American Theocracy
Another day, another book. Last week I finished listening to Kevin Philips American Theocracy. We had started this one on the return part of our National Parks trip, but it took me a few more weeks to finish it out once I got back into the hour/day mode.
Overall a very good book. Broken into three parts: 1) Oil 2) Religion 3) Financial services.
The first section was very interesting and talked about the history of oil production around the world, the various interactions it’s had with governments and conflicts, etc. Jodi got a little bored during this section and we didn’t actually get all the way through the 6 or so hours that comprised this block while still on our trip.
I had expected the second section (religion) would be equally interesting. Realistically, the book is called American Theocracy, and one of the biggest “threats” to the country right now is a gentle slide into theocratic government. Sadly, the second portion of the book I found to be a bit less interesting than the first section. There was seemingly a lot of history of religion, going back ages and ages and not really as much focus as I had expected on the changes of the 20th century. Or perhaps there was, but by the time we got to it I was started to tune out a bit so I missed it.
The third section of the book, on financial services and the debtor-consumer, debtor-nation economy was actually quite interesting again like the first section. I was unthrilled to hear some of the details on how doomed we are based on our current financial lifestyle, both as individuals and as a nation. But for anyone who has been paying attention, this should come as no surprise.
Like I said, overall a pretty good book. Just the religion part was less interesting than I had expected.
