NONFICTION - Aug. 25, 1991

IN THE SHADOW OF THE RISING SUN: The Political Roots of American Economic Decline by William S. Dietrich (Penn State Press: $24.50; 328 pp.) While others marvel at the capitalist skyscraper towering over communism’s rubble, William Dietrich--the CEO of a major steel company headquartered in the heart of the Rust Belt--is in a position to see its sagging foundations. Lucidly and sensibly, he debunks the currently chic notion that the decline of America’s manufacturing sector doesn’t really matter because our “postindustrial society” has entered the “information age.” Dietrich’s call for the ascendancy of a “highly skilled professional bureaucracy” to reverse the decline is no doubt self-serving: With a Ph.D. in political science, Dietrich certainly would be part of the new elite. But this book is notable as the most persuasive attack yet published on current U.S. trade policy, which is largely aimed at persuading Japan to remove its trade barriers. “No chance of that. And if you were the Japanese, would you give up managed trade for the uncertainties of free trade? Would you begin to dismantle a system that has brought your country unprecedented well-being?”