Right from the Beginning

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Summary: A Book to make you stand up and cheer!
Review: "Right from the Beginning" is a very interesting, easy read. It is, primarily, a personal, rather than a political, autobiography of Pat Buchanan. Those seeking an insight into the Nixon or Reagan White Houses will be disappointed. Those searching for an understanding of what makes Pat Buchanan the man that he is will be very satisfied. The book is, for the most part, a series of personal and family antidotes which Pat uses to tell the story of how he got to where he was in 1990. Here and there he will interrupt the anrrative to insert a philosophical statement about life, religion or politics. To this St. Louisian who grew up in the Catholic school system a few years after Pat, there is much which seems familiar. For me, this book took the emotions on a roller coaster ride. The first section, dealing with his grade school years, is my favorite part of the book. In it Pat records the environment in which we lived, the things we were taught and the lasting beliefs which we still hold. The second section, dealing with his high school and college years records a lot of pranks and activities which are not part of my experience and which I did not find to be very enjoyable. In the third section, dealing with his career, my enthusiasm rebounded, in part because of the references to places and people in St. Louis. The greatest value in this book is the understanding it gives one of Pat Buchanan. Many public figures are hidden behind the facades created by their managers. We often have difficulty understanding what their core values are. The Pat Buchanan we see is Pat Buchanan. "Right From the Beginning" shows us what makes the Pat Buchanan we see and admire.

Rating:
Summary: If only this man had been president
Review: Buchanan is straightforward in telling why he thinks what he thinks in this intimate portrayal of his developmental years. In the 1950s Washington, D. C. was not the metropolis it is today. Buchanan grew up in the nation's capital during a time of innocence and traditional family values. He describes the cultural influences he had in that era and how strong Christian values established his worldview. The impact individuals had on him, such as his dad, are discussed as he talks about the influence being more by example than rhetoric. He mentions sensing change in the air in the nation's collective viewpoint while in graduate school at Columbia University. Buchanan is a gifted writer. Books like this affirm the essence of what has become cliche, i.e., that truth is often more interesting than fiction.
Buchanan connects his personality with something larger than self, however as he links his life with the nation. He discusses where the country has been and the direction in which it is headed. He contrasts that with the social consensus found during the days of his boyhood. One senses that he feels that as others have passed the torch from one generation to the next, he feels responsible for making sure generations following him inherit a nation for which to be thankful.

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Summary: West Side (of DC) Story
Review: Buchanan provides an insightful and entertaining account of growing up in the 50's. Family, honor & religion are returned to their old central positions (unknown to kids who grew up in the last 3 or 4 decades of the 20th century) and his story is told in a rollicking and educational way.

Who'd a thunk that DC had communities of hard working middle class folks (to believe the media is to KNOW DC is a breeding ground for lowlife scum)and that their adolescent angst was tempered by faith in their elders and their religion!

If I had to recommend an history teacher to my local college prep academy (and my pool of choices was folks who are active media personages) I'd strongly endorse Buchanan. He has the Irish gift of great storytelling which he combines with a weath of experience and keen insight.

Finally, to read Buchanan is to recognize the diabolical falure of the American Media cartel. It doesn't take long at all for a reader to recognize that here is a man like themselves --- not the fascist dragon of McCarthyism that the media sells us.

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Summary: Great Book about American history from 1940-1990
Review: For many years the liberal left has tried to demonize people who disagree with them. Many people never bother to read the writings of conservatives such as Buchanan. However, upon reading Buchanan you will find that he is very well informed, extraordinarily intelligent and a great writer. His newspaper column can be found by going to the website drudgereport.com.
The book is written about growing up in Wash DC and going to a Catholic grade school and high school (famous school called Gonzaga) (Bennett also went there) and then on to Georgetown and Columbia. Buchanan was valedictorian in his high school class. The book is extremely well informed about USA history. Buchanan worked for the Nixon administration. If you care about the future of America, the quality of schools etc. Then you will love this book. It is a bit long, but worth the effort. The book also dicusses historical events such as WW2, Korean War, and Vietnam war.

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Summary: I love this guy!
Review: I decided to read Pat Buchanans autobiography: "right from the beginning" after first reading: "The Death Of The West". I still consider the ladder to be the most important book I have ever read (no this is not an exaggeration). If you have already read "The Death Of The West", and would like to know about the man who wrote it and his beliefs, I strongly reccomend "Right from the Beginning". It Is a flawlessly written book, as well as an extremely entertaining one.
I was unable to put the book down once I started reading it. It is a wonderfull story about Buchanan's Childhood in the early 50's in Washington D.C. I was extremely surprised to hear about all of the fights and trouble young Pat got into, Particulary his fighting with two Police officers who were trying to arrest him. Pat is definatly a gifted writer and storyteller.
After finishing his autobiography, I have nothing but respect and admiration for Pat Buchanan.
No matter who you are, or What end of the political spectrum you are on, I guarantee that you will love this book.

