaplan is an exception. But he is also a pessimist who has accurately assessed the current political climate. Unlike the anti-NAFTA crusaders with their various ideologies -- from Pat Buchanan on the right to Ralph Nader and Michael Moore on the left -- Kaplan is ideologically neutral. He does not have an agenda. Untainted by political rhetoric, his descriptions have a quality of gutsy, no-nonsense realism. Yet, the picture he paints shares points in common with both the nationalist right and the blue-collar left. We live in a tottering class-divided society: disloyal and legalistic at the top and virtually anarchic at the bottom. Kaplan points out that the financial empire embedded in our country is breaking away from the nation that nurtured it in to existence. As a result, racial and class divisions are becoming more extreme. The affluent are turning their neighborhoods in to what Kaplan calls "urban pods" whose inhabitants are no more than "resident expatriates... with their foreign cuisines, eclectic tastes, exposure to foreign languages and friends throughout the world." It is this group -- highlighted in his travels to the suburbs of St. Louis, Omaha, and especially Orange County -- who he gently blames for our current malaise. Yet these also make up the prosperous sectors of our economy, and Kaplan rightly applauds their economic savvy. In this respect, he greatly differs from the Buchanan and Nader wings of the political spectrum. On the other extreme, jails proliferate for housing the violent. From his experience in unstable countries abroad, Kaplan has learned to realistically evaluate the social distress caused by unemployed young males. Historically, it is this group who make up the bulk of the criminal population. Previous methods of controlling this sector are now obsolete. The future of our armed forces as a professional (essentially mercenary) army rules out compulsory military service as a counter-balance away from anarchic disloyalty - a solution that works well in countries like Germany and Israel. Refreshingly, Kaplan does not have an agenda. His approach is considerably more empirical than the waves of "big idea" writers produced by the think-tanks and the Ivy-League schools. In this book, facts precede theories; not the other way round. He is obsessed with the intricate little differences between localities. One of his especially strong suits is his openness to surprise. In his description of Orange County, for example, he admits that his visit there altered his preconception. He commends its planners' ability to create a suburban culture with an industrial tax base, quality housing, and mall-sized commercial retail side-by-side. The point is, however, that as its style of town-planning grows (and it surely will!), not only the affluent, but also the tax-paying corporations will evacuate the cities en masse, leaving an under-class of criminals and their victims to haunt once lively cities. As the nation recedes, various city-states will emerge like points of light out of an unilluminated background. Kaplan's book is populated with real characters who make each place he visits come alive: Army officers at Fort Leavenworth, a black policemen and a white urban planner in St. Louis, a community college president and grassroots organizers in Omaha, a real-estate consultant in Orange County, poor people along the Mexican border and an aristocratic elite in Mexico City, a gun-toting environmentalist anarchist in Arizona, Native American leaders, atomic engineers at Texas' Pantech facility, and countless others. Kaplan gives encyclopedic details about the history of each place he visits. He would likely agree with William Faulkner's view that the past is never really behind us. He is comfortable with historical analogies that are hundreds of years old. Punctuated throughout the book are discussions of ancient military campaigns, conquistadors and French explorers, and civil war stratagems. What is more, Kaplan arranges this material so that its relevancy shines through. Kaplan's book stands well apart from virtually all of the jeremiads of globalists or anti-globalists. The book is complex and subtle, and refuses to reduce itself to some slogan. This makes it hard to pin a political label on Kaplan. He does not appear to think that we can "solve" the problems he raises by more federal spending. Yet he often makes pleas for the unifying presence of active government involvement. You might read him as a cultural conservative - a pessimistic nationalist who favors aggressive policing and cultural consistency, and distrusts easy answers of the kind Liberals live for. However, he appears to favor the power of local interventions that ease class divisions and he quite despises racism. Perhaps, then, he is a pragmatic centrist defending the increasingly undefended patriotism of old time Guns-and-Butter Dems. Whatever you want to call him, Kaplan has a great eye for detail. This book is required reading for anyone wishing to get beyond the protracted in-fighting over globalism in order to get a clearer picture of what is really at stake. My guess is that intellectuals of my generation (i.e. twenty-somethings) will look back on Kaplan's books as tools that helped free them from the some of the outworn ideas of the Baby-Boomers (perhaps, the way that Boomer intellectuals of the left look back on David Halberstam or those on the right look back on Friedrich Hayek). Or, at least, that's what I hope.
Rating:
Summary: The America no one wants to see
Review: Kaplan does an excelent job describing those citizens that have fallen through the cracks: the bus station denizens, shack dwelling TV junkies, and drug pushing Robinhoods. But there is also a brighter side to Kaplan's work, such as the couple in East St. Louis working hard to revitalize old neighborhoods, and the Vietnamese immigrint who realized the American dream. An excelent book, well worth reading two or three times.
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