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Summary: The First Pollitical Book I've Read All The Way Through
Review: I had never read a political book all the way through before this book, but this one kept me interested till the last page. I did not find myself agreeing with every political point, but I did see it as a great argument towards open-mindedness. Being from the University of Colorado, I especially enjoyed the section on the university system. An overall great book.
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Summary: Harry's Right -- But I Doubt He's Found Inner Peace
Review: Stein shows himself capable of what most people are not: actual intellectual evolution. This book is about how a man matured, retained his sense of humor, and came to understand how the world really works. And yet...I think the author still has some growing to do. No, Harry, The American Spectator and The Weekly Standard are not good magazines -- not much more so than The Nation or Utne Reader. You most likely enjoy reading them -- as I sometimes do -- because they offer warmth and comfort to the conservative camp and they give hell to the other side. Yes, they are witty and occassionally insightful. But, let's face it, they can be every bit as puerile and almost (though not quite) as predictable as the dull political magazines of the left. More importantly, inner peace arrives not when you embrace the other side, but when you embrace non-duality, and realize that Dr. Franksteins exist on both the right and left. It arrives when you take ideas for what they are, not from where they come.
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Summary: Another Liberal grows up
Review: Stein joins a number of Leftists who find that simply sounding like you care and feeling good about it doesn't solve social problems. His focus on the specific events which led to his "coming out" makes this an easy and entertaining read. Readers who find this insightful will learn even more from Sowell's, "Vision of the Anointed".
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Summary: Confessions of a Repentant Liberal
Review: Stein's book goes down easy, like candy, because of his witty style. But he has some tough things to say about the liberal establishment in America, and his views are informed by his familiarity with that ruling class. He has an unsparing candor, even about himself. He tells the story of how, in the '70's, he was responsible for the legendary "New Times" magazine article naming Senator William Scott of Virginia (the first Republican since reconstruction)as "the dumbest Senator." Years later, he saw Scott's obituary and sure enough, mention was made of that dubious honor. Stein reflected that he had never really tried to get Scott's perspective, or reflect any of his human qualities or virtues, of which he had a few. The only thing he was certain of that he wouldn't have done a similar story about a Democrat. Had he ruined the man's life? The answer: maybe. That sort of probing and "second thoughts" are at the heart of this book.
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Summary: right questions, wrong answers
Review: Stein's book is a good intro to the conservative point of view on many hot button issues. He asks the right questions, especially challenging an excessively liberal media that applies liberal filters to information, making sure that only those facts that support the liberal viewpoint are published.However, the book is deeply flawed in that Stein is guilty of all the same sins as the rest of the media. Stein's deeply emotional response on these issues reflects the same cloudy thinking of the radical liberals he attacks. Well OK, maybe not as cloudy as some, but you get the point. Stein appears to live in a very small and (to me) strange world that is dominated by media types. In an early chapter he's bemoaning the sad state of marriage in this country, and reading his words one would be led to believe that only a small minority of marriages actually succeed. Maybe that's true in his circle, but the fact is that 2/3 of all first-time marriages do NOT end in divorce. For those that do, my experience is that the couples chose to divorce only as a last resort. This doesn't sound so bad to me, since its clear that the world is better off when bad marriages are allowed to end. Stein really goes after the feminists tooth and nail. I'll agree with him that they have some answering to do, but his discussion is unbalanced. I can understand this to a degree - Stein is evidently attacked by feminist types on a regular basis. But his gleeful feminist bashing detracts from the quality of the discourse. I could say similar things about his discussion of other topics. In the piece about liberal censorship at universities, Stein supports his viewpoint with an unsubstantiated claim of a friend that he was turned down for a job because of his politics. Again, the left is guilty of such tactics, but that doesn't justify them here. And then there's the chapter where (against his wife's better judgement) Stein numbers the sexual exploits of his youth. This was so embarassing that I almost put the book down right there. Harry, you should listen to your wife more often. To conclude, Stein raises the right issues, but he doesn't raise the level of the conversation.
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Summary: Even a liberal like me can enjoy a book like this.
Review: I carry the whole card: I voted for Bill. Twice. I sent Al money, and if I didn't live in Philadelphia, I'd probably vote for Hillary. I disagree with almost everything in this book. But I really enjoyed it. From reading other reviews, I guess many people know who Harry Stein is. I don't. Or I didn't until I read this book. It may be a political book, but it's also a great memoir of a guy coming of political age. I wish he hadn't joined the conspiracy, but since he did, I'm glad he wrote about it. This book is a hoot. All a liberal needs to enjoy this thing is a good sense of humor!