Rating:
Summary: Great Book about American history from 1940-1990
Review: I have come to the conclusion that Buchanan is right.

Very right.

Ultra right!!

GET IT (YUK! YUK! YUK!)?

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Summary: Dangerous book
Review: I was thoroughly impressed with Mr. Buchanan's witty prose and charming dilect. He is obviously skilled in "spinning a good yarn" for his audience. The dangerous thing about this book is that it provides a platform for all who subscribe to the idea that patriotism and nationalism are one and the same. For instance, I love my country but I think nationalism leads to racism and oppression of other cultures. America is great because of the people that live here and the freedoms we enjoy. It is not great because we have imperialistic attituedes around the globe and enjoy our capitalistic greed. Those are not requirements of our country only offshoots of our ego's. Democracy is what we are founded on, not capitalism (in my opinion). Freedom must be enjoyed by all, not just the rich elite. Someday their will be an uprising of the lower class and people like Buchanan will be the instigators. People that have everything, yet demonize those who are trying to get their voice heard by any means necessary are only showing their ignorance. How did the anglo-whites get the power in this country, by taking it rudely and loudly. That is what minorities in this country need to do - speak loudly and make the country hear their voices. Just like whites have done for centuries.

Rating:
Summary: I love this guy!
Review: If one wished to understand how life was in the 50s and 60s as well as to understand the mind of a genuine conservative, one only needs to read Right from the Beginning. Pat grew up as a Catholic in Washington DC, attending Catholic high schools and universities. Anyone who was an altar boy or who attended Catholic schools could identify with this story. It is a brilliant piece of writing by a brilliant man.

Rating:
Summary: If only this man had been president
Review: Pat Buchanan has been labeled everything from dangerous to nazi. This book proves that he is just the opposite: a strongly principled man who wants what's best for his country.

Buchanan explains his conservative beliefs within the framework of growing up the son of a devout Catholic scrapper and the student of tough Jesuit priests. Although he spent much of his childhood raising hell, his upbringing was about morals and care of the soul. In Buchanan's time, care of the soul meant defending American freedom from the encroachment of Leninist communism. He didn't hate the Russians, but the system of government that was devouring half the world's freedom.

To the left-leaning critic who is undoubtedly screaming, "what about America devouring the other half": you're preaching to the choir. Buchanan has consistently asserted that we shouldn't be meddling in other countries' affairs. He recalls traveling to Japan and concluding that we were wrong to indiscriminately A-bomb the populations of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. He goes on to say that our president prodded the Japanese into attacking Pearl Harbor so that he'd have an excuse to enter the war. That's hardly the voice of an imperialistic interventionist.

Nor is Buchanan a cut-throat capitalist. At the end of the book, he talks about an America of morals being infinitely more desireable than an America of laurel-resting decadence. He observes that democracy is by itself an empty vessel that can be filled with evil intentions just as easily as it can with good intentions. The moral fiber of our people, says Buchanan, is what ultimately defines us. Compare our grandparents' generation to ours; Buchanan's point is painfully obvious. To recapture our country, Buchanan insists we recapture education, freedom of religion (rather than tacitly mandated secularism or cowtowing agnosticism), and the Supreme Court. No arguments from me.

Some people have speculated that Buchanan is a closet white supremacist, an accusation which this book shoots down. Having grown up with two black maids, having recoiled at the treatment of a southern black man who couldn't enter a whites-only restaurant to mail a letter, and having a brother who speaks of dog-tagging an equal number of dead white and black Americans in Vietman, Buchanan clearly has no time for racial discrimination. He writes about welfare depriving black Americans of their dignity, and even suggests that an ammendment prohibiting racial discrimination be added to the US Constitution.

Other than the pleasure of glimpsing into the life of a man I greatly respect, I took from this book many lessons about where our new and supposedly more advanced society fails. By deemphasizing personal responsibility and blaming our problems on society, we're creating a generation of excuse-makers and softies. By acquiescing to anybody's ideas and summarily treating all ideas as equal, we replace values with anything-goes. When people don't have something to believe in, they don't believe in nothing; they believe in anything. There are many more nuggets in this book.

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Summary: Wanna know what it was like to be conservative in the 50's?
Review: Pat Buchanan. The name conjurs up images of a rough and tumble campaigner for elected office, a man that minces no words in regard to his political beliefs. Right From The Beginning puts a strong perspective on growing up in the 50's as a conservative and a typical teenage boy in that era.

Buchanan is sometimes witty, sometimes circumspect, but he is always honest. Conservatives and liberals alike should read this book, if not for the honesty, than for his insightfulness into the world of an adolescent in the greatest peacetime boom in the history of the world.