[1] In this book, Lieven explains the reasons behind the resurgence of nationalist tendencies in post-9/11 U.S. foreign policy, which he identifies in the combination between two opposing strands of American nationalism: Lieven aims to warn Americans on how this combination of nationalisms has been fuelling a sense of self-righteousness and nationalist extremism, in ways that dangerously undermine the U.S.'s image and credibility on the global stage and complicated notably the success of the War on Terror.

He argues that such sacred myths lead to a political rhetoric of correctness that has been preventing intellectuals-American or foreign- from calling these assumptions into question, dismissing any attempts at this as anti-American or worse.

All the signs were there in the 1990s - the mania about resisting outside influences, the narrow religious beliefs, the harking back to a golden age, the sense of being under threat from modernity, the readiness to use violent means.

But it took the attacks of 9/11 for us to realise how powerful was this burgeoning extremism....We are not, of course, talking here about Islam or about al-Qaida and Osama bin Laden, but about America.

It is Anatol Lieven's contention in this illuminating book that Bin Laden's assault on the United States stripped away many of the remaining restraints on the intolerant, irrational, and self-destructive side of American nationalism.