What's So Great About America

Rating:
Summary: Very Interesting!!
Review: I picked up this book after reading D'Souza's other book, Ronald Reagan: How an ordinary man became an extraordinary leader. D'Souza definitely has a great writing talent. I was not disappointed for buying this book (I mostly borrow library books on current events and political books.) D'Souza offers some profound insights on America that we can all benefit from. Great book!

Rating:
Summary: Objective and profound
Review: I was impressed. This was the first D'Souza book I read--I was hooked from the first page. I'm not one that goes around buying up political books...and that's why I bought this one. It's a book of history and philosophy written in plain and simple language. I couldn't put the thing down.

He gives some powerful analysis which, being a university student, I have seen proven around me again and again.

I'm tempted to buy more copies so I can loan them out--all I have is the hardback.

Rating:
Summary: A well-thought out classic, regardless of your politics
Review: Pick up this book and ignore the liberal rants that bash it--most of them likely didn't get past the bookflap summary anyway. Dsouza thoughfully analyzes his view of what makes America exceptional and addresses some of the major problems facing our society today: terrorism, partisanship and cultural decay. Regardless of your political persuasion, Dsouza provides substantive food for thought.

Rating:
Summary: Most objective treatment to date!
Review: Someone who reads this book and still feels that Mr. D'Souza is just blindly singing the conservative mantra is either ignorant, or is lying about reading this book. The one thing this book is not is a sugar coated treatment of America. The author is brutally honest in acknowledging those criticisms with valid and cogent points. Mr. D'Souza also writes from the perspective of a foreigner who has lived in, and understands both the American and non-American points of view. When you read his book you will finally see America as its enemies see it. But, here the author truly shines as he then explores, debunks and counter balances those detractors using the logic of informed argument. It is quickly apparent that his is the great mind of a true scholar. It is also clear that the author knows American history, certainly better than many in current acedemia. He explores issues of racism, multi-culturalism, slavery, Islamic fundamentalism, colonialism, and the basic core principles upon which this country was founded.

Yet, at no point does this author show a dismisive attitude in this discussion. He sees the flaws inherent in uncontrolled freedom and unbridled capitalism. But his ultimate point is that these are necessary evils inherent with a free society. The Islamic world values their interpretation of "morality" (as they define it religiously) above freedom, and certainly above self determination. This leads to their hatred of the west, and their jealousy as their world has remained mired in the middle ages long after the West broke free.

I especially loved the way the author connects the history of the world and it's myriad of dynasties to the evolution of social and political change. One can see the ripple effects of time in a world setting as D'Souza interweaves these themes in a way I had never connected clearly until now. Sadly, this book makes it clear that perhaps America's greatest detractors are those within our own country. They perpetuate many of the anti-American myths which this author examines and answers. This book should be a required primer for any political science/law/history class on any college campus in America. Yet its ideas are expressed so clearly, using example, analogy and logic that it commands respect and agreement. Simply the best socio-political "thriller" I've ever read.

Rating:
Summary: D'Souza Systematically Dismantles the Left's Sacred Cows
Review: The title might sound simplistically jingoistic, but the book is far from it. D'Souza's brilliance lies in his ability to articulate a genuine patriotism that is not only intellectually defensible but intellectually compelling. He begins by acknowledging the indisputable truth of many of the harshest criticisms leveled against the West - and America in particular -and proceeds from that seemingly tenuous foundation to build an equally indisputable case for the U.S. having produced the greatest, most important culture in the history of the planet.

Those looking for facile cheerleading will be disappointed. But those looking for a vigorous and inspiring refutation of the ongoing slander against America by its critics, be they radical Islamists or just garden variety university leftists, will be more than gratified. They will be sated.

I especially recommend this book to OPEN-MINDED leftists. I rather doubt that most of the "one-star" reviewers here have even read the book. They see the title and D'Souza's name....and that's enough for them. In point of fact, if you regard yourself as a serious leftist you owe it to yourself to read this book and understand the case he presents - as it bears no relationship to the caricatures presented by negative reviewers on this forum.

Ed

Rating:
Summary: A comprehensive book about America
Review: This book is basically about the history of America, how that shaped the country to become what it is today, and how America is viewed by different parts of the world.

While D'Souza is a conservative, this book does NOT have a lot of angry right-wing attacks on liberals like an Ann Coulter book. In fact, D'Souza hardly criticizes liberals much.

In short, those who like America or are neutral will like this book.

Those who hate America will REALLY HATE this book.

