Product Description

In this, his first major book, Mark Steyn--probably the most widely read, and wittiest, columnist in the English-speaking world--takes on the great poison of the twenty-first century: the anti-Americanism that fuels both Old Europe and radical Islam. America, Steyn argues, will have to stand alone. The world will be divided between America and the rest; and for our sake America had better win.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #8128 in Books
• Published on: 2006-09-16
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 214 pages

From the Inside Flap
It’s the end of the world as we know it…

Someday soon, you might wake up to the call to prayer from a muezzin. Europeans already are.

And liberals will still tell you that "diversity is our strength"—while Talibanic enforcers cruise Greenwich Village burning books and barber shops, the Supreme Court decides sharia law doesn’t violate the "separation of church and state," and the Hollywood Left decides to give up on gay rights in favor of the much safer charms of polygamy.

If you think this can’t happen, you haven’t been paying attention, as the hilarious, provocative, and brilliant Mark Steyn—the most popular conservative columnist in the English-speaking world—shows to devastating effect in this, his first and eagerly awaited new book on American and global politics.

The future, as Steyn shows, belongs to the fecund and the confident. And the Islamists are both, while the West—wedded to a multiculturalism that undercuts its own confidence, a welfare state that nudges it toward sloth and self-indulgence, and a childlessness that consigns it to oblivion—is looking ever more like the ruins of a civilization.

Europe, laments Steyn, is almost certainly a goner. The future, if the West has one, belongs to America alone—with maybe its cousins in brave Australia. But America can survive, prosper, and defend its freedom only if it continues to believe in itself, in the sturdier virtues of self-reliance (not government), in the centrality of family, and in the conviction that our country really is the world’s last best hope.

Steyn argues that, contra the liberal cultural relativists, America should proclaim the obvious: we do have a better government, religion, and culture than our enemies, and we should spread America’s influence around the world—for our own sake as well as theirs.

Mark Steyn’s America Alone is laugh-out-loud funny—but it will also change the way you look at the world. It is sure to be the most talked-about book of the year.

From the Back Cover
Praise for America Alone

"Mark Steyn is a human sandblaster. This book provides a powerful, abrasive, high-velocity assault on encrusted layers of sugarcoating and whitewash over the threat of Islamic imperialism. Do we in the West have the will to prevail?" --Michelle Malkin, New York Times bestselling author of Unhinged

"Mark Steyn is the funniest writer now living. But don't be distracted by the brilliance of his jokes. They are the neon lights advertising a profound and sad insight: America is almost alone in resisting both the suicide of the West and the suicide bombing of radical Islamism." --John O'Sullivan, editor at large, National Review, and author of The President, the Pope, and the Prime Minister

About the Author
Mark Steyn’s writing on war, politics, the arts, and culture can be read around the world from the Atlantic Monthly to The Australian. In the United States his column appears in the Chicago Sun-Times, the New York Sun, the Washington Times, the Orange County Register, and other newspapers. He is also National Review’s "Happy Warrior," a columnist for the New Criterion, and resident obituarist for the Atlantic Monthly. In Canada, he is senior columnist for the country’s newest political magazine, the Western Standard, and literary correspondent for the country’s biggest-selling general interest magazine, Maclean’s. In addition, he appears in many other publications, from the Jerusalem Post to Hawke’s Bay Today in New Zealand. Born in Toronto, he lives in New Hampshire.

Customer Reviews

9/11 Was Not "the Day Everything Changed," But the Day That Revealed How Much Had Already Changed
Author Mark Steyn's "America Alone" provides a global construct in which the world is dependent on America for a future that honors human dignity and basic liberties. The rise in global Islamism represents a critical global threat. At issue is whether we have the will to get the job done. Other major powers do not. They have committed demographic suicide, created unsustainable welfare state models, and are too exhausted to be counted on.

Steyn says September 11, 2001, was not "the day everything changed," but the day that revealed how much had already changed. Islamic extremists are not fighting so that we can provide them with something. They are fighting to eliminate America and the West. We need to be shaken from our pre-occupation with elevating the secondary impulses (self-gratification) over the primary ones: national defense, self-reliance, family, and, most basic of all, reproductive activity.

Steyn offers a series of alternative responses to this global threat and rules all but "reforming Islam" unrealistic. His plan for reform places an emphasis on creating conditions which will increase the likelihood of Muslim reform including:
1. Supporting women's rights in the Muslim world.
2. Roll back ideological exports like Wahhabi, that radicalize Muslims.
3. Support economic and political liberty in the Muslim world.
4. End the Iranian Regime.
5. Strike militarily as needed.

"America Alone" will change the way you look at the world. Steyn argues we don't know who we are, we don't know the issues, and we still do not understand the nature of the enemy. We are the ones who are nuts. We have the better government, religion, and culture but our ideological insecurity is a weakness that becomes this particular enemy's strength. We must turn away from a culture that is suicidal. A suicide bomber is not a weak weapon against a culture intent on killing itself.

Truly Eye Opening
America Alone is a cogent analysis of the culture clash between western civilization and Islam. Steyn's brilliant composition is both enlightening and powerful. Mark Steyn segments his writing with great wit and humor, which makes his observations and arguments all the more entertaining.

Nostradamus
Mark Steyn opens your eyes to the truth with total disregard to political correctness. Thank God! He is a modern day Nostradamus. If Obama get in Tuesday, Mark's predictions will only be accelerated.