Rating: 
Summary: How I Accidentally Joined the Vast Right-Wing Conspiracy: (A
Review: The journey from liberal to conservative chronicled here by Stein is a journey already described by others such as Norman Podhoretz and David Horiwitz. Though thus predictable, Stein's account is nevertheless amusing. He relates personal anecdotes about growing up, raising children and relating to friends and colleagues, but also touches on current events, culminating in the sexual transgressions of Bill Clinton. The light tone and humorous prose eventually wear thin, however, and Stein sets up a straw man in his attacks on the Left. Essentially, Stein paints himself in his liberal days as a man with ideological blinders firmly in place, and he skewers liberals in general as if they all wore the same blinders. For example, in claiming that liberal psychology undermines personal responsibility by abjuring everyone from fault for everything, he presents an extremist position. Stein himself states at one point that extremists on both ends of the ideological spectrum deny "a fair hearing to alternative views on complex social issues"-yet he is guilty of the same error.
Rating:
Summary: Pro-Choice Due To Past Guilt Is Not An Argument!
Review: What I got from Stein's book is this:
Stein only learned to care about children once he had some of his own,
Stein only cared about marriage once he was married,
and only saw the ugliness of abortion once he had caused a few of his own! It sounds to me like Stein started out selfish, and ended up...selfish! He only learned to care about aspects of life once they were a part of HIS life, and that doesn't say much for his capacity for empathy or deep thought. I was very disappointed to find that Stein still considers himself "pro-choice..." Despite all his new-found "inner peace," I was left with the impression that he really hadn't evolved into a deeply sensitive and intelligent conservative after all. Simply because one has been indirectly responsible for abortions in the past, MORE THAN ONCE, does not constitute an argument in favor of abortions. It simply means that Stein used to live like a selfish creep, and cannot go back in time to change his reprehensible actions...therefore he defends them. Notice how tolerant all the liberal reviewers are being towards this book? It's because Stein is pro-choice. No doubt about it. If he were to take a firm pro-life stance, these same reviewers would be calling him a "right-wing" "sexist" "hatemonger." You can bet on it.
Rating: 
Summary: Finally not a crazed left/right winger!
Review: I actually found this book in the $2 pile, and it turned out to be such a gem for me. Not because I agreed with everything Mr. Stein said (e.g. I thought his stand on abortion was more to not be a hypocrite, rather than based on logical argument), but because I was so happy someone was finally saying it! I'm only 30, but I was definately part of the "democrats are for helping poor souls and republicans are for helping the greedy millionaires" mindset that is widespread among the young. But then I started seeing that the left was more interested in handing out fish to the poor, than teaching them how to catch fish themselves. And the media's liberal leanings were influencing my generation to embrace hedonism without guilt or feelings of responsibility for the choices you make. Just when I was starting to get paranoid because I felt like there was a conspiracy out there to make conservatives feel like Jesus-crazed nerds, I came across Mr. Stein's book and was relieved to see that someone else saw it too. The influence of the liberal media is absolutely Pervasive, and so far Mr. Stein and Bill O'Reilly are the only media figures who have been speaking out with some of the views I embrace. I gave a copy of this book to my one conservative friend, who also feels alone in a maddening sea of popular liberalism.
I did not give this book 5 stars because it was amazingly well written, I gave it this rating because it was amazingly comforting.
Rating: 
Summary: Smart guy but boring book
Review: I was expecting to get really annoyed and wanting to bicker with the guy nonstop but generally I agreed with most of what he said. It was in fact really boring and did not inform me of much. Basically it told me what i already knew. While I would have no problem with that if he had some new spin on current events, he did not have that "new spin". Instead it was just another stereotypical critique of modern society. I must have missed the humor in the book somewhere because I rarely came across something that made me smile, let alone laugh. Stein does seem as if he's pretty open-minded and he comes across as a reasonable man. I do think he rants a bit too much about feminism. While I understand where he's coming from, I think he makes it a bigger issue than it really is in today's world. On the flipside, I did think he had very legetimite concerns about family life and raising children in the States these days. Perhaps I would have enjoyed the book more had I not expected him to be more like Rush Limbaugh and less like a moderate Republican that it seems like he in fact is.
