The Character of Nations: How Politics Makes and Breaks Prosperity, Family, and Civility Angelo M. Codevilla

In the aftermath of the Cold War, people around the globe are reexamining and reinventing their political systems, conscious that political choices imply different ways of life. In this new cross-cultural study, Angelo M. Codevilla illustrates that as people shape their governments, they shape themselves. Drawing broadly from the sweep of history, from the Roman republic to de Tocqueville's America, as well as from personal and scholarly observations of the world in the twentieth centery, The Character of Nations reveals remarkable truths about the effects of government on a society's economic arrangements, moral order, sense of family life, and ability to defend itself.

Codevilla argues that in present-day America government has had a profound negative effect on societal norms. It has taught people to seek prosperity through connections with political power; it has fostered the atrophy of civic responsibility; it has waged a Kulturkampf against family and religion; and it has dug a dangerous chasm between those who serve in the military and those who send it it harm's way. Informative and provocative, The Character of Nations shows how the political decisions we make have higher stakes than simply who wins elections.

Table of Contents

Preface

Introduction

 

Part I. Regimes and Character

Chapter 1: Regimes

Chapter 2: Tone and Character

Chapter 3: The Character of Democracy

 

Part II. What Differences Regimes Make

Chapter 4: The Soviet Union

Chapter 5: Prosperity

Chapter 6: Civility

Chapter 7: Family

Chapter 8: The Soul

Chapter 9: The Ultimate Test

 

Part III. Our Character

Chapter 10: De Tocqueville's America

Chapter 11: What Are We Doing to Ourselves?

Chapter 12: The Culture Wars

Chapter 13: America's Defenders

 

Notes

Index