Synopses & Reviews
Review
"Another deliciously ill-tempered screed from veteran gadfly Vidal....That Vidal is fonder of sermonizing than logical argument, of assertion rather than cold data, is no matter: this is trademark Goring and unforgiving: woe to its unfortunate target. A pleasure for those convinced of the present ruling elite's deep-seated flaws and deeper evils, and tasty food for thought even for the doubtful." Kirkus Reviews (Starred Review)
Review
"Vidal's talent for invigorating his polemics with lively prose and fierce wit (he describes Spiro Agnew as 'Vice President to Richard Nixon and bribe-taker to many') shines throughout, and though some of the essays are dated, Vidalian vitriol never seems to go out of style." John Green, Booklist
Review
"A pleasure for those convinced of the present ruling elite's deep-seated flaws and deeper evils . . . tasty food for thought." Kirkus Reviews
Synopsis
When Gore Vidal's recent New York Times bestseller Perpetual War for Perpetual Peace was published, the Los Angeles Times described Vidal as the last defender of the American republic. In Dreaming War, Vidal continues this defense by confronting the Cheney-Bush junta head on in a series of devastating essays that demolish the lies American Empire lives by, unveiling a counter-history that traces the origins of America's current imperial ambitions to the experience of World War Two and the post-war Truman doctrine. And now, with the Cheney-Bush leading us into permanent war, Vidal asks whose interests are served by this doctrine of pre-emptive war? Was Afghanistan turned to rubble to avenge the 3,000 slaughtered on September 11? Or was "the unlovely Osama chosen on aesthetic grounds to be the frightening logo for our long contemplated invasion and conquest of Afghanistan?" After all he was abruptly replaced with Saddam Hussein once the Taliban were overthrown. And while "evidence" is now being invented to connect Saddam with 9/11, the current administration are not helped by "stories in the U.S. press about the vast oil wealth of Iraq which must- for the sake of the free world- be reassigned to U.S. consortiums."
About the Author
Gore Vidal is the author of twenty-two novels, five plays, many screenplays, more than two hundred essays, and a memoir. The Times Literary Supplement (UK) noted that Vidal's United States (Essays 1952-92) is one of the great American books of the twentieth century. It won the 1993 National Book Award.
Table of Contents
Democratic vistas --Goat song : unanswered questions before, during, after 9/11 --Menandering toward Armageddon --Three lies to rule by --Japanese intentions in the Second World War --How we missed the Saturday dance --The last empire --In the lair of the octopus --Mickey Mouse, historian --With extreme prejudice --The union of the state --The last defender of the American republic? : an interview with Gore Vidal.