Alex Kugushev is the 21st century version of Alexis de Tocqueville, the French politician and writer who helped us Americans understand ourselves in the 19th century. Both define the differences between America and the homelands of their day. However, de Tocqueville was, as some describe, nothing more than a detached social scientist writing about his travels through early 19th century America. On the other hand, Kugushev is a convert from Europe and South America who draws on almost a half century of becoming an American to explain his perceptions of what we really are. He has become one of us, a proud citizen, who is both embarrassed by our weaknesses and awed by our strengths. As a television broadcaster for many years, I thought I had a good sense of our strong American character as well as the growing pessimism about our future. However, Kugushev has broadened my perspective and restored my hope. Who should read his book?
For us native-born Americans who take much about our country for granted, it's deeply moving to read Alexander Kugushev's clear-eyed assessment of the United States of America. Where we tend to jump to the conclusion that our nation is in decline, he says, "Oh, really?" Kugushev grew up in a Europe overshadowed by Hitler and Stalin, came of age in an Argentina rife with casual corruption, and chose deliberately to immigrate to the United States. He is, one might say, an intentional American. Over forty years later, Kugushev reviews the qualities he values in American life, such as equality, opportunity, practicality, generosity, optimism, and the search for community. Are they still characteristic, he asks, of the United States of America? By his observation, the answer is a resounding "Yes." As a lifelong and thoughtful conservative who supported the transformational candidate Obama in 2008, he believes the affirmative holds true more than ever in 2009. To examine the often-heard assertion that U.S. society is in decline, Kugushev brings his wide experience of life in the United States as well as other countries, his deep reading and careful observation, and his conversations with other Americans, both native-born and immigrants. A skeptical, independent thinker, Kugushev has a thorough familiarity with American history as well as the history of other parts of the world. He doesn't push any ideology, but presents evidence from many and varied sources, sifted through his sharp intellect. Without blinking at America's many failings, Alexander Kugushev explains why he loves his adopted country. In the process he reminds us, natives and immigrants alike, how lucky we are, and why we ought to love the United States of America as he does.
This is a must read book for us Americans to get a better sense of ourselves: who we are, where we have been, and what to expect in the future because of our origins and culture. The author asks the fundamental question this book addresses: "Has the United States peaked and entered national decline? Or do Americans' often pessimistic and despondent perceptions of their country and the related intensity of their debates indicate continuing civic health?" He examines our origins: the frontier and its stamp on Americans and our minds, and concepts such as equality, personal dignity, tolerance, forgiveness, and second chances, self-reliance and a can-do attitude. Chapter 4 is particularly meaningful, in which he discusses what we believe in, personal freedom and independence, equality, and our laws (the constitution and the debt to law we inherited from Anglo-Saxons), and what we expect. The author views America through the prism of his experiences in other countries and the U.S., and his background: born in France of Russian parents, educated in Europe and Argentina, now lives in California, and has traveled to over seventy countries. As an immigrant exposed to other cultures and systems of government, he views the U. S. and Americans in ways that most of us cannot. He has seen lack of freedom, places where the state is primary and citizens secondary, and fairness and justice in the U.S. in contrast to elsewhere. What does he say he learned in his 40+ years in America? "Mainly, that the more it seems to change the more it actually continues and recurs. In this constancy, I recognize the essence of the American story". You need to read this book to fully understand the optimism he expresses and why!
Every native born American ought to read this book. The author uses his insights as an immigrant to identify the things that make us uniquely American. Having been raised within the system, I could not have written this book. It takes someone raised in Europe and South America followed with over 40 years experience in this country to pose the right questions and to research the answers. He asks the interesting question of whether or not our uniquely American characteristics will keep us from going the way of the Roman Empire or the British Empire. We are currently in a slump. Read this book and make your own assessment of whether our values will lead us out of our troubles or whether we are doomed. I found the book interesting, provocative and well-written.
Alexander Kugushev is an immigrant of Russian extraction who passed through France, Yugoslavia, Austria, Switzerland and Argentina on his way to America. When he got here, in 1960, he believed in the "Myth of America", but his experience of the reality of the United States was nonexistent. Through first jobs (teacher and strike-breaking longshoreman, book seller and farm worker) and then up through the ranks of corporate America, Kugushev accustomed himself to the harmonies and dissonances of our cultural mythology. This book is an extended argument for our nation's ability to adapt and continue. In it, the author takes on the the self-satisfied rhetoric of those who routinely tell us that our culture has seen its day. It's a pleasure to watch Kugushev call those views up and knock them down, as though he's shooting skeet. We are suddenly again in an era of hope for America's future. When our "Yes We Can" beliefs, now so fresh, find themselves up against the hard work of our future, Kugushev's book will remind us of fights we've fought before, of our resilience in the face of obstacles, of the enduring success Americans know how to achieve when we work to get it.
I have just finished "Resilient America" and think it is a terrific & inspiring book. I'm recommending it to my E-Mail regulars who need to be encouraged that America is not on the decline. I have been well aware that America is an evolving entity that does not warrant the pessimism so fashionable today, but seeing those opinions backed up by solid references & studies solidifies the author's point. It is convincing and encouraging. Other writers have rejected the idea that America is in its death throes, but few provide the research required to refute that point of view. In that respect alone, it is a tour de force. The two areas where I remain a bit more skeptical than the author is in education and income. I think our primary education system, public schools through high school level, are sadly lacking in almost every respect. How our young people are able to transition successfully to higher levels is a mystery to me. On the financial/economic side, I continue to worry about what I see as a growing disparity between the earnings of "Joe the Plumber" and higher level executive income. Continuation of that trend leads eventually to revolution. All in all, a wonderful book on a much needed subject. I hope it is as widely read as it deserves to be.
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