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Colossus: The Price of America's Empire Paperback – March 31, 2005

by NiallFerguson (Author)
4.3 4.3 out of 5 stars 318 ratings
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Colossus( The Rise and Fall of the American Empire) <> Paperback <> NiallFerguson <> PenguinBooks
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  1. Language
    English
  2. Publisher
    PenguinBooks
  3. Publication date
    March 31, 2005
  4. Dimensions
    5.08 x 0.91 x 7.8 inches
  5. ISBN-10
    0141017007
  6. ISBN-13
    978-0141017006
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Product details

  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ PenguinBooks; First Edition (March 31, 2005)
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0141017007
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0141017006
  • Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 2.31 pounds
  • Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 5.08 x 0.91 x 7.8 inches
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.3 4.3 out of 5 stars 318 ratings

About the author

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Niall Ferguson

Niall Ferguson

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Niall Ferguson is a senior fellow at the Hoover Institution at Stanford University, former Laurence A. Tisch Professor of History at Harvard University and current senior fellow at the Center for European Studies at Harvard University, a visiting professor at Tsinghua University, Beijing, and founder and managing director of advisory firm Greenmantle LLC. The author of 15 books, Ferguson is writing a life of Henry Kissinger, the first volume of which—Kissinger, 1923-1968: The Idealist—was published in 2015 to critical acclaim. The World's Banker: The History of the House of Rothschild won the Wadsworth Prize for Business History. Other titles include Civilization: The West and the Rest, The Great Degeneration: How Institutions Decay and Economies Die and High Financier: The Lives and Time of Siegmund Warburg. Ferguson's six-part PBS television series, "The Ascent of Money: A Financial History of the World," based on his best-seller, won an International Emmy for best documentary in 2009. Civilization was also made into a documentary series. Ferguson is a recipient of the Benjamin Franklin Award for Public Service as well as other honors. His most recent book is The Square and the Tower: Networks on Power from the Freemasons to Facebook (2018).

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4.3 out of 5 stars
4.3 out of 5
318 global ratings

Top reviews from the United States

Thomas M. Sullivan
5.0 out of 5 stars Another Thought-Provoker
Reviewed in the United States on July 7, 2004
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You will correctly surmise from purusing other reviews of this work that Niall Ferguson's books attract very well informed and thoughtful readers who are not at all reluctant to let him have it if in their view he strays too far into the counterfactual world he helped revive and refine with his works such as "Virtual History." My own take on the rather strong negative reactions engendered by "Colossus" here and elsewhere is that they are generated--like many counterfactuals--by Ferguson's message being taken too seriously on the one hand and not seriously enough on the other. "Colossus" is an essay on possibilities, not a prescription for world domination. It asks--and attempts to answer--the question of why the United States is such a reluctant world leader (in terms of active intervention in its affairs) and explores the possible implications of its shedding its historical aversion to international activism.

What I find lacking in negative reviews is an appreciation, however reluctant, of the value of this inquiry whatever the likelihood of its practical application. And this failure to "get" the message I attribute latently to our historic isolationism and explicitly to the same cause Ferguson highlights as one of the principal reasons why we are unlikely to change our minds: our national attention deficit disorder.

Irag provides the perfect illustration of one of Ferguson's most telling points: we were hardly there before we said we were leaving and then reinforced our apparent disenchantment with the enterprise by becoming politically irrational and transfixed by prisoner abuse and the failure to find WMD's. No reasonable person can argue that if we leave Iraq prematurely, we will have wholly failed to achieve our stated goal of bringing democracy to the Middle East, which conclusion raises the even more compelling public policy question of if we could have foreseen that home front and/or international political pressures were going to prompt us to cut and run, then why did we undertake the enterprise in the first place?

You can't go by me: I am an unabashed and unrepentent Ferguson fan. Every time I pick up one of his books, I feel like I am taking a walk on a pleasant Summer evening with an old friend who happens to be unassailably erudite and enviably eloquent and I am listening to him expound his well-informed views. Neither in these fanciful strolls nor in my critical reading of his works do I feel compelled to agree with him, but I am inexorably forced to think about what he is saying and consider the wonderfully diverse and provocative implications of his musings.

Finally, what troubles me is not whether this or my fellow readers' reviews will prompt you to buy and read this book. No, the question I ask is whether our policy makers ever choose a book like "Colossus" as their summer reading. Our recent foreign adventures suggest to me at least the exercise would be very much worth their--and our--while.
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Auren Hoffman
4.0 out of 5 stars Colossus has Colossal thought
Reviewed in the United States on September 24, 2004
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This new foreign policy book really made me think. Ferguson's argument is that America is an empire, albeit a reluctant one. He alludes to believing that this could be a good thing -- both for America and the world -- but often also shows how the costly running an empire really can be. He concludes the book by stating "I believe the world needs an effective liberal empire and that the United States is the best candidate for the job."

