Hunter S Thompson called it The American Century: unsurpassed industrialization in the first half of the 20th century combined with rapid societal adoption of the new industrial regime bred a bolder, richer American people that led their country to prosperity through the close of the millennium.

No matter the long-term outcome of the American empire, there is little doubt that its golden years have passed. Their oil's almost gone, they're getting attacked on their own land by an enemy they can't even identify and they're despised by most of the world.

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