THE RISE AND FALL OF THE AMERICAN EMPIRE

Mirza reinterprets 500 years of world history in pursuit of the truth behind the rise and fall of the “American Empire.”

Beginning with the 16th Century, Mirza painstakingly revisits the myriad landmark moments that collectively contributed to the evolution, hegemony and ultimate demise of the “world’s super imperialist” power–the United States. The author argues not that the country no longer exists, but rather that its power, moral authority and philosophical tradition of representative democracy have all diminished to the point of impotence. The path from Viking and Chinese discoveries of the New World, to the challenges of modern-day terrorism and global financial collapses is a long and circuitous one. He diligently follows the chronological timeline through the ages, recounting historical milestones familiar to any high school senior but offers an analysis that amounts to little more than an historical review. Readers will be hard pressed to find the theoretical argument that unites all this history to Mirza’s ultimate thesis. The author’s passion and sincerity for his topic are beyond question, but the history lesson gets lost in the meandering CliffsNotes-like historical summary. The book’s message is further weakened by a text that is poorly edited and beleaguered by awkward sentences, poor grammar, worse punctuation and numerous style gaffes. Readers are so busy stumbling over errors that the meaning fades into the background. This is unfortunate, because Mirza has something important to say about our world, and has gone to extraordinary lengths to build his case objectively. The Rise and Fall of the American Empire rings a clarion call we should take seriously, but that call is drowned out by the white noise of poor editorial mechanics and a weakly formulated thesis.

A long read, superficially researched and amateurishly written.