The Blue Age

How the US Navy Created Global Prosperity - and Why We're in Danger of Losing It

By: Gregg Easterbrook

Narrated by: Joseph Bearor

Length: 9 hrs and 55 mins

Publisher's summary

The US Navy brought half a century of peace and free trade to the world’s waterways. But climate change and rising nationalism threaten to end this blue age.

For decades, the Navy has stood sentinel over crucial waterways, ensuring safe passage of goods from nearly all nations. The result is the longest phase of peace on the waters since the Phoenicians, with rising living standards, more (total) jobs, and the dramatic decline of poverty in Asia.

But these prosperous times could be at an end. Today China is building warships at an extraordinary pace. India, Japan, Vietnam, and Europe are responding with more fighting ships. What will result from China’s rising naval might, particularly in the South China Sea? As ocean resources are shaped by climate change and new discoveries, will the world share them or fight over them? What will happen if America turns against free trade? Without American investment, the world could see a rise of supply shortages and seagoing conflict that would dwarf the impact of the container ship stuck in the Suez Canal.

Surveying naval history, economics, environmental threats, and great-power politics, The Blue Age makes an urgent argument about our oceans’ vital importance to the peace and prosperity of our global community.

©2021 Gregg Easterbrook (P)2021 PublicAffairs

Critic reviews

“The Blue Age is brilliantly written, extremely well sourced, and remarkably accurate in its depiction of the centrality of the oceans to the well-being of our world. Set sail with the author and you will arrive at the port of enlightenment, with a deeper understanding of the sea - whether you are an experienced mariner or have always simply wondered why the oceans matter.” (Admiral (ret.) James Stavridis)

“READ THIS BOOK! The Blue Age is a compelling account of how our unprecedented 75 years of pax oceanum came about, how fragile it might be, and what exactly is at stake.” (Marcia McNutt, president, National Academy of Sciences)

“Gregg Easterbrook is a genius at taking huge, complex, seemingly remote but deeply vital subjects, and making them into compelling, informative reading. With a vivid sense of history, clear thinking about the future, and a nice touch of irony and humor, he explains why our destiny lies on the waves of the blue oceans.” (Evan Thomas, author of Sea of Thunder and John Paul Jones)

Balanced historical review of the long peace

Before this book, I read Kissinger’s On China, Webb’s The Big Nine, Pillsbury’s The 100 Year Marathon, and Gingrich’s Trump vs China. In The Blue Age Easterbrook give a balanced and historical account of what has taken place on the three quarters of our planet not observable from where we humans spend the majority of our life. The majority of his telling and asking questions is focused on what he refers to as the long war (made up of five world wars) and the present long peace. It is very much present day. He is optimistic but not without some warning of what could be.
I wholeheartedly recommend it’s reading/listening.

Rambling collection of facts

Overall, pretty good. It doesn't really follow a plot or work toward a point. A lot of very interesting information, kind of like reading a thousand fortune cookie fortunes. Also, a pretty fair amount of political opinion stated as fact. Some of it I agree with but I'm a little leary of authors who state opinions as indisputable fact. Great book for Audio. I don't think I would have finished it in print but I would listen to it again.

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it's like he wrote a good book and then ran it through a woke AI editor

Very interesting and informative.

Would have been 10 stars, if the author wasn’t so obsessed with taking shots at Trump. Also one sided in the inequities of world trade on the AMERICAN WORKER. Overall; very informative and easy to listen to. Worth getting.

Author is preoccupied by race

The author's political views as they relate to the topic of the book are relevant. The author’s preoccupation with race is annoying and gets in the way of the relevant information he is trying to present. The book became intolerable after an hour or so.

Spend your credit elsewhere

The author spends more time pontificating on politics and provides zero impact with real data - relying more on words such as “greatest” and “best” to quantify our Navy. This work does nothing to educate the public on the REAL Geopolitical impacts facing our country and the very real and hard choices we must make as a country if we are to remain the dominant power at sea.

Save your time

This book was woke garbage had nothing to do with naval supremacy it was an encapsulated liberal ideology, progressive porn. Within the first hour he is praising china and then tells us the usual tropes about how it’s not the actual technology, competence or doctrine…. But Black women commanding ships women telling white men what to do is our strength. What a racist. Why does race or gender factor into anything, shouldn’t it be excellence and moral, resources and technology etc etc not the color of skin I would be appalled of some racist white guy said something similar but vice versa. It clearly has no value for anyone interested in National security. I used to believe the meritocracy that kinda existed in the military was our strength not being concerned with skin color. What do I know , being colorblind is now racist now right.

Only politics

mostly his own political opinions. his assertions are all based off his opinions so there's a lot of bad info, especially with what's happening in the world a year after he wrote this