The Age of Illusions is a wry and dark book aimed at dissecting decades-long trends and first principles rather than moment-to-moment crises. Bacevich is as merciless toward liberals who he says are guilty of 'self-righteously posturing against Trump' as toward the president himself.

It’s a compelling narrative, and one congruent with the story of 'American carnage' that brought Donald Trump to the White House.

Absolutely no one is spared in this powerful and highly readable indictment.

Winston Churchill supposedly said: 'Americans will always do the right thing, only after they have tried everything else.' In his new book, Andrew Bacevich goes far towards proving the second half of that sentence and casts doubt on the first, without offering much in the way of alternatives. In what is mostly a social history of the post-cold war era—don’t expect to find an analysis of the Balkan wars—Bacevich seeks to chronicle how the US 'wasted little time in squandering the advantage it had gained.' Few would disagree.

... it does not overtly address climate change until its closing pages, but it offers a thoroughgoing critique of the post–Cold War elite consensus that, in Bacevich’s view, has led to the mess we now find ourselves in.

A brief, painful, and thoughtful analysis.