Earning the Rockies: How Geography Shapes America's Role in the World

by Robert D. Kaplan Narrated by William Dufris

Overview

As a boy, Robert D. Kaplan listened to his truck-driver father's evocative stories about traveling across America as a young man, travels in which he learned to understand the country from a ground-level perspective. In Earning the Rockies, Kaplan undertakes his own cross-country journey to recapture an appreciation and understanding of American geography that is often lost in the jet age. The history of westward expansion is examined here in a new light-not just a story of genocide and individualism, but also of communalism and a respect for the limits of a water-starved terrain-to understand how settling the West shaped our national character, and how it should shape our foreign policy. In his clear-eyed and moving meditations on the American landscape, Kaplan lays bare the roots of American greatness-the fact that we are a nation, empire, and continent all at once-and how we must reexamine those roots, and understand our geography, in order to confront the challenging, anarchic world that Kaplan describes. Earning the Rockies is a short epic, a story both personal and global in scope.

Editorial Reviews

The New York Times Book Review - Jonathan Rauch

…Robert D. Kaplan's small but magisterial new book, Earning the Rockies, is a tonic, because it brings fundamentals back into view. With only 180 uncrowded pages of text, this is a book that can be read on a coast-to-coast flight, but fully digesting it will take much longer. Every page brings a fresh insight, a telling aperçu, a bracing reality check. If you do read the book at 30,000 feet, it will make you yearn to be down below…Kaplan embraces America's quasi-imperial role but is no imperialist. His book is most challenging, and most valuable, for the layers of paradox it mines…Earning the Rockies was written before the 2016 election. The name "Trump" appears only a few times. Yet there is more insight here into the Age of Trump than in bushels of political-horse-race journalism.

From the Publisher

There is more insight here into the Age of Trump than in bushels of political-horse-race journalism. . . . Earning the Rockies is a tonic, because it brings fundamentals back into view.”—The New York Times Book Review (Editors’ Choice)

“A sui generis writer . . . America’s East Coast establishment has only one Robert Kaplan, someone as fluently knowledgeable about the Balkans, Iraq, Central Asia and West Africa as he is about Ohio and Wyoming.”—Financial Times

“In his long career as a foreign correspondent, Robert Kaplan has pursued stories in places as remote as Yemen and Outer Mongolia. In Earning the Rockies, he visits a place almost as remote to many Americans: these United States. . . . The author’s point is a good one: America is formed, in part, by a geographic setting that is both sanctuary and watchtower.”—The Wall Street Journal 

“A text both evocative and provocative for readers who like to think … In his final sections, Kaplan discusses in scholarly but accessible detail the significant role that America has played and must play in this shuddering world.”—Kirkus Reviews

“Earning the Rockies is a brilliant reminder of the impact of America’s geography on its strategy. An essential complement to his previous work on the subject of geostrategy, Kaplan’s latest contribution should be required reading.”—Henry A. Kissinger

“Robert D. Kaplan uses America’s unique geography and frontier experience to provide a lens-changing vision of America’s role in the world, one that will capture your imagination. Unflinchingly honest, this refreshing approach shows how ideas from outside Washington, D.C., will balance America’s idealism and pragmatism in dealing with a changed world. A jewel of a book, Earning the Rockies lights the path ahead.”—Secretary of Defense James Mattis

“Earning the Rockies is a thoughtful, engrossing, eloquent reflection on the United States’ westward expansion to fill our continent—and on the implications of the resulting national character for the current debate about the proper role of America in the world. Here’s another masterpiece by Robert D. Kaplan.”—General (Ret.) David Petraeus

“Robert D. Kaplan has given us a great gift in this intelligent, engaging, and memorable book about America at home and abroad. Jefferson believed our national fate inextricably linked to the West; Kaplan shows us how true that remains all these years distant.”—Jon Meacham, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of American Lion: Andrew Jackson in the White House

“Any Robert D. Kaplan road trip is bound to be compelling, but Earning the Rockies is all the more so for crossing America. Like Kerouac and Tocqueville, Kaplan makes us see the country in a wholly new way. This concise classic is highly recommended.”—John Lewis Gaddis, Pulitzer Prize–winning author of George F. Kennan: An American Life

“What a fine, stimulating, energizing, and thoroughly original book . . . All diplomats and soldiers—indeed, all Americans with power or the hope of power—should read Robert D. Kaplan generally, and this slim volume particularly.”—Simon Winchester, New York Times bestselling author of Pacific: The Ocean of the Future

Library Journal - Audio

04/01/2017
Best-selling author Kaplan (Asia's Cauldron; The Revenge of Geography) treats listeners to a trip across the country and shares many of the stories he hears along the way. The author and the tales he imparts reflect Americans' diverse worldviews. With these essays, the author reveals how the cultural implications of the historical westward expansion and the current effects of globalization are overlaid on our geography. This account couldn't be more timely and might help provide a perspective on the politics of today. The book is ably read by William Dufris, and it feels as if we are hearing the author himself tell us about his travels. This audiobook works well for casual listeners, who can pop in and out of it and still enjoy. The final chapter, however, may be best listened to in one sitting. VERDICT Recommended for all who want to hear about how our geography affects our culture. ["More academic thesis than travel narrative. Recommended for those seeking theoretical explorations of geography and for fans of the author's previous works": LJ Xpress Reviews 12/2/16 review of the Random hc.]—Eric Albright, Tufts Univ. Health Sciences Lib., Boston

Product Details

BN ID:	2940170214990
Publisher:	HighBridge Company
Publication date:	01/24/2017
Edition description:	Unabridged

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Excerpted from "Earning the Rockies"
by .
Copyright © 2017 Robert D. Kaplan.
Excerpted by permission of Random House Publishing Group.
All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
Excerpts are provided by Dial-A-Book Inc. solely for the personal use of visitors to this web site.

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