Grand Illusion: Critics and Champions of the American Century

The author blasts George Bush for what he sees as the president's neglect of the domestic economy, shallow internationalism and blind laissez-faire faith in the marketplace. A contributing editor to the New Republic and biographer of William F. Buckley Jr., Judis depicts Bush's conservatism as a continuation of Ronald Reagan's disastrous attempt to restore the ``American Century,'' an era of U.S. global domination posited by Time magazine's Henry Luce in 1941. This penetrating study seeks ideas that could help reverse America's economic decline in the thinking of progressives and liberals like Herbert Croly, founder of the New Republic and adviser to Woodrow Wilson; Henry Wallace, FDR's secretary of agriculture, who proposed national economic planning; and Walter Lippmann, who urged that a postwar peace be based on a nuclear alliance among the superpowers. Judis also presents an evenhanded critique of such Cold Warriors as Henry Kissinger, Richard Nixon, Whittaker Chambers, James Burnham, Barry Goldwater and George Kennan, along with a slashing appraisal of Lee Iacocca's performance as Chrysler chairman. (Aug.)