Book Review: The Eagle's Shadow, by Mark Hertsgaard

The introduction is more an environmentalist manifesto than it is an overview of what should have been an informative and interesting book. In it he criticizes the Bush administration, especially for its withdrawal from the Kyoto Treaty. Had Mr. Hertsgaard wished to be informative, he might have told us something about the views of the rest of the world on the topic. As it was, he completely avoided conveying any understanding of the economics of the Kyoto Treaty.

One reason the U.S. pulled out of the treaty was that it would only create more pollution rather than less. On the face of it a rather amazing statement, but a fundamental analysis makes it clear. The treaty allows underdeveloped nations (including China) to pollute more. The U.S. already produces products far more efficiently (and cleanly) than most countries in the world. If suddenly the costs of goods is less expensive when they come from a country that creates more pollution per item, where do you think people are going to buy? -- From the country that pollutes more. The Kyoto Treaty, then, rewards polluters and provides incentives to create more pollution.

A discussion of the Kyoto Treaty seems out of place in a book about "Why America Fascinates and Infuriates the World". Yet, it is tempting to go into a line by line refutation of all of Mr. Hertsgaard's false assumptions. In some sense it would be futile as it would only end up as a catalogue of the folly of Liberal thought. An illustration of the chaotic and unfulfilling nature of this book can be made by reprinting a few of the notes I scribbled in the margins.

"Pie-in the Sky! Alternative Fuels will become popular when they incur less cost than oil. It is as simple as that!"

"I find this quite difficult to believe. I think Mr. Hertsgaard is generating facts from spurious sources."

"This is silly. Environmentalism is just leftism-extremism in disguise."

"He says that we are so certain that we know what is best for everyone, when, in truth, it is the other way around. We generally wish for other people to determine their own lives. I never liked Wilson, but his ideas on national self-determination were right-on."

"The Chinese went from Marxist Lunacy to Market Reforms."

"He takes his own "dubious" truths to be self-evident even while criticizing the founders for assuming that the rights to life, liberty and property are self-evident."

There are a hundred more, but only a few of my notes were complimentary:

"Many of Mr. Hertsgaard's assumption are pure folly as noted earlier. But he is correct regarding the anti-intellectual streak running through our education system and society at large, keeping us largely ignorant of the goings on in the world. We would to well to rectify this deficiency."

Unfortunately, "The Eagle's Shadow: Why America Fascinates and Infuriates the World" does little to rectify this deficiency. If it has any value to the reader, it is as a mildly interesting travelogue and record of the conversations of a liberal with foreigners regarding their views about the United States.

This is a subject that would benefit from a book by a serious and less ideological writer. *

This Book is Available at Amazon.com.