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Summary: Stein chronicles apostasy in PC land
Review: Most of my reading this summer has been in preparation for a new course on Political Correctness in American Society. The amount of material out there is staggering. A recent search on the phrase "political correctness" had over 50,000 hits. The phrase is all over the culture in skirmishes left and right. I am enjoying this research, but it is professional, not pleasure, reading. Thus it was with great interest and anticipation that I ordered How I Accidentally Joined the Vast-Right Wing Conspiracy (And Found Inner Peace). I was not disappointed. Harry Stein is my senior by almost a decade, but the ideological journey and cultural landmarks he chronicles look familiar to me. Stein is a writer and journalist with 6 books and credits at the New York Times, GQ, Esquire and TV Guide. He is currently an ethics columnist for the Wall Street Journal. His account of his journey is breezy, funny, well-researched, open and honest. It has the distinct advantage, in my view, of being simultaneously pleasurable, professional AND subversive in the cause of freedom. Hard to beat that combination. Stein's journey from 60's radical student activist to 90's conservative begins with paternity and family life circa 1980 (there's that decade difference again) That's probably not a big surprise. But the Manhattan media and literary world and upper middle class Hastings-on-Hudson suburban neighborhood that Stein and his family inhabit might well be the most politically correct environment known in modern America, other than a university campus that is. Stein chronicles how his father's eye view takes in the culture wars on Clinton, abortion, gay rights, feminism, affirmative action and more, and how the disconnect between received liberal wisdom and his perspective on these issues places him and his wife, who is the quiet leader of this expedition, at ideological odds with their professional and local communities. The Presidential election of 1992 is a revealing landmark in ideological journeys. Stein is well aware of Clinton's (now) obvious moral and ethical failings and casts a protest vote for Perot. (It must be noted that this author was not nearly so prescient, but there's that decade again, slightly compressed. I dropped my Democratic registration after Hillary's health care debacle, was an independent for Angus King in '94 and a registered Republican in '97. My journey started later, but progressed somewhat faster in the 90's. Of course it's not over yet.) Stein has done his research, sifting through the cultural archives both recent and historical to chronicle the personal and societal consequences of our debates on gender equality, gay rights, diversity and freedom of speech and association. He writes quite personally about abortion, and his continued support for choice against a backdrop of deep regret for an American culture that takes it so cavalierly. He documents how ideological viewpoint effects what is and is not presented by various media outlets, including The New York Times at some length. He misses the degree to which the internet has energized and enabled the subversive vast right-wing conspiracy, but there's that ten years again. It's a great read, and food for your brain too. I'll be ordering a copy for the UMM library. How to Tell if You've Joined the Vast Right-Wing Conspiracy You hear someone talking about morality and you no longer instantly assume he must be a sexually repressed religious nut. You're actually relieved that your daughter plays with dolls and your son plays with guns. Watching network news, you notice that the person opposing affirmative action is identified as a conservative spokesman," while the one supporting is just a "Harvard professor". Jon Reisman is a faculty member at the University of Maine at Machias
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Summary: A Refreshing Breath of Critical Thought
Review: As a Bred-in-the-Bone liberal Jew, I tried hard for years to suppress these niggling doubts I had about certain stances, i.e. - the ethics of abortion, morality of those who represent the Democratic party, etc. I feared that caving on any of these issues would make me seem to be a horrible, callous conservative. Well, the past few years have been unbearable and I must rebel against all this fuzzy-headed liberalism, and it does my heart good to read that others are facing this same crisis with clear heads and a sense of humour. I found myself nodding vigorously as I read Mr. Stein's book and wondering why so many people refuse to see such hypocrisy as he outlines in this book. An open mind and a personal determination to examine our own behaviour and motivations will benefit us all.
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Summary: A liberal viewpoint
Review: As someone who supports most of the causes and ideas Harry Stein mocks, I have to admit that I found his book funny, and only occasionally grating--very different from most conservative writing these days. The quality of the argument varies with the nature of Stein's target: he is aiming largely to amuse, not to convert, and so he is most effective when mocking causes and people beyond the pale (e.g. radical gender activists). When poking fun at the Clintons and their ilk, he is much less original.
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Summary: The Importance of Being Edited
Review: I opened this book hoping to find a cogent argument against the silliness that lurks behind the "conventional wisdom" of contemporary society. Although that argument lurks somewhere within the book, it is difficult to reconstruct given the disjointedness of the book. It is shocking that a book that rails against the decline of standards in America (and gives France some gratuitous whacks as well) is so utterly incoherent. Overall, the book comes off as a collection of author's notes that have not been organized, much less edited. (I suspect that this book is constructed entirely from bits and pieces that Mr. Stein's editors at the Wall Street Journal had blue-penciled out of his columns.) While the author might have moral reservations concerning author William Burroughs, he has adopted one of Burroughs's pioneering literary techniques: the cut-up. The book has no chapters as such; it consists of randomly arranged "sections" of varying length, each without a number, title, or other identifying characteristic that would impede the process by which the book was assembled. I really wanted to like this book and would love to be able to give it five stars. Conservatives from William Buckley to William Bennett have established a traditional of clear writing and dedicated scholarship, so it is troubling that a member of the new generation of conservatives lacks the rigor of his predecessors. While I agree with the prior reviewers about the merits of the content of this book (and for which I give it a second star), the lack of care with which Mr. Stein puts his message across is distressing. Properly edited, this would have been a dynamite book; in its current form, this book is such a profound embarrassment to conservatives that one can only hope that its publication is part of a liberal disinformation campaign in which Mr. Stein is either a witting or unwitting dupe.
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