After America

By: Mark Steyn

Narrated by: Mark Steyn

Length: 13 hrs and 7 mins

Publisher's Summary

Optimistic about America’s future? Don’t be.

In his giant New York Times best seller, America Alone: The End of the World as We Know It, Mark Steyn predicted collapse for the rest of the Western World. Now, he adds, America has caught up with Europe on the great rush to self-destruction.

It’s not just our looming financial collapse; it’s not just a culture that seems on a fast track to perdition, full of hapless, indulgent, childish people who think government has the answer for every problem; it’s not just America’s potential eclipse as a world power because of the drunken sailor policymaking in Washington—no, it’s all this and more that spells one word for America: Armageddon.

What will a world without American leadership look like? It won’t be pretty—not for you and not for your children. America’s decline won’t be gradual, like an aging Europe sipping espresso at a café until extinction (and the odd Greek or Islamist riot). No, America’s decline will be a wrenching affair marked by violence and possibly secession.

With his trademark wit, Steyn delivers the depressing news with raw and unblinking honesty—but also with the touch of vaudeville stand-up and soft shoe that makes him the most entertaining, yet profound, columnist on the planet. And as an immigrant with nowhere else to go, he offers his own prescription for winning America back from the feckless and arrogant liberal establishment that has done its level best to suffocate the world’s last best hope in a miasma of debt, decay, and debility. You will not read a more important—or more alarming, or even funnier—book all year than After America.

©2011 Mark Steyn (P)2011 Phoenix Books, Inc.

Critic Reviews

“Mark Steyn is a modern day Jeremiah with a quiverful of devastating one-liners, nailing what the liberals have done to our country. He presents an alarming—and frighteningly convincing—prophecy of where we’re headed. The choice is stark—we either listen to Steyn and act on his recommendations or face economic and cultural armageddon.” (Mark Levin)

“Mark Steyn has done it again. In his new book, After America, he clearly defines the dangerous signals which show America is embracing the same doomed path as the failed European economies, and how vital it is to implement and avoid policies right now to prevent us from the same fate.” (Sean Hannity)

“Only Mark Steyn can write about the decline of America and leave you laughing.” (Ann Coulter)

Facts

With reference to the review "Short on facts, long on propaganda": This book enumerates thousands of facts, all pointing to some really unpalatable conclusions about the likely fate of the Western world in general, and the USA in particular. I found it compelling listening: Enjoyable and disturbing in equal measure. Enjoyable, because -- in this case, anyway -- truth is funnier than fiction, and far less believable. Disturbing, because my home country (South Africa), will undoubtedly suffer from the fall-out.

26 of 28 people found this review helpful

I love this guy!

Gripping...entertaining...disturbing.

I put Steyn in the same column as Thomas Sowell, Walter E. Williams, and other deeply conservative thinkers and compelling communicators.

Steyn brings a well-traveled, common sense perspective to the subject of America's decline. He is obviously an avid student of history, geography, demography, politics, etc. Yet, he offers a nonacademic sense of our nation's trajectory.

You can choose to pass on this book, yet none of us can pass on the inevitable collapse of the modern welfare state.

Finally, Steyn, himself, narrates this book in his very engaging style. I really like his radio voice, and I love his narrative voice. I only wish he also narrated America Alone.

18 of 20 people found this review helpful

WOW!!! GREAT BOOK

Finally an author that sees things the same way I do and hasn't bought into the gutless lapdog media we have today! Mark Steyn tells the truth in a refreshing blunt fashion and is not afraid to call it like it is!
A must read/listen for all that are concerned about the direction of this country!

13 of 15 people found this review helpful

Steyn's reading makes this a 5 star audiobook

For those who don't know, Mark Steyn is a conservative commentator, columnist and humorist orignially from Canada. He has a great British accent and thank God he narrated this book. He has a wonderful lively delivery that makes the reading come alive: information and grave commentary are read seriously, and humorous or sardonic commentary are read with the appropriate tongue-in-cheek. He has to be one of the wittiest men to walk the planet. He is like a conservative version of John Stewart, but with alot more insight and facts to back up his targeting of the particular PC sacred cows that he skewers.

I would call this a thoroughly enjoyable and entertaining book if the subject wasn't the prediction of the catastrophic end of America and the birth of a post-American world where looney dictators with nukes and totalitarian communist regimes are going to have far more influence on international politics than the bankrupt and impotent US and the rest of rest of the civilized Western world.

It's not all hopeless for Steyn though, for if enough of us can tap into that ruggedly individualist, subversive American spirit now we just might be able to breath new life into this radical experient in self-government as the rest of the Western welfare states sink below the waterline. If your under 40 don't forget, you're the one getting stuck with this collossal big-government nanny-state bar tab, so you might as well forget about retirement, you got five lifetimes of Chinese debt to pay back!

