The Cousins' Wars: Religion,
Politics, and the Triumph of Anglo-America by Kevin P.
Phillips
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- Paperback: 708 pages ; Dimensions
(in inches): 1.84 x 9.19 x 5.97
- Publisher: Basic Books; (January
2000)
- ISBN: 0465013708
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Book Description
A strikingly fresh and
revisionist explanation for the rise of Anglo-America as the
dominant cultural and political force in the world today by the
bestselling author of The Politics of Rich and Poor.
The question at the heart of
The Cousins' Wars is this: How did Anglo-America evolve over a
mere three hundred years from a small Tudor kingdom into a global
community with such a hegemonic grip on the world today, while no
other European power-Spain, France, Germany, or Russia-did? The
answer to this, according to Phillips, lies in a close examination
of three internecine English-speaking civil wars-the English Civil
War, the American Revolution, and the American Civil War.
These wars between cousins
functioned as crucial anvils on which various religious, ethnic,
and political alliances were hammered out between the
English-speaking cousin-nations, setting them on a unique
two-track path toward world leadership-one aristocratic and aloof
to dominate the imperial nineteenth century and the other more
egalitarian and democratic to take over in the twentieth century.
They also functioned as unfortunate and deadly cultural crucibles
for African Americans, Native Americans, and the Irish.
Phillips's analysis shows
exactly how these conflicts are inextricably linked and how they
seeded each other. He offers often surprising interpretations that
cut across the political spectrum-for instance, that the
Constitution of the United States, while brilliant in many
respects, was also a fatally flawed political compromise that
contributed mightily in setting the stage for the final-and the
bloodiest-cousins' war: the American Civil War.
With the new millennium upon us
and triggering widespread assessment of our nation's place in
world history, The Cousins' Wars provides just the kind of
magisterial sweep and revisionist spark to ignite widespread
interest and debate. This grand religious, military, and political
epic is the multi-dimensional story of the triumph of
Anglo-America.
Political commentator Kevin Phillips (author of the 1991 bestseller
The Politics of Rich and Poor) takes a break from analyzing
the latest election returns with this sweeping history of
Anglo-American exceptionalism. How did the political culture of
Anglo-America rise "from a small Tudor kingdom to a global community
and world hegemony"? asks Phillips.
His answer comes in the course of studying three wars--the English
Civil War, the American Revolution, and the U.S. Civil War. Phillips
does not examine the military history of these conflicts, looking
instead at the political, religious, economic, and sectional
interests that shaped them.
He makes several eye-opening observations, comparing, for instance,
a "state-by-state portrait of which counties, towns, districts, or
regions were loyal" during the American Revolution to "ethnoreligious
maps of the modern-day Balkans."
This is a hefty book (over 600 pages, not including appendices and
footnotes), and while Phillips's preface is a bit self-absorbed,
admirers of David Landes's The Wealth and Poverty of Nations
and Jared Diamond's Guns, Germs, and Steel will find much to
like between its covers. --John J.
Miller
From the Publisher
Praise for this title
"This is an elegant and provocative
book...Phillips not only seeks out the religious foundations of
political differences but finds an underlying Anglo-America that has
not only endured despite these wars but has decisively reshaped the
modern world.
Not everyone will agree with everything
Phillips says, but he does offer a bold synthesis that ought to
stimulate public debate while it helps to enlighten us all." --John
M. Murrin, Professor of History, Princeton University
"Kevin Phillips has written a remarkable book,
tracing subterranean psychological and spiritual connections across
decades of peace and war that most historians have ignored. His
insights on the religious undercurrents of the American Revolution
are particularly striking." --Tom Fleming, author of Liberty: The
American Revolution
"If international politics on planet earth
really is about 'the clash of cultures,' then Kevin Phillips has
just told the story of the winner." --Byron E. Shafer, Andrew Mellon
Professor of American Government, Oxford University
"The Cousins Wars is an exciting review of
Anglo-America in the making." --Walter Dean Burnham, Frank C. Erwin,
Jr. Centennial Chair and State Government, University of Texas at
Austin
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