We've fallen off the track again, according to Mr. Phillips, who joins critics of today's unbounded capitalism from both the political left and right. He decries today's condition as financial mercantilism focused on aggrandizing only the financial sector of the economy. But the solution may be in the problem. Mr. Phillips is confident that we have only a decade or two to redefine the Puritan God. While a fourth cousins' war is probably not on the horizon, the past is not passed.
Ethnic conflicts flare around the world.
Perhaps the ultimate lesson to be learned from the Cousins' Wars is the need for people to find ways to get along. Conversation 1 Kevin Phillips gives Paula Gordon and Bill Russell a sense of how vital it is to establish the historical context for today s changes. He declares it unsafe to look at American and British history separately, using four centuries of examples. With most of today s countries republics, Mr. Phillips reminds us how unusual a republic was when the United States began. He explores the interrelation of history s inevitability and its randomness, with a bow to luck and flukes.