Come Home, America

by Rich Miles

I don't usually recommend books on this site, mainly because my reading tastes tend toward ancient history (pre-1700), but also because reading choices are such personal things, and I don't wish to impinge on what you like with what I like.

(Also, I don't often find books I like well enough to suggest that you read them.)

But today, I've come across a book that I AM going to recommend to you, even though I myself haven't read it. My only contact with this book is a lengthy interview on NPR's "Diane Rehm Show" today, in which the author, without even trying, managed to convince me that he thinks just like me! Or nearly so, at any rate.

He says the things I try to say here - the obvious stuff about why America is falling apart in spots, and what should be done to stop the decline and get our country's international pre-eminence back on track for reasons that apply today and are not holdovers from our "imperial era", over a hundred years ago. Which is a long time for a country that's not much over 200 years old.

So at any rate, here's the book I want to call to your attention today:

"Come Home America: The Rise and Fall (and Redeeming Promise) Of Our Country" by William Greider.

It's available on Amazon.com, and if you Google it, you can get several reviews of the book and reader discussions as well.

If Greider's on-air discussion of his beliefs is anything like what the book has to say, we should all have a copy.

I'm not going to try to review the book - there are professional examples of this available all over the Web.

But I recommend you take a look at this book, because it's not just flag-waving and "Rah, rah America" kind of stuff. It's the author's ideas of what we've done wrong, and how we might benefit from doing those things a different way.