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jmrprice's review against another edition
3.0
Kaplan always presents interesting views about the places he travels, but the biggest takeaway from this work: what would America be like if the country had progressed eastward from the Pacific Coast rather than westward from the Atlantic Coast?
So much to consider and ponder.
So much to consider and ponder.
rockymthorrorshow's review against another edition
2.0
I wish there was some sort of device to count the number of times I yell profanities at an audiobook while I'm driving, because this book would be clocking in somewhere in the mid-hundreds.
To say this book was a travelogue would be akin to saying that a version of the Golden Gate Bridge made according to the original plans from spaghetti and marshmallows is structurally sound. Yes, it follows a loose east-to-west structure based around a road trip from the Eastern Seaboard to southern California. But this is where any structure stops. The rest of the book is a muddled diatribe about the role of frontier history in understanding America's "destiny" in modern geopolitics. Kaplan doesn't actually advance any new ideas - he just regurgitates a limited selection (read: three authors) of interwar historians, stirring in liberal amounts of standard baby boomer complaints for flavor.
Kaplan argues that because of the size of the North American continent, America was "fated" to become a global power, and that everyone since Bush Sr. has been shrinking from our global destiny or whatever. His evidence is almost impossible to follow, lost in mud puddles of folksy tales about his father and lamentations about the "academic left" and their unwillingness to praise American expansionism and supposed laser focus on the atrocities of the frontier era.
Let me be clear: The global age is not an inherently bad thing. Change is not inherently bad. Historians have spent the last 200+ years doing nothing but mythologizing American history and its cast of characters, and I think that we can take a break from that for a while. Literally nothing that has ever happened or will ever happen was "destined" to be so. There are a hundred thousand ways a single event could have gone awry, leading to more potential futures than your brain, even if you weren't wasting so much of your gray matter lamenting the fact that people use cell phones in gas stations instead of making awkward conversation across diner booths, could even fathom.
I will admit, Kaplan makes some good points. The good that America has done has often been a result of the groundwork laid by the bad that has been done. Americans have historically been unwilling to look beyond our own borders at perspectives on history that are not our own. Our experiences are not universal, and just because we coach another nation through the steps we took to democracy, they won't necessarily arrive at the same outcome. But on the whole, Kaplan's historical, and particularly geographic, determinism and heavy-handed American exceptionalism left a frankly disgusting taste in my mouth.
TL;DR: If I wanted to listen to an older white man tell me why America was the best country in the world, I'd just start going to Thanksgiving again.
To say this book was a travelogue would be akin to saying that a version of the Golden Gate Bridge made according to the original plans from spaghetti and marshmallows is structurally sound. Yes, it follows a loose east-to-west structure based around a road trip from the Eastern Seaboard to southern California. But this is where any structure stops. The rest of the book is a muddled diatribe about the role of frontier history in understanding America's "destiny" in modern geopolitics. Kaplan doesn't actually advance any new ideas - he just regurgitates a limited selection (read: three authors) of interwar historians, stirring in liberal amounts of standard baby boomer complaints for flavor.
Kaplan argues that because of the size of the North American continent, America was "fated" to become a global power, and that everyone since Bush Sr. has been shrinking from our global destiny or whatever. His evidence is almost impossible to follow, lost in mud puddles of folksy tales about his father and lamentations about the "academic left" and their unwillingness to praise American expansionism and supposed laser focus on the atrocities of the frontier era.
Let me be clear: The global age is not an inherently bad thing. Change is not inherently bad. Historians have spent the last 200+ years doing nothing but mythologizing American history and its cast of characters, and I think that we can take a break from that for a while. Literally nothing that has ever happened or will ever happen was "destined" to be so. There are a hundred thousand ways a single event could have gone awry, leading to more potential futures than your brain, even if you weren't wasting so much of your gray matter lamenting the fact that people use cell phones in gas stations instead of making awkward conversation across diner booths, could even fathom.
I will admit, Kaplan makes some good points. The good that America has done has often been a result of the groundwork laid by the bad that has been done. Americans have historically been unwilling to look beyond our own borders at perspectives on history that are not our own. Our experiences are not universal, and just because we coach another nation through the steps we took to democracy, they won't necessarily arrive at the same outcome. But on the whole, Kaplan's historical, and particularly geographic, determinism and heavy-handed American exceptionalism left a frankly disgusting taste in my mouth.
TL;DR: If I wanted to listen to an older white man tell me why America was the best country in the world, I'd just start going to Thanksgiving again.
bearprof's review against another edition
2.0
Occasionally lyrical turns of phrase and interesting bits of food for thought do not make up for the sweeping generalizations, dismissive characterizations, and convoluted sentences.
liberrydude's review against another edition
4.0
An introspective and personal reflection on geography and American exceptionalism. Reminded me of a modern Tocqueville's "Democracy in America." Kaplan introduces us to his father, a bus driver, who took him on road trips through the East Coast. Now Kaplan is on the road in 2015 reflecting on America then and now. He introduces us to Bernard DeVoto, Wallace Stegner, and Walter Prescott Webb, among other chroniclers of American history and geography. Kaplan maintains that our unique geography and frontier experience mandates our role as a world power. He talks of the role of the individual and the role of community and how the the Great American Desert militated individualism. It's deep thoughts and when he finally reaches San Diego in sight of the Navy's ships he embarks on more thoughts about our role in the world with a discussion of imperialism. Humanitarianism could be considered imperialism. Democracy and human rights have replaced Christianity as the new flag to rally around. It's thought provoking with its foreign policy observations as well as the personal experience and observations of being a fly on the wall in dying and prospering towns along the route.
