America Alone

The End of the World as We Know It

By: Mark Steyn

Narrated by: Brian Emerson

Length: 9 hrs and 53 mins

Publisher's summary

It's the end of the world as we know it. Someday soon, you might wake up to the call to prayer of a muezzin. Europeans already do.

Liberals tell us that "diversity is our strength", while Talibanic enforcers cruise Greenwich Village burning books and barber shops, while the Supreme Court decides that 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 and provocative columnist Mark Steyn shows to devastating effect in this, his first book on American and global politics.

©2006 Mark Steyn (P)2006 Blackstone Audio Inc.

Critic reviews

"America Alone is Mark Steyn at his best: funny and irreverent, even while assembling well-reasoned and complex arguments in support of serious insights." (Human Events)
"In America Alone Steyn's acerbic wit and relentless pursuit of politically incorrect truths show how Islam is gradually conquering the West by reverse assimilation, aided and abetted by global-warming ecochondriacs, craven multiculturalists, and self-detonating Islamists of the Muslim baby boom." (Jed Babbin, author of Inside the Asylum)

Intelligent, insightful, educational.

Audio: Well-read by narrator Brian Emerson. If you've ever heard Mark Steyn speak, such as when he's on the Hugh Hewitt radio show, you know it would have been a special treat if he had narrated his own book. Steyn's listenable Candadian-British accent and ability to deliver his many humorous witticisms with just the right emphasis is a pleasure to hear. Emerson is an excellent stand-in however, with his clear, well-pronounced, and lively delivery. The narrator and subject matter held my attention such that I listened to the 10 hours over about 3+ days, despite having 12 of 52 hours remaining on Atlas Shrugged that I've been working on for 2 months.

Content: Excellent, superb, intelligent, insightful, witty to a fault? All of the above. The Islamic 'influence' (isn't THAT putting it mildly!) on the rest of the world is a subject people would be highly advised to inform themselves about. This is not something happening "over there" somewhere, in a galaxy far, far away. Steyns' intelligent compilation of FACTS, and his insightful discourse about them, is one such information resource. Combined with Steyns' inability to deliver more than a few sentences without injecting very clever wit, humor, or innuendo, the book becomes easy to read\listen to. (If only I could muster even HALF the wit and humor that Steyn does, then I'd be a, uhh... oh nevermind.) His humor does not degrade this serious subject, but makes it more palatable. The book is not a rant (The Muslims are coming! The Muslims are coming!), but a level-headed, clear-sighted discussion. I highly recommend it.

(P.S. For backup on demographic facts, surf the 'Net for United Nations Birth Rates and wallow in their databases. Also have a look at Pat Buchanan's STATE OF EMERGENCY, which is packed with referenced demography, such as from UNpopulationDotOrg. I felt Steyn must have read Buchanan amongst others, or used similar available data.)

Steyn-the uber man

Just recently got interested in little things like free speech, radical Islam, refugee crisis, things like that. Mark Steyn is the first writer or speaker who was able to open my eyes and help me see beyond the weak explanations of our social and political elite. Bombastic? Yes! But it takes very colorful writing to get our minds around the nature of our current global quagmire. Excellent. But his books are even better when he narrates, very nice accent.

A Very Interesting Story

While the story was very interesting, the reader, Mr. Emerson, was a distraction. Emphasis in the wrong places and odd pronunciation. Probably technically correct, but different than traditional.

Mark: multifaceted insight; Brian insightful dlvry

Loved the information, insigjt and perspective of Mark Steyn. Brian Emerson delivered flawlessly. I love both of their talents. Must listen.

horrendous narration of an excellent book

This is one of the best books I've "read" on the current cultural landslide. It provides material evidence of stark contrast to the culturally suicidal European Union and the American left, who prostrate America with their apologies and concessions, and our weak-willed alleged "allies", whose culture is inherently suicidal and who have therefore, already made the decision to not confront their kevorkians. The foolish hubris of pop-intellectual elitism knows no bounds, and is steering America towards the cliff at the edge of an abyss. Hopefully, as Mr Steyn points out, the abolition of European culture will be enough of a wake-up call to America to realize the error of choosing this luxuriously fatalistic path of least resistance.
I would have given this book 5 stars if it weren't for Brian...Emerson.?! He speaks every other sentence with awkward breaks like a cross between an automated message and Christopher Walken minus the charisma, and too often, at the point of most importance. In the future, please don't use this emotionally... confused automaton to... undermine material of such severe intensity of... importance?

This is the best summation I have seen.

The US wised up to Islam only in the very nick of time. Western Europe, on the other hand, is going down with with the ship. "Iceberg? There ain't no stinkin ICEBERG you bigotted, missogonistic, Islamophobic racist! "

Mark Steyn is as clear eyed and well informed as anyone writing today on these matters and he wrote this book ten years ago! Some readers may find themselves discomforted in which case I reccomend "In the Shadow of the Sword" by Tom Holland. Also Douglas Murray's "The strange death of Europe". Or google David Wood, or Islam 201.

Prophetic!

Loved it! As I listened to it in 2018, so many of the trends Steyn identified 13 or so years earlier (2005 or so) were being played out. Just recently (Friday October 26, 2018 or so) the European Court of Human Rights ruled it was unlawful to criticize Islam!

I will be listening to Steyn's book again to refresh my memory of the other trends he identified.

Stand with America

This book is very exciting and rewarding. It teli of what to come and the possble upcoming results giving both sadness and possble joy in the end results. So in some ways we fight it back keep what's to be loss. But America is never alone as long and it citetzen.

Clarity and Facts

Well researched and insightful summary of the macro environment with many specific examples.

Presented in Steins inimitable style that combines resigned amusement with tragic reality.

An author in search of an editor

As long as Steyn sticks to his basic premise, that Islam is a dangerous, violent, and agressive religion / philosophy, he is in good shape.

Unfortunately, he often veers into familiar, knee jerk ultra-conservative territory, with no logic and no data to back up his rant.

He often mistakes the repetition of a premise for solid proof. Further, a reasonable amount of his premises have been disproven by following events.

Additionally, he often manages to forget history. While he may state that the demise of Europe is purely a product of the Post WWII welfare state and the later Moslem immigrations, what he does not bother to do is remember that much of what has happened in Europe is quite within the character pattern set almost a century ago.

His rant against the concept of Global Warming has been completely proven false by a whole series of scientific studies.

Basically, had he cut the book to about 1/3 of its current length and had he stuck to the premise that we are in a cultural war with Islam, the book would have been infinitely more effective.