I highly recommend this book for anyone interested in politics and enjoys excellent political humor. No one other than looney dictators and big-government technocrats will be offended, and no animals were harmed in the making of this audiobook. Get it!

11 of 13 people found this review helpful

Brilliant, Scary, Hilarious!

With his characteristic brilliance, Steyn explains how much of the world has relied on the hegemony of the United States to maintain international civil order, and how so many countires and societies now face a painful chaotic future as the US declines economically, and eventually militarily.
What is truly amazing is how Steyn can provide so much humorous entertainment, even as he is scaring the hell out of you.
This book can make you laugh and cry at the same time!
Highly recommended on all levels.

11 of 13 people found this review helpful

Steyn Narrates His Own View Of USA Today/Tomorrow

What made the experience of listening to After America the most enjoyable?

The author's familiarity with the tone and timing of his own bitingly sarcastic witticisms that fill every page of this book makes him the perfect narrator; no one else could deliver these lines with the proper execution.

What was the most compelling aspect of this narrative?

That it all seems to be happening just as Steyn describes.

What about Mark Steyn’s performance did you like?

His brilliant elocution.

If you were to make a film of this book, what would be the tag line be?

After America - Head For The Hills!

Any additional comments?

Steyn may be the best topical writer of his generation.

2 of 2 people found this review helpful

There can be no after America

This is the second of Steynrs books I have listened to, he reminds us of what we owe to America, we, as well as European states. the West has sheltered behind American arms and Americans for decades, tailoring their lifestyle to include social services they would otherwise be unable to aford.
Steyrn puts the case for a new order with clarity (and a good deal of wit) and leaves us wondering with perhaps a confirmed view that this way is the only way. Well done that man

2 of 2 people found this review helpful

Enlightening

Any additional comments?

I enjoyed this book and Mark Steyn narrating it. I like factual data and Mark does a great job supplying plenty of it. The information regarding the European governments and their ways of governing was insight for me as well as enlightening as to the direction our current administration is taking America. This was a good read and I would recommend it to any American who has concern about our country and freedom.

5 of 6 people found this review helpful

Most evocative writer on the west

Steyn has the prized capability to marry clarity of thought with expression, humor and fact. A great listen, made better by his rolling prose and distinctive voice.

5 of 6 people found this review helpful

Scary BUT TRUE!!!

Would you consider the audio edition of After America to be better than the print version?

A book about what many Americans think and know but don't know what to do about it.

7 of 9 people found this review helpful

News from the Future

Any additional comments?

With his distinctive wit and effective turn of phrase Mark Steyn continues his prescient account of the decline of the West. A little less fact-based than its predecessor “America Alone”, this volume is rather like listening to the headlines and editorials of newspapers written in 2020 and 2030. Those whose foolish political policies are responsible for the decline of the West, those who lack any vision of the consequences of their own actions, will doubtless want to ignore and dismiss Steyn’s warning about how devastating those consequences are likely to be. But for the open-minded and unprejudiced, Steyn’s account of the storm that is coming (and which has already begun) is highly plausible and even perhaps inevitable.

If you haven’t heard “America Alone” yet, then listen to that volume first before listening to this one. Find out what’s going to happen to you in your old age and what kind of world your children and grandchildren will be living in.

3 of 3 people found this review helpful

Thought provoking a funny

Would you listen to After America again? Why?

Yes and I have. Mark Steyn's work is packed full of interesting writing written in an often amusing way. There is so much to this book that you will want to listen again in order better understand the topics.

Which character – as performed by Mark Steyn – was your favourite?

Mark Steyn is a funny man. I have also listened to America Alone, which is read by someone else, and whilst very good, the funny bits are much better delivered by the person who wrote them.

Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?

Too long for that, but it is a book that I listened to on very long hikes without ever getting bored.

Any additional comments?

If you are a conservative, this is a must.

2 of 2 people found this review helpful

Alarming and thought provoking.

What did you like most about After America?

Mark Steyn is an accomplished writer, with an approach that makes his arguments and ideas accessible. Even if you don't agree with him, he makes you examine your own views and beliefs, which is what a good polemic should do!

What other book might you compare After America to, and why?

America Alone also by Mark Stein.

Have you listened to any of Mark Steyn’s other performances? How does this one compare?

Yes. I think his books are best performed by Steyn himself.

If you made a film of this book, what would be the tag line be?

Another Inconvenient Truth?

1 of 1 people found this review helpful

Steynburger

Great content and humour delivered by the man with the hand and the wit on a super sized Steynburger and Truth Salad. Eat up folks and wake up. All the best.

Entertaining Doomsday predictions

The disturbing part is you only have to look outside to verify the veracity of Mr Steyn's claims...