Plain and simple.

Rating:
Summary: Superb, Articulate, Accurate, Truthful!!!
Review: This is easily D'Souza's best book. He ties together various points to produce this composite which thoroughly explains why America is the best country in the world. Liberals are simply unable to answer the following questions that destroy their intellectually bankrupt arguments that buckle under the slightest scrutiny.

He explains why Liberals believe the following seven lies :

1) America is rich only because it has stolen money from other countries. Africa would be rich if America had not stolen from Africa. Even the wealth created in the last 10 years from software development was the result of exploiting the Amazon jungles and the Congo.
2) Blacks in the US deserve reparations, even from people who's ancestors came to the US much later than the Civil War. Even Asian American taxpayers who arrived in the 1970s must pay reparations to Blacks who would otherwise be wealthy in Africa had they not been taken from there. Blacks are continually discriminated against by whites to this day at every possible opportunity. The fact that black immigrants from Dominica and Jamaica are doing much better than African Americans means that they are selectively not subjected to racism, even though their skin is even darker.
3) The SAT is racially biased. The fact that Korean, Chinese, and Indian students do better than whites still means that it is biased against blacks.
4) All rich people are rich because they had rich parents. If someone has poor parents, they have no chance. Communism, which fairly redistributes the fixed amount of dollars in the US, is the only fair solution. Even the immigrants who became rich after coming here (Andy Grove, George Soros, Vinod Khosla, Arnold Schwarznegger, etc.) have exploited others.
5) Bush's tax cut only favors the rich. The person making $300,000 was paying $100,000 in taxes, and now will only pay $80,000, getting a refund of $20,000! The person making only $20,000 was paying $2000 in taxes, and now will still pay $1500, getting a refund of only $500. It is unfair that the rich person gets a refund that is 40 times larger than the poor person! They should get a refund of the same size! The fact that the rich person is STILL paying $80,000 while the poor person is only paying $1500, or less than 2% as much, is irrelevent. The rich are evil, and we have to take it away.
6) We have NO right to attack the Taliban, even though they don't allow girls to go to school and force women to wear a burkha. Women in the US, however, are still held back by the glass ceiling.
7) All the world's cultures are equal. The fact that immigrants from every part of the globe want to leave their countries and come to the US is not a valid point. I do not need to visit Africa, China, Brazil, or Iraq to know that their cultures are better than America. It is okay for China to massacre its own students at Tianamen, and conduct genocide against Tibetans and Uighurs, but it is wrong for the US to attack the Taliban while providing food for the Afghan people.

If you are a conservative who is angered by liberals who put forth these arguments, you will find indestructable firepower for your next argument in this book. No other book provides so comprehensive an arsenal to demolish the liberal shibboleths as this one. You will also know when you have WON when liberals say 'you are dumb' or 'you don't know' without putting forth an intelligent sentence.

If you are a liberal who thinks the above are true, read this book if you actually believe in free speech (liberals usually only believe in free speech when it consists of their own liberal intellectual incest.). Prove that you are not a hypocrite and read this book.

Note that the fools giving this book one star do not actually point out any flaws in D'Souza's reasoning, but just scream about things not relevant to this book. That is because D'SOUZA HAS ALREADY ANALYZED AND DEFEATED THEIR POINTS, and they have no choice but to cry in protest to their being outwitted and embarrassed. Read this book before your next debate against some liberal pseudo-intellectual.

Liberals are so dumb that their fanatical beliefs have actually become their religion. They are religious fanatics to just as great a degree as a Crackpot Christian.

Liberals are also incredibly racist - they hate D'Souza only because he is a dark-skinned person who does not subscribe to their fanatical religion of liberalism.

Rating:
Summary: America, seen through the eyes of a conservative immigrant
Review: What is so great about America? Our land? Our wealth? Our system of government? Our people?

All of the above?

I think it is striking that all over the world, so many talented people want to join our American adventure. We're a nation dominated by immigrants, relatives of immigrants, and friends of immigrants. And I was very interested in what a talented immigrant would say about the nation he's joined. D'Souza is, of course, a politically conservative immigrant.

The book begins with a discussion of the destruction of the World Trade Center. The author points out that the terrorists were fanatics but not cowards (they did die to do all that damage). And that these fanatics do not like America, they do not like the American way of life, and they are willing to die to destroy our nation and to deprive us of our rights.

