America has a huge problem. It faces four major challenges, on which its
future depends, and it is failing to meet them. In That Used to Be Us,
Thomas L. Friedman, one of our most influential columnists, and Michael
Mandelbaum, one of our leading foreign policy thinkers, analyze those
challenges - globalization, the revolution in information technology,
the nation's chronic deficits, and its pattern of energy consumption -
and spell out what we need to do now to rediscover America and rise to
this moment.

They explain how the end of the cold war blinded the nation to the need
to address these issues. They show how our history, when properly
understood, provides the key to addressing them, and explain how the
paralysis of our political system and the erosion of key American values
have made it impossible for us to carry out the policies the country
needs. They offer a way out of the trap into which the country has fallen,
which includes the rediscovery of some of our most valuable traditions
and the creation of a new, third-party movement.

That Used to Be Us is both a searching exploration of the American
condition today and a rousing manifesto for American renewal. "As we
were writing this book," Friedman and Mandelbaum explain, "we found that
when we shared the title with people, they would often nod ruefully and
ask: 'But does it have a happy ending?' Our answer is that we can write
a happy ending, but it is up to the country - to all of us - to determine
whether it is fiction or nonfiction. We need to study harder, save more,
spend less, invest wisely, and get back to the formula that made us
successful as a country in every previous historical turn. What we need
is not novel or foreign, but values, priorities, and practices embedded
in our history and culture, applied time and again to propel us forward
as a country. That is all part of our past. That used to be us and can
be again - if we will it."

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