But what makes his book extremely interesting is the historical context he uses. Ferguson goes over so many of the U.S. large wars and tiny wars over the last 150 years. He also draws many parallels to the British empire -- and shows how a great deal of their forays were not successful (both in terms of British and the colony's interest).

The examples that most stared at me were the Philippines and Egypt -- where he draws parallels to Iraq.

The first example is one that is often used. America "liberated" the Philippines in the Spanish-American War and lost about 1000 lives conquering it (which was a very small amount for that day). However, people in the Philippines were not content to just shake off one master and get a new one. Over the next decade America lost another 4000 lives due to rebel activities on the islands. The war and conquest, which in the beginning was extremely popular, became increasingly less so over time. So much so that successive Presidents were trying to find a way out ... and fast.

Egypt is an example I have not yet heard. The British effectively took over Egypt in 1882 when the country's pro-British ruler was overthrown. And though the British claimed on countless occasions that it wanted to leave Egypt as soon as possible, it was still ruling the country for the next 74 years. In fact, in 1956, the year the British did leave (and only because the national purse could not afford it), the British still had over 80,000 troops on its Egyptian base -- which was a tract of land near the canal that was the size of Massachusetts!

We learn from these examples that our transformation of Iraq is going to be enormously difficult and costly. If odds makers were making bets (and some surely are), the odds would definitely be against us succeeding. And Ferguson weaves in Americas huge debts (see Running On Empty by Pete Peterson) of unfunded liabilities to the tune of $45 trillion (!!!) make saving the world an increasingly difficult thing to do.

Like Peterson's book, my outlook after finishing Colossus is one of decided gloom. And gloom is generally not in my character. Though I tend to be an eternal optimist and believe the world is becoming an increasingly better place, it is difficult to not see the enormous challenges that lay ahead of my generation.

Summation: Colossus is a academic book, but very much worth reading. I'd like to leave you one of Ferguson's key quotes from the book:

"there are three fundamental deficits that together explain why the United States has been a less effective empire than its British predecessor. They are its economic deficit, its manpower deficit and -- the most serious of the three -- its attention deficit."
35 people found this helpful
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Xavier Atlas
5.0 out of 5 stars America's world domination is in jeopardy
Reviewed in the United States on September 22, 2013
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This is a very interesting approach by Ferguson concerning the role America plays as the 21st century's sole dominant nation. Ferguson argues that America is in fact an empire, because it shares almost all of the characteristics an empire must have, including military and economical dominance, and subject states.

The twist Ferguson gives this book, is his conviction that is is actually a positive thing to have an empire like the United States dominating the world. His point is that, following the example of the British Empire in the 19th century with India and Egypt, America helped failed states (including Japan and Germany) by occupying them for a long period of time, organizing their democracies until they were ready to be governed on their own. On the other hand, quick military action to expell failed regimes like the Taliban or Saddam, and then the urgency to leave, fails to save those countries from chaos and disunity in the short to medium term. The problem, the author states, is that America's short election periods, the general lack of interest of its well-educated classes and the overrated concern about the international community's opinion are putting the country's dominance in jeopardy, by failing to act in favour of America's interest in the world's military and economical stages.

Wether you agree with Ferguson or not, the book delivers concise and thorough arguments that are very hard to refute. Ten years after been written, the book still makes a very interesting and up-to-date read.
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Top reviews from other countries

Klien
5.0 out of 5 stars Hard to put down
Reviewed in Germany on April 29, 2023
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I think the reason he is so good is Ferguson is a great storytelling historian. It reads like a thriller.
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moodyglen
5.0 out of 5 stars American World History
Reviewed in Canada on November 3, 2020
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Well researched, well written and insightful and topical
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Sasank P
3.0 out of 5 stars Poor quality
Reviewed in India on July 20, 2019
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Got a old book. Cover worn out. Paper quality is poor.
One person found this helpful
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bluevapo
4.0 out of 5 stars Written in 2003.
Reviewed in Australia on March 14, 2021
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Well written, but woefully out of date.
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P I
5.0 out of 5 stars Niall Ferguson's book is excellent and he shows in this book shows the remarkable ...
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on April 4, 2015
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Niall Ferguson's book is excellent and he shows in this book shows the remarkable rise from a colony to the most productive and technology advanced and richest country in the world. In this book he writes about the future causes of Americas decline and he shows how America is getting to relent on Chinese loans to keep Americas war machine funded and to fund it's out of control deficit spending. He also shows in this book how fiscally unbalanced the U.S are and he shows what the future problems the USA could have in near future if they do not address the root causes of these problems. Ferguson shows how America feels about it's self post September 11 and how it has changed how seen its self since that horrifying day and it's changed outlook on the world and most important of all itself.
2 people found this helpful
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