Mortal Splendor: The American Empire in Transition

Since the end of World War II, Mead asserts, the United States has maintained the largest empire in history. This neoimperialism, he argues, is built on intervention in the domestic affairs of Third World countries and coercive political efforts to block those countries' sustained economic growth. Both Nixon and Carter tried to regulate change in underdeveloped nations in ways that would be acceptable to U.S. corporate interests. Both presidents failed. Now Reagan is trying to turn back the clock by dragging Americans into overseas wars they are no longer willing to support, the author charges. A former director of a federal antipoverty program, Mead in this critique calls for a new populist movement and a revitalized Democratic Party to cut through the bureaucratic maze. He vaguely sketches America's role as steward of a global commonwealth that would address Third World needs for minimum wage, health care, education and pollution control. (April 30)