The Anglosphere Challenge: Why the English-Speaking Nations Will Lead the Way in the Twenty-First Century

by James C. Bennett author of "The Anglosphere Challenge: Why the English-Speaking Nations Will

Overview

Despite repeated predictions of the demise of America and the English-speaking nations as the world's predominant culture, James C. Bennett believes that this gap will widen in the coming decades. Coining the term anglosphere to describe a loose coalition based on a common language and heritage, Bennett believes that traits common to these countries—a particularly strong and independent civil society; openness and receptivity to the world, its people and ideas; and a dynamic economy—have uniquely positioned them to prosper in a time of dramatic technological and scientific change. In a wide-ranging exploration back to the Industrial Revolution and into the future, The Anglosphere Challenge gives voice to a growing movement on both sides of the Atlantic.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780742533332
Publisher:	Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc.
Publication date:	04/03/2007
Edition description:	Reprint
Pages:	354
Product dimensions:	6.01(w) x 9.09(h) x 1.01(d)

About the Author

James C. Bennett is a founding director of the non-profit Foresight Institute, which deals with education and research on nanotechnology, and the related Institute for Molecular Manufacturing. He is also a cofounder of The Anglosphere Institute, a non-profit organization conducting policy research and further the concepts of the Anglosphere and the Network Commonwealth. Bennett is an adjunct fellow of The Hudson Institute.

Table of Contents

Chapter 1 Introduction: Three Questions about the Future: Answers from the Past
Chapter 2 The Internet Era—and Beyond
Chapter 3 The Anglosphere and Its Revolutions
Chapter 4 Trust, Civil Society, Government, and Cyberspace
Chapter 5 The Civic State and the Network Commonwealth
Chapter 6 The Anglosphere as a Unique Civilization
Chapter 7 The Anglosphere Century

What People are Saying About This

Dick Morris

Stresses the pivotal nature of English fluency in the information-age economy to come.

Editorial Reviews

James C. Bennett in his pathbreaking book The Anglosphere Challenge sees the contemporary English-speaking world as what he calls a 'network civilization' - that is, a set of countries that shares a common cultural heritage going far beyond language.

The New Criterion

The most original foreign policy book of the year. .. James C. Bennett has sketched how the international order might be reshaped by the Internet and the communications revolution—and what allies the United States would have in that new world.

Chicago Sun-Times

The Anglosphere Challenge is one of the important books of our time.

National Review

Recommended

Choice Reviews

Stresses the pivotal nature of English fluency in the information-age economy to come.

Dick Morris

It is very unusual to come across a genuinely new idea or a really original book. But the central thesis of The Anglosphere Challenge—that a new world order based on cultural affinity is evolving in response to the information revolution—is the most original attempt yet to make sense of the post-cold war world. New and original ideas are often strange or unsettling. Yet when Mr. Bennett has finished making his case, it seems the most obvious common sense. In short, this may be the Next Big Idea.

John O'Sullivan

The first full-length treatment of the idea [of the 'Anglosphere']—and a powerful one. [Bennett's] book is bound to ratchet up serious discussion of it to an altogether higher level—and bring it to a new and larger audience.

New York Post

The most original foreign policy book of the year . . . James C. Bennett has sketched how the international order might be reshaped by the Internet and the communications revolution—and what allies the United States would have in that new world.

Chicago Sun-Times

The Anglosphere Challenge is one of the important books of our time.

National Review

Recommended

CHOICE

Recommended

Choice

Stresses the pivotal nature of English fluency in the information-age economy to come.--Dick Morris

James C. Bennett's book leads one on a journey of discovery disguised as a journey of rediscovery. He lends expression to ideas one feels one has always known, but which were never formulated until Bennett put them into words.--George Jonas, columnist, National Post (Canada)

It is very unusual to come across a genuinely new idea or a really original book. But the central thesis of The Anglosphere Challenge--that a new world order based on cultural affinity is evolving in response to the information revolution--is the most original attempt yet to make sense of the post-cold war world. New and original ideas are often strange or unsettling. Yet when Mr. Bennett has finished making his case, it seems the most obvious common sense. In short, this may be the Next Big Idea.--John O'Sullivan, editor, The National Interest

From the Publisher

The first full-length treatment of the idea [of the 'Anglosphere']—and a powerful one. [Bennett's] book is bound to ratchet up serious discussion of it to an altogether higher level—and bring it to a new and larger audience.

New York Post

In his book, The Anglosphere Challenge, James C. Bennett talks about a shared set of values in which Magna Carta, trial by jury, "innocent until proven guilty", "a man's home is his castle", and "a man's word is his bond" are common themes.

The Daily Telegraph

The volume will be of interest to readers that seek a thorough understanding of the technological revolution of the last few decades and its claimed Anglosphere heritage.

Political Studies Review

It is clear that [James C.] Bennett and [Samuel] Huntington have similar conceptions about the core elements of 'Anglo' culture. But for Bennett, the dynamics of this culture, interacting with the global economy and Internet technology, are driving Americans beyond a mere national identity which is limited to the United States to a transnational identity which is grounded in the dense interrelations—the network commonwealth—among the English-speaking nations. The Anglosphere, Bennett foresees, will be the most coherent, advanced, and effective association of nations of any operating and competing within the global economy and the information age. As such, Bennett projects a more expansive and optimistic future for Americans than that provided by Huntington's analysis.

The National Interest, (Fall 2004) - James R. Kurth

James C. Bennett's book leads one on a journey of discovery disguised as a journey of rediscovery. He lends expression to ideas one feels one has always known, but which were never formulated until Bennett put them into words.

George Jonas

Lurking beneath a prose style that sometimes manages to be breathless and turgid at the same time are two important and even brilliant ideas. Bennett points out that although the Internet collapses geography, it strengthens the force of culture in international affairs; with the price of telecommunications falling toward zero, and with users in widely separated locales able to work together easily, the chief barriers to human cooperation are likely to be linguistic and cultural. He also notes that the English-speaking world shares, in addition to a common language, a legal heritage and a set of ideas and assumptions that make it easier for Canadian companies to operate in Ireland than in China or Ukraine. Bennett's Anglosphere will thus integrate more rapidly and assume more of the dimensions of a common economic and social space in the decades ahead. But it will not stand alone; Bennett looks to the emergence of a Hispanosphere, a Sinosphere, a Lusosphere, and of course a Francosphere, among others. This is almost certainly right, and it clearly has important implications for the global future—although Bennett never quite succeeds in making clear just what those implications are. His other big idea is that history and culture have given the Anglosphere strong civil society traditions that make the English-speaking world uniquely able to thrive in a century that will be dominated by accelerating waves of economic, technological and social change. Many readers will find this proposition controversial and even offensive; nevertheless, it is a point worth considering.

Foreign Affairs

It is clear that [James C.] Bennett and [Samuel] Huntington have similar conceptions about the core elements of 'Anglo' culture. But for Bennett, the dynamics of this culture, interacting with the global economy and Internet technology, are driving Americans beyond a mere national identity which is limited to the United States to a transnational identity which is grounded in the dense interrelations—the network commonwealth—among the English-speaking nations. The Anglosphere, Bennett foresees, will be the most coherent, advanced, and effective association of nations of any operating and competing within the global economy and the information age. As such, Bennett projects a more expansive and optimistic future for Americans than that provided by Huntington's analysis.

The National Interest - James R. Kurth