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Summary: More proof that "liberalism" is so much let's pretend
Review: This book is proof positive that the road to Hell is paved with good intentions. The reviewers who discount this work are at best individuals with growth stunted intellects who wish to remain Peter Pans and never grow up. As Mr. Horowitz points out during his talk during his wedding to Shay, the Left sets themselves up as gods and religion and they are left wanting. The other way the Left gets away with it, is that they only have to PROMISE that Utopia will come to earth. They never actually have to deliver it. Much like the serpent in the garden. The Left is full of empty promises. For myself, I see that the Left is basically a huge dysfunctional family not unlike what you see if you go to a 12-step meeting or Alanon. They are also classic enablers and will tolerate and even encourage bad behavior "for the cause". They don't want to admit that "there's an elephant in the living room". Other books that go well with "Radical Son" are "Where Liberals Go To Die: The End of Let's Pretend" by James T. Evans and "Vision of the Anointed: Self Congratulation as a Basis For Social Policy" by Thomas Sowell.
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Summary: A must read for YOUNG Leftists and Socialists.
Review: "Radical Son" is one of the most important books written in this decade. The author's parents were life-long Communists and he was a New Leftist/Socialist for the first 40 years of his life. Slowly he was forced to admit to himself the nihilism of socialism. The murder of a friend by the Blank Panthers crystallized his thinking. If only this book could be read by high school students and again when they attend college, there might be some hope of ending the untrue and dangerous myths of socialism perpetuated by left-wing politicians, the mainstream media and college elites. Horowitz states, "It was what I thought was the humanity of the Marxist idea that made me what I was then; it is the inhumanity of what I have seen to be the Marxist reality that has made me what I am now. . . . The lesson I had learned from my pain turned out to be modest and simple: the best intentions can lead to the worst deeds. I had believed in the Left because of the good it had promised; I had learned to judge it by the evil it had done." Please do yourself and this nation a favor and read this book. It is only through education that the evils of communism and socialism can be exposed for what they really are.
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Summary: THE book of what really happened in the 1960s
Review: The book of what REALLY happened in the 1960s. An indispensible work, told with passion, brilliance and honesty. Bores it right up the Lefties and Stalinod liberals! A searing expose of the greatest criminal conspiracy of all time by one who was really there.
Rating: 
Summary: Come on, It's not all black and white
Review: The problem with Horowitz is that he's a true believer. He was raised a true believer on the left and he became a truel believer on the right, largely because of one incident _ the murder of a friend by Black Panthers that severed the deep emotional ties he had with the left. The problem is that he should have known that some Panthers were good guys, some were opportunists and some were pure thugs. Many of us with left-wing backgrounds became disillusioned with idealogues and were able to discern on our own the excesses and sheer stupidities of our colleagues;. I became a cycnical centrist with lliberal social leanings, as did many of my friends from the 60s. My father, a Communist sympathizer (who knew Horowitz' parents) ended up the same way when he became aware in 1955 of Stalin's brutalities and when he saw people (like Horowitz' parents) shun those who strayed from the party line. What Horowitz needs is perspective. He didn't get it from his parents and he didn't have it in the 60s.
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Summary: Grippingly honest portayal of the septic soul of socialism.
Review: I just finished Horowitz's "Radical Son".He impresses me as one of a handful of prominent social thinkers who is trumpeting the truth about the savagery, oppression and brutality of socialism and its many hydras. He has had the guts to do an honest examination of the socialist agenda, its suffocation of the human spirit and its inevitable and oft repeated savage results. As an escapee of the leftist agenda (Kent State 1968-1971, I applaud him and offer him my encouragement.
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Summary: 5 Stars for personal honesty- so far
Review: Horowitz shines a spotlight on the warts and blemishes of "his" Left experience. What is lacking in this book is an explanation that most of what Horowitz now recoils from was the extremist Left that most of us only read about and some would claim never existed in any manner of consequence. When he accuses some of his fellow travelers of violence and murder, it is only because of the fact they did it with their own hands, wait until he finds the violence and murder that occurs via proxy of the conservative system he now seems to embrace. Will Horowitz turn a blind eye towards the failings of the less proximate and cleaner versions of power and violence ? Accordingly, if Horowitz is truly an honest scribe, he should sometime in the future begin telling tales of violence and murder concerning the Conservative Right comrades he now seems to embrace.
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Summary: A clear account of Marxism's impact on the real world
Review: "Radical Son" is an outstanding portrait of a man raised in the religion of Marxist/ Leninist Communism. A bitter man's faith that yearns for a utopian world by way of the utter destruction all perceived oppressors. Because of Mr. Hororwitz's relatively benign up bringing the communism imparted to him was by way of his father's compassion for the oppressed rather than by a hatred for the oppressors. Therefore he lacked the essential bitterness toward his own oppressors that could later allow him to justify the criminal behavior of his "fellow travelers" for the "sake of the revolution". "Radical Son" is the story of a man who is honest enough with himself to admit that his belief system, however sincere in its intentions, is fundamentally flawed in its basic assumptions. So much so that to propagate such a system is to effectively undermine the very ideals it claims to support. David Horowitz effectively points out that every nation that has embraced this system of beliefs in pursuit of its own utopia has in fact come under the same bitter yoke of oppression it once claimed to cast off. Every student of human nature should read this book and learn.
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Summary: Confirmed what was in reality behind the 60s, a must read!
Review: If intellectual integrity is why you read, Radical Son will be one of those seminal works that may alter your political perspectives forever. Be careful... it is obviously true and will be for the Left, very uncomfortable to finish, but be brave, for here are deep understandings of individual motivations, weaknesses, political passions and how all these are related to the most persuasive and effective emotional political propaganda. Because Mr. Horowitz is Jewish, his insights and at times, criticisms of his ethnic group's political behaviors and his courageous relentless pursuance of the truth, is more than refreshing, it is to my experience, unique. He broke a taboo and in doing so gained my respect and admiration forever. Thank you David for your love of the truth and of liberty and its mirror image, accountability. You're in the first rank of Americans!
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Summary: Highly recommended.
Review: This is an excellent book that details one man's political and social journey. As someone who was reading books in the 60's, I remember the magazine Ramparts, a magazine edited by David Horowitz. At the time this magazine seemed to represent the political arm of the counter- culture that was emerging on the West Coast. Horowitz points out many of the incongruities that can be found in the political battle for the minds of people. For example, you have tenured professors who live in nicely furnished dwellings, drive the latest model car, and eat the finest foods who teach of a coming "socialist revolution" that has always resulted in empty shelves and squalid poverty for all but a few. Also, many of the intellectuals would be rounded up and incarcerated or killed. Horowitz points up that the last "revolution" is always discounted because it failed, but there are always people who want to try again, with the same results. This is not to say that there are no problems found under capitalism. One of these problems is that of scapegoating certain people, races, and genders.
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Summary: Critical look at the 60's from someone who was there.
Review: Though Horowitz was raised by Communist parents and was a major figure in the Left during the late 60's and early 70's, he saw the double standards, hypocrisy and tendency toward authoritarianism of he and his fellow travelers. He definitely has an alternative perspective on the much-romanticized era. By the 1980s, he had re-emerged as a passionate conservative. "Radical Son" provides Horowitz's inside accounts of the Left's hidden agendas and its disdain for the United States of America. He shows how the Left continues to infest higher education to this day. But most importantly, he shows that the painful act of discarding once-cherished beliefs can make us stronger in the end.
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