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The empire and the five kings : America's abdication and the fate of the world / Bernard-Henri Lévy ; translated by Steven B. Kennedy.

by Lévy, Bernard-Henri.

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Henry Holt and Company, 2019.

World politics -- 21st century.

United States -- Foreign relations -- 21st century.

9781250203014 (hc.)

Empire et les cinq rois. English

Alternate title:

America's abdication and the fate of the world

261 p. ; 22 cm.

"Originally published in France in 2018 by Éditions Grasset"--T. p. verso.

Includes index.

Prologue: on Dove's feet, the Kurds -- The latest news from the empire. Hegel's ghost ; How the word came to America ; Lest I forget you, Jerusalem, Aeneas, Virgil ; Jeremy Bentham and the web ; Thus spake the empire of the eye and of nothingness -- Five kingdoms on the offensive. The earth shook in Kurdistan ; Herodotus's trap ; Dante, Abraham, and the war of the five kings ; The brown wave ; The specters' ball -- Epilogue: where does the sea go at ebb tide?

"One of the West’s leading intellectuals offers a provocative look at America’s withdrawal from world leadership and the rising powers who seek to fill the vacuum left behind. The United States was once the hope of the world, a beacon of freedom and the defender of liberal democracy. Nations and peoples on all continents looked to America to stand up for the values that created the Western world, and to oppose autocracy and repression. Even when America did not live up to its ideals, it still recognized their importance, at home and abroad. But as Bernard-Henri Lévy lays bare in this powerful and disturbing analysis of the world today, America is retreating from its traditional leadership role, and in its place have come five ambitious powers, former empires eager to assert their primacy and influence. Lévy shows how these five―Russia, China, Turkey, Iran, and Sunni radical Islamism―are taking steps to undermine the liberal values that have been a hallmark of Western civilization. The Empire and the Five Kings is a cri de coeur that draws upon lessons from history and the eternal touchstones of human culture to reveal the stakes facing the West as America retreats from its leadership role, a process that did not begin with Donald Trump's presidency and is not likely to end with him. The crisis is one whose roots can be found as far back as antiquity and whose resolution will require the West to find a new way forward if its principles and values are to survive."--From publisher.

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