D'Souza explains that antagonism for America can be summarized as European complaints about our arrogance, Asian complaints about our lack of culture, and Muslim complaints that the whole idea of America is a subversive threat to Islam. And indeed, he says, the existence of the term "unamerican" (given that no one uses terms such as "ungerman" or "unpakistani") tends to confirm this.

There is a chapter on colonialism. The author makes four points about Western colonialism: the West did not invent colonialism, its colonialism was not the cause but the result of its wealth and power, colonialism eventually (if unintentionally) increased the wealth of the colonized lands, and colonialism (again unintentionally) introduced the language of freedom and human rights to colonized areas.

D'Souza also explains that America is unusual in that birth does not determine destiny. Anyone can pick virtually any profession to try to excel at. Couples who wish to marry can do so in spite of their status at birth. Of course, a downside for many immigrants is that their children become assimilated. Actually, I think assimilation is a plus, though (I'm a liberal, you see).

The next issue the author takes on is racism in America. There is a discussion of the history of slavery in the United States and its repudiation after the Civil War. And there is the question of affirmative action. The author believes that test score differences between, say, "Asian-Americans" and "African-Americans" are genuine, but that they have temporary and cultural causes that can be readily overcome, not genetic causes.

Now, what about American foreign policy? D'Souza does address the fact that we have often supported dictators of various sorts, including Somoza in Nicaragua and Stalin during World War Two. And we're sometimes wrong, even tactically, to do so. But he points out that we do much more good than bad overall.

Is the conflict between American society and militant Islamism a battle between two equally counterproductive ideas? Not according to the author. At the end of the book, he reminds us that our society produces folks who are "confident, self-reliant, tolerant, generous, and future-oriented." That compares favorably with being "wretched, servile, fatalistic, and intolerant." And the latter is what militant Islamism is producing.

This is an interesting book, and I recommend it.

Rating:
Summary: A real page turner!
Review: What's So Great About America? Well, not much, if you've been listening to all of the nay-saying liberals lately. Or, surprisingly, some conservatives. Whether it's Pat Buchanan's "Death of the West" or University of Massachusetts professor Jennie "Trash Can" Traschen's view that America got what it deserved because it's "a symbol of terrorism and death and fear and destruction and oppression."; apparently, we're in big trouble! But Indian immigrant Dinesh D'Souza begs to differ in his new book, What's So Great About America.

In the book jacket, the story is prefaced with: "Islamic intellectuals declare America the 'Great Satan.' Europeans rail against American 'globalism' as embodied by McDonalds." More arguments against America follow, and then: "best-selling author Dinesh D'Souza takes on all of America's critics and proves them wrong - as perhaps only a writer with an immigrant's understanding of this country can."

Addressing issues such as slavery, colonialism, and American decadence, D'Souza does all of that and more. The first chapter, entitled "Why they Hate Us" gives the reader a background on, well, why exactly "they" hate us. "They" isn't limited to Muslim fanatics; of course, Europeans and multiculturalists are included as well.

The following five chapters each touch on different subjects, and everything is backed up by facts sited at the end of the book. Tearing through America's critics like Ted Kennedy in a buffet line; D'Souza's views as an immigrant are very telling; that, hey, maybe America isn't so bad, after all?

If you're tired about hearing how terrible America is, and you'd like some good arguments to back yourself up, then definitely pick up a copy of the book. Even if you'd just like an interesting read from a perspective you haven't heard from before, I'd also recommend it highly. It's a real page-turner, although it gets a little tedious near the end, when you turn the pages just to get to the point. That, however, is my only complaint about a great, great book.

Rating:
Summary: Loved it, but I agreed with the premise from the outset
Review: While I skew towards the conservative side, I don't read a lot of politically conservative books. Most books about politics are so one-sided that they don't tend to present a realistic view of the world. I read this book on the recommendation of a friend who is fairly level-headed and I really enjoyed the perspective D'Souza shares.

D'Souza begins the book with a fairly deep look at what he defines as the three "schools" of hating America that are most prevalent in the world and acknowledges the credible points in each one of the arguments. He spends the rest of the book systematically explaining why he believes that America offers something wonderful and unique in the world.

I enjoyed his arguments because he stuck to logical paths which a reasonable person could follow from one point to the next. It isn't that there aren't counter-arguments to D'Souza's points, but that they warrant counter points because they maintain coherence and logic where so much political rhetoric just leans on the pre-existing agreement of its audience.

Whether you agree or disagree with D'Souza's conclusions on America, I believe this book offers a tight logical explanation of what you are arguing for or against.