Play by the Rules: The Short Story of America's Leadership: From Hiroshima to COVID-19

(Paperback, Paperback)

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In Play by the Rules, acclaimed writer and historian Michael Pembroke offers a fresh take on the USAs vast influence and asks whether it is still a force for good.

In the heady days after 1945, the authority of the United States was unrivalled. But seventy-five years later, its influence has already diminished. The world has now entered a post-American era defined by the rise of Asia and the return of China, as much as by the decline of the United States. This book is a short history of that decline; how high standards and treasured principles were ignored; how idealism was replaced by hubris and moral compromise; and how adherence to the rule of law became selective.

Play by the Rules is also a look into the future a future dominated by greater Asia and China in particular. We are in the midst of the third great power shift in modern history from Europe to America to Asia.Washingtons failure of leadership during the COVID-19 pandemic is accelerating history.

Reviews

Praise for Michael Pembroke and Korea: Where the American Century Began:

'Started to read and just could not stop Maddening, painfulPerceptive and compelling often heart-rending, sometimes downright terrifying this richly informed study amply establishes its thesis that the permanent phenomenon of American global militarism has its origin in the Korean conflict.' Noam Chomsky

'I read it in one go on a plane journey fascinated, educated, appalled, amazed, and gripped. I take my hat off to the richness of the research I came away from reading the book in equal parts full of admiration for the book itself, and appalled by the story it tells. A.C. Grayling

Author Bio

Michael Pembrokewas born in Sydney in 1955. He is the author ofArthur Phillip: Sailor, Mercenary, Governor, Spy(2013), which was short-listed for the Prime Ministers Literary Awards, andKorea: Where the American Century Began(2018), which was short-listed for the Queensland Literary Awards and the NSW Premiers History Awards.He was educated at the Universities of Sydney and Cambridge and was a Directors Visitor at the Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton in 2017. Pembroke is a former Supreme Court judge (201020) and is now the Chairman of Red Room Poetry.