{"product_id":"an-empire-wilderness-travels-into-americas-future-9780679776871","title":"An Empire Wilderness: Travels Into America's Future","description":"\"Full of surprises and unusual revelations . . . an informed and disturbing portrait of the new American badlands.\"--\u003ci\u003eChicago Tribune\u003c\/i\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\" Kaplan is] tireless, curious, and smart. . . . I cannot imagine anyone will concoct a more convincing scenario for the American future.\" --Thurston Clarke, \u003ci\u003eThe New York Times\u003c\/i\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eWith the same prescience and eye for telling detail that distinguished his bestselling \u003cb\u003eBalkan Ghosts\u003c\/b\u003e, Robert Kaplan now explores his native country, the United States of America. His starting point: the conviction that America is a country not in decline but in transition, slowly but inexorably shedding its identity as a monolithic nation-state and assuming a radically new one.\u003cbr\u003e Everywhere Kaplan travels--from St. Louis, Missouri, to Portland, Oregon, from the forty-ninth parallel to the banks of the Rio Grande--he finds an America ever more fragmented along lines of race, class, education, and geography. An America whose wealthy communities become wealthier and more fortress-like as they become more closely linked to the world's business capitals than to the desolate ghettoes next door. An America where the political boundaries between the states--and between the U.S. and Canada and Mexico--are becoming increasingly blurred, betokening a vast open zone for trade, commerce, and cultural interaction, the nexus of tomorrow's transnational world. Never nostalgic or falsely optimistic, bracingly unafraid of change and its consequences, Kaplan paints a startling portrait of post-Cold War America--a great nation entering the final, most uncertain phase of its history. Here is travel writing with the force of prophecy. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\"Lively . . . Kaplan has a sharp eye for social truth, and his encounters with a chorus of eloquent citizens of the West keeps the narrative humming.\" --\u003ci\u003eOutside\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eBinding Type:\u003c\/b\u003e Paperback\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublisher:\u003c\/b\u003e Vintage\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublished:\u003c\/b\u003e 09\/07\/1999\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN:\u003c\/b\u003e 9780679776871\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePages:\u003c\/b\u003e 416\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eWeight:\u003c\/b\u003e 0.80lbs\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eSize:\u003c\/b\u003e 8.00h x 5.20w x 0.90d\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eReview Citations: \u003c\/strong\u003e\u003ci\u003eNew York Times\u003c\/i\u003e 09\/19\/1999 pg. 32\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003ePublishers Weekly Best Books\u003c\/i\u003e 01\/01\/1998 pg. 46\u003cbr\u003e","brand":"Robert D. Kaplan","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":43766688972981,"sku":"9780679776871","price":18.7,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0473\/0804\/6492\/files\/img_8b5bf59f-fe44-48fe-af33-74f94b0261ca.jpg?v=1710817315","url":"https:\/\/pastforward.org\/products\/an-empire-wilderness-travels-into-americas-future-9780679776871","provider":"Past Forward","version":"1.0","type":"link"}