AMERICA: THE FAREWELL TOUR by Chris Hedges

I actually read it in late September and early October. Some sections I liked:

The classical world, unlike our own, did not see time as linear. Life was cyclical. It entailed birth, growth, maturation, decay, and death. The concept of inevitable human progress was foreign to ancient societies. What was true for individuals was true for societies.

—chapter 1, "Decay", p. 38, last graf

And as Plato and his pupil Aristotle understood, the building of empire, any empire, extinguishes democracy. Empire requires a centralized bureaucracy. Its complexity mandates a permanent caste of bureaucrats and military leaders who strip the citizenry of power.

—chapter 1, "Decay", p. 39, 3rd graf

Søren Kierkegaard argued that it was the separation of intellect from emotion, from empathy, that doomed Western civilization.

—chapter 7, "Freedom", p. 309, 2nd graf