Rating: 
Summary: Many Interesting Anecdotes
Review: In a book chock full of interesting anecdotes, one of the most compelling is the 1885 entrance examination for a high school in Jersey City. This exam graphically illustrates the extent to which education standards have been allowed to decline, even as our investment in education has skyrocketed. However, I believe I found an error: Zachary Taylor is listed as the answer to the question, "What American general commanded at the capture of Mexico City during the Mexican War?" I believe the correct answer is Winfield Scott.That aside, this was a most enjoyable book. I was particularly fond of the proposed voter-registration exam (basic US and world history, civics and current affairs) and the quotes from supposedly impartial network TV news anchors.
Rating:
Summary: Thoughtful, fun, but inconsistant
Review: I enjoyed Harry Stein's Book, "How I Accidentally Joined the Vast Right-Wing Conspiracy : (And Found Inner Peace)." It had me nodding in agreement, laughing, and saying "Honey, listen to this..." That is because Mr. Stein is himself thoughtful and fun. It is also because his personal philosophical journey in many ways matches my own, that of my wife, and (I suspect) that of many other now aging baby boomers who were raised in the New York liberal Jewish tradition. Indeed, the title of the book could have been: "Hey, America Was Right and I Just Realized it Now!" Where the book falls short is in coherence of style. "Falls short" may be too strong a phrase. Maybe the fault was in my expectations. What I expected was more of a David Horowitz type reasoned from every quarter approach, not the affable musings of a 'light' philosopher. In a sense this, too, is unfair. Mr. Stein's THINKING is not light, just his style. So, in the end it gets four stars. If you are tired of all the election year positioning and repositioning, and would like a dose of sincere polical thought, "How I Accidentally Joined the Vast Right-Wing Conspiracy : (And Found Inner Peace)" may be just the ticket. Just don't get caught reading it in the Old Neighborhood. ;-)~
Rating: 
Summary: I Am Not Alone
Review: It's the tale of a good-hearted ex-hippie liberal journalist who kept thinking, questioning, and reading, and eventually comes to be on the right side of things. It's a story much like my own intellectual journey. I have never read a book faster. I highly recommend it for its deft prose, light style, and concise summation of arguments. He tackles the cultural arena exclusively (whereas the economic side of things turns my crank more), and his targets are the fat easy ones (feminism, left-wing press bias, political correctness, affirmative action, etc), but he gets it so right, and he shows how and why he changed from his old views to his new ones, never losing his good heart or his decency; in fact, it is those qualities that drove him (and me) to reject the current left-wing agenda. Liberals should read this not so much to have their minds changed (that takes more work than a single book can do) as to understand that most people who disagree with them also have pure motives and kind hearts.
Rating:
Summary: True political honesty
Review: Harry Stein writes one of the most poltically honest memoirs I've read in a long time. In straightforward speak that skirts no liberl ideals, Stein chops down an ideology that he swore by in the 1960s but now sees as a hinderance to our modern-day culture. While his liberal foes cringe, every independently-minded American should give Stein's views a chance. For the naysers of this book, especially hardcore liberals, I found it interesting that many of the facts Stein used to back up his positions were pulled out of the liberally-slanted media he so accurately portrays.
Rating:
Summary: Badge of Courage
Review: Former liberal journalist Harry Stein's journey from being a 70's liberal to a 90's conservative is, in reality, a study of what could be better described as a journey to the center. When Stein's book was released in June 2000, he was interviewed by Brian Lamb on C-Span's Booknotes. The interview was aired again on August 20, 2000. Stein is a fascinating person whose liberating transformation was stimulated by heavy doses of family and common sense. His book should be required reading for liberals and conservatives whose minds have not been slammed shut from radical infections. As expected, the shallow-minded liberal press and condescending book reviewers took "offended aim" at Stein's book and spewed their all-too-familiar liberal venom at his truths. Therefore, Stein's book can easily be viewed by independent thinkers as a badge of courage and the silly, terrorist, reviews as medals of honor.
Rating: 
Summary: what a jerk
Review: Harry Stein has written regularly for "Esquire" and "Playboy." This should be your first clue. His laughably unconscious sexism is evident in such phrases as "during MY three pregnancies..." (Someone call Ripley's Believe It or Not! "Man Becomes Pregnant, Not Once, But Three Times!")This interesting, and disturbing, glimpse into the man's ego occurs during his attempt to explain his hypocritical change of heart on the issue of abortion. Apparently when girlfriends (including his wife) in his past were impregnated, choice was fine; now that he's a parent, it's not. (Hey, Harry, here's a news flash. Parenthood: Many, many of us have been there & done that without losing our core beliefs.) Elsewhere in his hysterical tirades against feminism he's just a run-of-the-mill misogynist. The book is also padded throughout with smarmy lists and silly "pop quizzes." Throw in the likes of an irrelevant segue about Tennessee Williams-- the only point of which seems to be so that Stein can brag to the reading audience that the playwright once said (in an otherwise complaining letter to the editor of "Esquire") that he "liked" Stein-- as well a bizarre digression in which the author shares with us the results of a dinner-table homework assignment forced upon his wife and children, wherein they had to write essays on how they would react if he, Stein, were president of the United States and had a Lewinsky-esque affair -- and what you've got here is yet another overblown ego trip for yet another bad magazine writer.
Rating:
Summary: Transition to Common Sense
Review: I really enjoyed this book; it brought back so many memories. I read it in one sitting (finishing at 1:30AM). I have also made a similar journey as Mr. Stein. I've recommended this book to my liberal friends and feminist nieces -- to encourage them to take another look at conservatism and then re-examine their own political stances.
Rating: 
Summary: focus is on problems not solutions
Review: Book discusses many issues but offers no way to solve them. Perhaps Stein's next book will focus on how to improve our society.
Rating:
Summary: Forget it!
Review: A misogynistic, angry exposition of the author's miniscule world view. One wonders how his wife must feel to know that her worth is so reduced in his eyes and advertised to the world. I find it unimaginable that any thoughtful, intelligent, self accountable, and intellectually responsible person could endorse the antiquated beliefs expounded in this arrogant and guilt laden confessional. This book is a treatise of judgemental, hypercritical opinion spun as right wing philosophy and is unspeakable. There are a lot of right wing politically oriented people who are quite fine folks who do not need to attack people as this author has chosen to do in the self serving disguise of cruel humor. This reduces all of us as humanity and is never acceptable for not one of us is without flaws and imperfections. This reader is a political independent with an open mind toward most POVs, and I personally dislike writing a negative review, but this book truly deserves it.
Rating:
Summary: Required reading proir to name calling
Review: The only problem with Mr. Stein's very funny and thoughtful book is the radical extremes to both the left and right that most need to read it and give an serious audience to what he is saying will never give it a chance. Leftists will hate it as he exposes the shallowness of most of the popular positions on many issues. The right will immediately call into question his credentials as one of them because he dares to deviate from the established lines on topics such as gay rights and abortion. Liberals and conservatives alike have a tool in this book that will assist them in looking into each others mind. In understanding each other, perhaps the volume of the rhetoric could be lowered, facilitating answers, not rancor. Prior to labeling anyone a communist or fascist, or even a liberal or conservative, do yourself a favor and read this book.
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