Joel Beinin reviews Colossus: The Price of America's Empire by Niall Ferguson: “Admirably, Ferguson, in contrast to most academic historians who remain within the boundaries of ever narrowing specializations and write for diminishing audiences, aspires to influence public culture and political discourse. He is unapologetically presentist and believes that historical insight can be applied to the pressing questions of the moment. The obvious peril of such writing is that no one can reasonably be expected to be an expert on all the topics in a book ranging across the last 200 years of Anglo-American history. What can be expected is basic factual accuracy, internally consistent use of the evidence presented, broad consultation of others' work and due consideration of differing interpretations on matters that are critical to the argument. In these respects, Ferguson disappoints. When addressing the actual histories of Latin America, Vietnam or the Middle East, Ferguson simply ignores unambiguous facts and interpretations that do not confirm his opinions.”
Beinin says that Ferguson give a contradictory account of Central American history and the United States' military involvement in it; does not know the history of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict very well, misinterpreted American ratification of the Oslo accord as "pressure"; conveniently de-emphasizes European and Central American terrorist movements, and that terrorist movements have varying degrees of tactics, lethality and, importantly, motivations; has an unreliable account of late 19th century Egyptian and Sudanese history, underemphasizes Egyptian nationalism (and gets facts wrong about the British occupation there) and asks if British rule in Egypt is really a model the United States should follow.
