Rating: 
Summary: Thank You Dinesh!
Review: I'm so glad I'm reading D'Souza's book Why America is So Great! I'm a lawyer and a sociology doctoral student, and I felt so incredibly intelligent and knowledgeable given that after reading two of his chapters, I could debunk with hard social science evidence virtually everything he's written! It was so astonishing just how easy it would be, yet frightening thinking about how thousands of Americans (and others) are being deluded by this nonsense. On some pages, virtually everything D'Souza wrote was either outright false, misleading, taken out of context, a straw man argument, an ad hominem attack, an oversimplification, overly conclusory, unbalanced, lacking in empirical support or citations, or just out-and-out malicious. This would-be emperor really does have no clothes! I read D'Souza's chapters "Two Cheers for Colonialism" and "What African-Americans Owe America" and his logic and assertions in both chapters were so flawed that I sat in stunned disbelief. I haven't read anything so blindly and unthinkingly conservative in quite a while, but I have been reading many academic studies and books and other explicitly "liberal" publications, and the lat-ter are much, much more scholarly rigorous - It's not even close!
For instance, D'Souza is so contradictory: (1) He abhors moral relativism, but as one of many examples, he rationalizes the hypocritical slaveholding of some of the Founding Fathers as a necessary evil to establish the new nation; and (2) He asserts that a major reason why the West became so powerful and great was because of its scientific heritage - yet he avoids scientific inquiry into almost all of the issues he raises and often relies simply on unsubstantiated assertions and a host of straw man arguments and ad hominem attacks (e.g. using some alleged inadequacy of a particular individual like Jesse Jackson to implicate the entire left as extreme).
I was really appalled by D'Souza's absolutist language - as if he couldn't possibly be wrong (e.g. the West developed because of its love of science, democracy, and capitalism and not primarily because of colonialism, slavery, and other "evils." Leaving aside his pathetically inadequate descriptions of the history of democracy and capitalism in America, he doesn't even provide any evidence that directly weighs the impact of any of these factors on Western development. It's just laughable. If he was really so in awe of the West's love of science his conclusions would have been much more tentative and balanced.
I was also disturbed by how he used "leftist" arguments that have never actually been advanced by "leftist" academics as proof of the illegitimacy of leftist thinking. It was truly absurd when he kept asserting that "racism" or "the legacy of slavery" weren't explanations for black inequality (and tried to ridicule the apparently very popular target, Jesse Jackson, in the process). I mean, social scientists have advanced beyond such simple cause and effect thinking decades ago (if they ever did think so simply about such complex social phe-nomena as social inequality). Now social scientists typically claim that if white racism disappeared this very moment and the negative direct legacy of slavery was minimal, there would still remain gross inequality between blacks and whites-in part because of accumulated white social and economic advantages over hundreds of years and the resulting structural inequality (e.g. the jobs-housing mismatch, educational disparities, housing segregation, concentrated poverty, shifts in the American economy away from mobility-enhancing occupa-tions in manufacturing and other areas to high-skilled service sector jobs and overseas production, and on and on...). There are literally dozens of social scientists (e.g. economists, sociologists, political scientists, psychologists) that study each one of these factors for a career; and they are much less confi-dent about their conclusions than D'Souza even as they rely upon the "scientific method" that D'Souza alleges to deify to study these phenomena.
Also, in his genetics discussion as a potential explanation for black inequal-ity, where's his discussion of: (1) the fact that blacks' IQs (and others) have been rising substantially (the "Flynn Effect") since IQ tests were first conducted in the early 20th century; (2) the fact that blacks' average scores have been converging somewhat with whites' average scores since the 1970s; (3) the fact that even in countries where two groups are of the same "race," the more pow-erful high-status groups typically have higher average IQs than the more marginalized low-status groups (e.g. Protestants vs. Catholics in Northern Ireland, Japanese vs. Koreans in Japan, etc.); (4) the fact that almost all of the studies that have more or less directly looked at the genetic link between race and IQ by, for instance, looking at black and white children raised from a very early age in very similar environments, show similar IQs (e.g. the children of black and white American servicemen raised in Germany after WWII by their white German mothers had virtually the same average IQs); and last but not least, (5) the fact that studies that control for the total effect of childhood social environment in America show that blacks and whites scores are virtually identical. I mean, was any of this important to consider!? Even if he successfully rebutted all five of these widely acknowledged potential explanatory factors (and a host of others), shouldn't they at least have been considered? Especially in light of white Americans' (and others) strong past and present assumptions or "suspicions" about black genetic inferiority (which even he acknowledged ex-isted - i.e. Thomas Jefferson)?... ... With scholarly lightweights like D'Souza and Why America is So Great as a high-profile intellectual founda-tion, this devastating post-9/11 Conservative Backlash through which much of the world is currently suffering couldn't possibly maintain its marginal popular American support for much longer. The truth will prevail - one can only hope so!
Rating:
Summary: A unique book
Review: This was my first D'Souza book and I was struck by the depth of his arguments. I can't put my finger on it, but this book stood out among most of the other conservative books I've read. His level of understanding and ability to debate are captured well here, and I think he's probably the most effective political commentator I've read.
