Donald

In my opinion not as good as his first book. Post-American World rambles a bit, making first the main point covered much more insightfully in FZ's first book (capitalism, not democracy, is the path of successful nations' development), then moving on to a macro description of China (interesting), India (not so much), and the United States (very interesting). His fundamental point is more intuitive than profound: America is and will remain a great power, but other nations (especially China, India) will rise in relative importance. FZ has a rare ability to quote facts and data that support/refute such typically unsupported macro descriptions such as level of centralization / socialism, and one can't finish a book of his without learning some very interesting things about our world and the U.S. I always wish, however, that he would build on his detailed understanding to give some practical prescriptions for policy makers. He attempts to do so at the end of this book, but his list of "rules for a new age" is academic (go figure) and therefore seems more interesting than actionable, for example "Choose - set priorities," "Be Bismark not Britain," "Legitimacy is Power." Overall, I'd recommend the book, and I would strongly recommend his first, "The Future of Freedom."