Rating: 
Summary: Older and Wiser
Review: Mr. Stein's movement from the left to the right illustrates the natural progression of one's thinking as one ages. After all, most of us become wiser as we become older, don't we? How ironic that the left call themselves "progressive." I do find Mr. Stein and his wife's take on abortion disturbing. Being pro-choice because one has directly or indirectly been party to several abortions will never erase the dark ache in one's soul over the innocent lives that were intentionally taken. To cover your children's eyes in anger as you drive past pro-Life demonstrators holding up gruesome pictures of aborted babies is like covering your children's eyes when gruesome pictures of concentration camp victims are exhibited at the Holocaust Museum. We want our children to see and learn the atrocities for themselves. If we don't, history will surely repeat itself.
Rating:
Summary: Great Book - For What It Is
Review: This book is *not* a closely reasoned, scholarly work of contemporary conservative / classical liberal thought, so if that's what you're looking for, look elsewhere. It is, however, a quick, thoroughly entertaining biographical narrative of one man's journey of ideological discovery. It's a fun read even for a long-time Vast Right-Wing Conspiracy member such as myself, and it could be a useful, gentle introduction to "right-wing" concepts like personal responsibility for someone who seems ready to question their own political assumptions.
Rating:
Summary: Well worth reading
Review: I found this book to be entertaining, as well as informative. The writer puts a glaring light on the muddle-headed thinking of many on the left....and some on the right. That being said, bare in mind he is a journalist, and that hurts the continuity of this book. The topics are broken up into little articles.
Rating:
Summary: A good look into the road Stein traveled
Review: Even though this doesn't read like a manifesto, I still liked it a lot. Stein personalizes political ideology, and it's interesting to read how he realized he was really more conservative than liberal. He demonstrates clearly through his life story that most liberals of his generation believe the things they do because they don't have to foot the bill. Right on, brother Stein.
Rating: 
Summary: Dissapointing and adolescent
Review: I'm sorry to see that this book doesn't live up to it's hype for two reasons. 1. Some of Stein's ethical writing and introductory pieces for friend's books are fairly good, and 2. I'm a huge fan of essayists of the "reactionary" right. While I'm not as easily pigeonholed politically as some of these authors, it's in that loosely defined category that you'll find some of the wittiest and caustic takes on American culture. There is a proud tradition of this in our country made up of such stellar names as Mencken, Ambrose Bierce, Florence King, and countless other luminaries. But while Stein seems to be aware and even revere some of the greater talents in the right's literary pantheon, he didn't seem to have the material to follow in their footsteps. The flaws in this book are too numerous to cite, and end up being as boring as the text, but the main flaw seems to be one of lots of nastiness unattached to any pretext of wit that makes the masters what they are. Indeed, the tone is that of a 16 year old let loose to backslap with the other cretins, and it contrasts sort of humorously with Stein's embarrasment at the lower vein of intellectual that makes up alot of the public conservative prescence. Stein seems to belong to the same school of writing as many former 60's radicals, which is "we can be nasty and simplistic for whichever side were on." At least with David Horovitz you might learn something interesting. Not so here, as easy targets and straw men are impaled in cavalier and uninspired fashion. A definite miss, and somehow Stein seems to be aware of this himself, even at more cringing moments like a two-page spread of fake bad press he assumes his book will recieve. Hey Harry, it's not your politics, it's your writing.
Rating:
Summary: Boring
Review: The title sold me on the book.. I am happy for Mr. Stein for finding his inner piece, however, his story of how he got there was painfully boring. During every page I turned, I was hoping that the pace or direction will go somewhere. Eventhough, I was excited about the subject matter, there are better books out there that are more interesting
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