kermit_the_cat's review against another edition
medium-paced
2.0
Oof… a loving tribute to imperialism, I stuck with it to the end to try to figure out what he was gettin at but took umbrage with his sweeping unsupported claims & faulty reasoning. Facile at best.
auspea's review against another edition
5.0
Whenever I read Kaplan I yearn for the open road (who talks like this), to take not just a trip but a journey tracing his steps, visiting the places and time he evokes. He has this capability to spin me off on little knowledge Side quests that usually result in an expansion of my "To Read" list and a re-ordering of books on my night stand. In Earning the Rockies he guides us on a journey through space and time across the United States of America laying the foundation for the USA of the 21st Century. His analysis of global geopolitics is spot on. Loved it.
lauren_endnotes's review against another edition
3.0
Based on the title, I didn't expect this book to be a travelogue. I was expecting more philosophy, more history. Instead, we got Kaplan recounting his roadtrip and making assumptions.
If Kaplan would have stuck to the theoretical approach, he could have avoided the book's two biggest pitfalls:
- The book was written during the Presidential Primaries of 2015 and 2016. This seems like ages ago now, and he makes many assumptions about the election that... didn't happen.
- Instead of actually talking to people in coal country, the plains, the mountains, and the west coast, he chooses to just creep on their conversations at various diners, cafes, and restaurants. This seemed really sloppy, and lead him to make even more assumptions based on a single conversation that he overhears at IHOP/Bob Evans/Waffle House/Denny's.
This book had the potential and capacity to be much more. Still, I took away some things from it, and I want to find some other books that get more to the heart of this subject.
3 stars
If Kaplan would have stuck to the theoretical approach, he could have avoided the book's two biggest pitfalls:
- The book was written during the Presidential Primaries of 2015 and 2016. This seems like ages ago now, and he makes many assumptions about the election that... didn't happen.
- Instead of actually talking to people in coal country, the plains, the mountains, and the west coast, he chooses to just creep on their conversations at various diners, cafes, and restaurants. This seemed really sloppy, and lead him to make even more assumptions based on a single conversation that he overhears at IHOP/Bob Evans/Waffle House/Denny's.
This book had the potential and capacity to be much more. Still, I took away some things from it, and I want to find some other books that get more to the heart of this subject.
3 stars
amarti's review against another edition
5.0
Kaplan argues that American geography is a gift that has shaped our success as a nation. Our navigable waterways, abundant and diagonal (rather than running north and south, as in most countries), and our huge stretches of open land provide a unique bounty of wealth. This wealth strengthens us internally. We have learned to convert this "landscape power into economic power."
Yet these gifts come with a responsibility to lead. We have a unique responsibility to use these gifts to shape the world in a responsible way. Recently, we've failed this responsibility.
Yet these gifts come with a responsibility to lead. We have a unique responsibility to use these gifts to shape the world in a responsible way. Recently, we've failed this responsibility.
adammp's review against another edition
4.0
In many ways 'Earning the Rockies' feels like a capstone for the arc of Robert Kaplan's work from the mid-nineties through today. It is more a collection of two essays than a book, but it is well worth reading.
The first essay follows Kaplan's journey across continental United States, framing its narrative with the history of America's westward expansion and the state of America's heartland today.
The second essay, far shorter than the first, focuses on the United State's role in the broader world. Drawing on themes established in the first essay, it defends Kaplan's description of the United States as an empire, his advocacy of realism, and limited American engagement with the rest of the world.
Kaplan's defence of realism, particularism over universalism, and what he describes as 'cruel objectivity' is the maturation and conclusion of controversial arguments that he started a long time ago. They are best appreciated as such. While its style is accessible enough, I would hesitate to recommend this book to anyone who isn't already familiar with at least some of Kaplan's previous work. I appreciated the themes 'Earning the Rockies' addresses more as the conclusion of a conversation started in Kaplan's earlier works (and continued by his numerous critics).
The first essay follows Kaplan's journey across continental United States, framing its narrative with the history of America's westward expansion and the state of America's heartland today.
The second essay, far shorter than the first, focuses on the United State's role in the broader world. Drawing on themes established in the first essay, it defends Kaplan's description of the United States as an empire, his advocacy of realism, and limited American engagement with the rest of the world.
Kaplan's defence of realism, particularism over universalism, and what he describes as 'cruel objectivity' is the maturation and conclusion of controversial arguments that he started a long time ago. They are best appreciated as such. While its style is accessible enough, I would hesitate to recommend this book to anyone who isn't already familiar with at least some of Kaplan's previous work. I appreciated the themes 'Earning the Rockies' addresses more as the conclusion of a conversation started in Kaplan's earlier works (and continued by his numerous critics).