Meet the Author: Andrew J. Bacevich

Andrew J. Bacevich will be the next speaker in the Meet the Author series at the Rockport Public Library on Sunday, January 11, at 2:00 p.m. Due to limited seating capacity, advance reservations are required. Please call 978-546-6934 to reserve free tickets. Snow date for this event is January 18.

As a professor of history and international relations at Boston University and a retired U.S. Army colonel, Bacevich offers a unique historical perspective on American foreign policy since 1945 in ‘The Limits of Power: The End of American Exceptionalism.’

The author identifies a triple crisis facing the United States: the economy can no longer be fixed by relying on expansion abroad; the government has been transformed by an imperial presidency into a democracy in form only; and involvement in endless wars has been a catastrophe for the body politic. Major changes are needed to resolve these issues.

He challenges citizens to return to such principles as respect for power and its limits; sensitivity to unintended consequences; aversion to claims of American exceptionalism; and skepticism of easy solutions, especially those involving the use of force.

Bacevich has also written ‘The New American Militarism’ and articles for Foreign Affairs, The Atlantic Monthly, The Nation, The New York Times, The Washington Post, and The Wall Street Journal. He has been interviewed frequently on radio and television.

The Meet the Author series is jointly sponsored by the Friends of the Library, Toad Hall Bookstore, and the Rockport Public Library. For more information, visit www.rockportlibrary.org.