- Thornton, Bruce.
Decline and Fall.
New York: Encounter Books, 2007.
ISBN 978-1-59403-206-6.
-
This slim volume (135 pages of main text, 161 pages
in its entirety—the book is erroneously listed
on Amazon.com as 300 pages in length) is an epitaph
for the postwar European experiment. The
author considers Europe, as defined by the post-Christian,
post-national “EUtopia” envisioned by
proponents of the European Union as already irretrievably
failed, facing collapse in the coming decades due to
economic sclerosis from bloated and intrusive statist
policies, unsustainable welfare state expenditures,
a demographic death spiral already beyond recovery, and
transformation by a burgeoning Islamic immigrant population
which Europeans lack the will to confront and compel
to assimilate as a condition of residence. The book is
concise, well-argued, and persuasive, but I'm not sure
why it is ultimately necessary.
The same issues are discussed at greater length, more
deeply, and with abundant documentation in recent books
such as
Mark Steyn's
America Alone
(November 2006),
Claire Berlinski's
Menace in Europe
(July 2006), and
Bruce Bawer's
While Europe Slept
(June 2007), all of which are cited as
sources in this work. If you're
looking for a very brief introduction and overview
of Europe's problems, this book provides one, but
readers interested in details of the present situation
and prospects for the future will be better served by
one of the books mentioned above.
A video
interview with the author is available.
May 2008 