Rating:
Summary: D'SOUZA packs a powerful punch
Review: Once again Dinesh has proven the lies of the left through carefully constructed agruments. He explores the greatness of our wonderful country and throws the anti-american islamists to the curb. A book that can be read over and over, that can be passed down through the generations.
Rating:
Summary: Clear thinking about all that is good about America
Review: The author loves America and is not afraid to say so loudly and clearly. He sees the American way of life as the best that the world has to offer. A former policy analyst in Washington, and the author of several books, Mr. D'Souza is an immigrant himself. He came here from India in the late seventies to go to college. Since then he's become a citizen and has embraced all that is good about his chosen country. He writes about how, if he had stayed in India, every detail of his life would have been structured. In America he found the freedom to, as we often say here, "write his own life script". As he describes it, in India he would be eating curry every day. Here, he still eats curry, but he also eats fried chicken and pizza. To him, America is the land of opportunity - and a way of life that provokes jealousy and hatred for various reasons. The Europeans have watched their power decline over the last century. The Asians would like to adopt western technology without the other aspects of American life. And the Islamic fundamentals see it all corrupt and do not want a world in which there is a separation of religion and state. Mr. D'Souza sure knows his history. And he quotes extensively from philosophers and historians from many time periods. He also is adept at the art of persuasion and makes a good case for some of the controversial issues he raises. For example, he feels the legacy of British colonialism in India gave him the benefit of the English language and British law. Gandhi knew that because of the British moral code, they never would have run over the people when they lay down on the railroad tracks during non-violent demonstrations. He tells us his grandfather was always fond of saying that if Hitler were in power in India instead of the Brits, Gandhi would have been a lampshade. Slavery is another issue that Mr. D'Sousa writes about, an institution that had been present in the world since the very beginning. He feels that African Americans are better off in America today than they would be if they lived in Africa. He's even debated Jesse Jackson on this issue With wit and clear thinking he takes on all the critics of America, from left wingers who believe that multiculturalism is the answer without understanding that most people want to become American, and right wingers such as Pat Buchanan who deplores the fact that the world has changed and is not the way he'd like it to be with structured beliefs about good and evil. I loved this book and found myself nodding in agreement throughout. This is surely the clearest thinking I've encountered in my reading about America's place in the world since 9/11. This book gets my highest recommendation and I urge both American's and non-Americans to read it.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent Book.
Review: Simply put, no matter what your current political or religious views are, every American should read this book. You will learn something. I've bought more copies to pass around.
Rating:
Summary: A Must For The Library Of Every Patriotic American
Review: Dinesh provides a unique perspective on why the United States is the greatest country in the world. He shows that America distinguishes it self in history as the most powerful and the most generous nation the world has ever seen. He also does a great job of debunking liberal arguments that disparage the United States for evils such as slavery.
Rating:
Summary: Fantastic Book
Review: I loved this book and the way it was written. The insights into America from a person who was born in another country is eye-opening. While D'Souza debunks plenty of liberal myths, he goes after a few conservative issues as well. This book really makes one take a fresh look at "freedom" and how sacred it is (or should be) in our nation. And that is exactly what is so great about America.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent Intellectual Arguements
Review: I rarely rate a book 5 stars but D'Souza's razor sharp writing style, combined with his stiff intellectual viewpoints are a great combination. He provides a solid intellectual defense of American principals and values. I especially liked the chapter "America the Beautiful" which highlights why America is a special land. This is not light reading - but worth the investment in time.
Rating: 
Summary: Open Your Mind
Review: I'll give credit where credit is due. I think that the United States has the best economy and the best geography in the world. And I agree with some of the things D'Souza says in this book (for example, his opinion on slavery reparations). However, I absolutely disagree with his (and many other Americans') conviction that the United States is the greatest country in the world. The vast majority of Americans who brag about the U.S. being "number one" have never even set foot in a foreign country, let alone lived in one. And when Americans compare the U.S. to other countries, they usually compare it to struggling, oppressive third world countries like Iran, China, or Peru. Well yes, the U.S. is better than many other countries, but what about the other first world countries? Places like Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Japan, Great Britain, the countries of Western Europe, and the countries of Scandinavia. I have traveled through and lived in many first world (and third world) countries, and I often find that I feel like more of a free man in other countries than I do in the U.S. For example, in many other countries: You can safely walk the streets of a big city late at night; You can tell a woman at work that she's wearing a nice dress and not get fired or sued for sexual harassment; You can go practically anywhere you want to go without having to rely on a car (thanks to excellent public transportation); You can let your five year old daughter walk to school alone and not worry about her being abducted by some psychopath; You can listen to uncensored music and speech on the radio; You can participate in a political election where every vote really does count (and where the president is actually the guy who got the most votes). Yes folks, there are countries out there that are better than the United States, and whose citizens are happier and more civilized than Americans are. The difference between them and us is that they don't brag about their greatness like Americans do.
Rating:
Summary: Required Reading
Review: Every American should be required to read this book. This should be passed out in the classrooms of every American history class in this country. Dinesh D'Souza succinctly sums up why the American system has succeeded where so many others have failed. He argues well against the multiculturalists that attempt to slam the U.S. by claiming all its success is due to oppression and slavery. He provides a refreshing viewpoint of an immigrant looking in at American society that we have not seen since Tocqueville. This book will instill a justified pride and love of America, in a time where such feelings are sorely needed.
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