It acts on an element strange to most writers, as its members have been from time immemorial a strange race apart, without prophets of their own, neither themselves nor their calling understood, its immense determining influence upon...the history of the world has been overlooked. --Alfred Thayer Mahan, on sea power

The End of our Foundation is the Knowledge of Causes, and the Secrett Motions of Things; and the Enlarging of the bounds of Humane Empire, to the Effecting of all Things possible. --Sir Francis Bacon, New Atlantis

Nel suo profondo che s'interna
legato con amore in un volume
cio che per l'universo si squaderna --Dante Alighieri, Paradiso, Canto XXXIII

Two roads diverged in a wood, and I--
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference. --Robert Frost, The Road Not Taken

Dedication

Acknowledgments

Introduction

The Magicians' Triumph

The Madness of Chairman Mao
Shadows of 1812
Hus, Luther, and Gutenberg
Barbarians at the Gate
The Philosopher-Kings
Gin and Tonic
The Galilean Transformation

The Challenge

The Intellectual Dimension
The Use and Abuse of Science
The Persistent Misdirection
Arms and the Mind

The Opportunity

Teach Your Children Well
The Write Stuff
Vox Dei
Economics and the Twenty-First Century

Reflections

The Muses' Reply
The Beacon
A Cryptic Policy
Reviving Mahan
A Personal Touch

Conclusions

Sources and Further Reading

Afterword