‘A Century of War’: New Sean Stone documentary looks at the fate of America’s ideal of progress

Sean Stone, co-host of RT’s ‘Watching the Hawks,’ debuts his new documentary, ‘A Century of War,’ chronicling the American shift to a post-industrial society and offering strategies to rebuild US infrastructure, starting with energy.

“What happened to the American Century? What happened to America’s ideal of progress?” Stone asks, as the centennial of the US entering World War I approaches.

This election year saw the triumph of Americans feeling squeezed out of the traditional middle-class economy. Stone argues that “a century of war has taken its toll on the great American republic.”

He links America’s petrodollar economy with its global military empire, often extended to secure corporate access to natural resources. Between guns and butter, America’s ruling elites chose guns.

“We’ve seen America fulfill its mission as the ‘city upon the hill,’ but at the expense of the homeland. Physical infrastructure is decaying, and the population is weighed down by debt,” says Stone.

In his quest to give context to America’s transformation away from a society committed to raising its people’s standard of living through industry, Stone interviews self-confessed “economic hitman” John Perkins, former Wall Street insiders Nomi Prins and Catherine Austin Fitts, former Senator Mike Gravel, former Microsoft insider Ramez Naam, and SRI Energy Director Michael McKubre, to make A Century of War, inspired by the William Engdahl book.

“We must look to our past if we’re to fix our problems of the present and future,” says Stone. Rather than offering a prognosis of despair, he looks at the tremendous future opportunities of nuclear thorium fission as well as fusion processes. Stone says he’s “inspired by President Kennedy, who had a vision for the US space program as well as domestic infrastructure to preempt California's current water crisis” and believes “there are no problems we as humans are faced with that cannot be addressed and overcome.”

A Century of War will air in four parts on ‘Watching the Hawks’ beginning November 15 and will be available on RT.com.

Sean Stone is an author of Greystone Park and the documentary Fight Against Time: Oliver Stone's Alexander, as well as other short documentaries. He currently co-hosts the nightly show ‘Watching the Hawks’ on RT America. Stone recently published a history book titled New World Order: A Strategy of Imperialism.

RT America airs from Washington, DC and is part of RT, a global television news network. It is the proud home of ‘Politicking with Larry King,’ ‘News with Ed Schultz,’ ‘On Contact with Chris Hedges,’ ‘America’s Lawyer with Mike Papantonio,’ ‘The Big Picture’ with Thom Hartmann, award-winning financial show 'Boom Bust', and ‘Watching The Hawks’ with Tyrel Ventura, Tabetha Wallace, and Sean Stone.