If I had written this article, I would have dealt with the Civil War at length, and thereby lost a lot of readers after the second paragraph. Hanson's approach is better. He's trying to provide some relevant historical perspective. His optimism is not Pollyanna off her leash, but realistic expectations. -- Yes, Hanson can be a bit of shock to the system, as he's not a Doomster like Paul Ehrlich (remember the Global Famine man?) or one of those "experts" who told us thirty-five or forty years ago killer glaciers were on the way. That makes him alien to many readers; after all, why is this guy bothering us, if he has no bad news? But don't ignore him because he brings unwelcome reminders of past triumphs over dire prophesies, and don't curse him for claiming that we are not our own worst enemies. He's just saying that our natural fearfulness is, well, fun for us. We do love it when Hollywood scares us half to death with a horror flick, right? Panic is one of the thrills of life. So...all you Birkenstock Brigadiers clutching your Naomi Klein and Noam Chomsky tomes, relax! Hanson may not be exciting, but he's a non-toxic, biodegradable, and 100% organic classical scholar, which means he knows all about the days before capitalist imperialist colonialist globalizing fascist warmongering hegemony bit us on our collective butt. Heck, I'm even pretty sure he doesn't eat at McDonald's. -- Some of his references unsourced? You want documentation of his claims? Er, that means his summary of some of the USA's history includes things you haven't heard about. Maybe Hanson's optimism should be tempered with a bit of worry about the effectiveness of the USA's educational efforts....