The Character of Nations: How Politics Makes and Breaks Prosperity, Family, and Civility

A nation's government and its political and moral philosophy shape the country's economy, the family life of its citizens, its spiritual life and the state of its military defenses. That hardly surprising statement is ostensibly the thesis of this meditation by a professor of international relations at Boston University. In fact, the thesis is simply a sturdy framework on which Codevilla mounts his contention that America today is rotting because its government lacks a basic belief in the rule of law and morality. Drawing comparisons with governments ranging from republican Rome to Nazi Germany to Andrew Jackson's America to contemporary China, Mexico and Peru, Codevilla makes a number of startling contentions about how governments shape the character of their peoples. One point is that governments, especially modern ones, see religion as a rival. A provocative book that mixes gimmicky targets (a person is more likely to be arrested on the New York City subway for smoking than for indecent exposure) with deep ethical issues. (Nov.)