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What's So Great About America

What's So Great About America

List Price: $27.95
Your Price: $18.45
Product Info Reviews

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Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Amazing!!
Review: For anyone who has not read this book, but has seen Mr. D'Souza go toe to toe with any opposing viewpoint, this is a powerful collective of his perspectives on all major issues confronting America today. He is the recking ball of logic that easily demolishes all the half baked and the insane political correctness that threaten to weaken our nation's core foundation. America IS the greatest nation on Earth and if you truly love this country, here is all the proof you need.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Most objective treatment to date!
Review: Someone who reads this book and still feels that Mr. D'Souza is just blindly singing the conservative mantra is either ignorant, or is lying about reading this book. The one thing this book is not is a sugar coated treatment of America. The author is brutally honest in acknowledging those criticisms with valid and cogent points. Mr. D'Souza also writes from the perspective of a foreigner who has lived in, and understands both the American and non-American points of view. When you read his book you will finally see America as its enemies see it. But, here the author truly shines as he then explores, debunks and counter balances those detractors using the logic of informed argument. It is quickly apparent that his is the great mind of a true scholar. It is also clear that the author knows American history, certainly better than many in current acedemia. He explores issues of racism, multi-culturalism, slavery, Islamic fundamentalism, colonialism, and the basic core principles upon which this country was founded.

Yet, at no point does this author show a dismisive attitude in this discussion. He sees the flaws inherent in uncontrolled freedom and unbridled capitalism. But his ultimate point is that these are necessary evils inherent with a free society. The Islamic world values their interpretation of "morality" (as they define it religiously) above freedom, and certainly above self determination. This leads to their hatred of the west, and their jealousy as their world has remained mired in the middle ages long after the West broke free.

I especially loved the way the author connects the history of the world and it's myriad of dynasties to the evolution of social and political change. One can see the ripple effects of time in a world setting as D'Souza interweaves these themes in a way I had never connected clearly until now. Sadly, this book makes it clear that perhaps America's greatest detractors are those within our own country. They perpetuate many of the anti-American myths which this author examines and answers. This book should be a required primer for any political science/law/history class on any college campus in America. Yet its ideas are expressed so clearly, using example, analogy and logic that it commands respect and agreement. Simply the best socio-political "thriller" I've ever read.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: No-one has said it better!
Review: Mr. D'Souza has taken a subject rife with emotion and clearly, explicitly, and with occasional humor presented the truth for all to read and understand. He supports his statements with fact and footnotes, includes an extensive bibliography, and, in general, does a masterful job of presenting what every American...indeed, everyone who takes a stand for or against America...should read. This book should be a mandatory freshman-year text in every US college, if those colleges can find professors who have read it also. I have commended this book to my friends and family, and their families as well.

Rating: 2 stars
Summary: What an immensly interesting failure!
Review: For those that believe, or want to believe, that America is the greatest country in the world, this book will amplify that belief. Those that believe that America is great at very little will find this book offensive.

I fall in the latter category. I believe that America, as founded, was a scary place for most non-whites or non-males. I believe that America as it is today can celebrate only one thing: citizens, residents and even "aliens" are allowed "freedom." The problem - well, one problem - is that D'Souza's "freedom" fails to distinguish between freedom TO and freedom FROM. Can there be such a thing as an "oppresive freedom system?" Every single thing D'Souza submits in this book screams out "YES!"

Here in the United States we have alot of freedom FROM. Freedom FROM spending more on education than we do on a defense that could not - and admittedly cannot - defend us against terrorism. Freedom FROM developing concomitantly the education system (which, combined with training and social services is at 1/8 the federal military budget each year) such that citizens might really know how to exercise their citizenship (The test: Tell me, or ask your children to tell you, who all your elected representatives are...). The only freedoms TO are, seemingly, the freedom to charge more than what an item is worth in order to capitalize on others, the freedom to consume those inflated items, and the freedom to see said items propagated through a media system built around doing just that. D'Souza celebrates this by submitting that life in America is life in end-state. Its D'Souza, Coors Light in one hand, ESPN Magazine in the other saying "Man, it don't GET any better than this." No? Then let's all end it right now buddy. We can't even get all our people fed or all the homeless off the street or medical care to all our citizens...other nations have done this, and that's the biggest failure of the D'Souza follower: they don't know about the world. They don't know, they don't want to know, and they are uniquely "American" in their pride of not knowing. Why understand anyone else when we're "Number 1?" D'Souza argument is circlar reasoning, non sequiteurs and post-hoc-ergo-propter-hocs all rolled into one big fat stupidity sandwhich. Other reviewers of this work make it clear that D'Souza strikes a "forget-the-past" chord of long-term guilt among whites generally and those who find their feet grounded in the Western tradition specifically by submitting that slavery and colonialism had several good points. With D'Souza's continuous trumpeting of past behavior in the beneficial light of "today," we become free FROM our actions, free FROM responsibility.

Looking to today and to the future, D'Souza reminds us of our freedom FROM leading the rest of the world in ways that maximize the potential of their best and brightest, in their cultural/social/economic traditions, WHERE THEY ARE, instead of continuously celebrating the emigration of people of quick mind (like people from the same immigartion experience as Dinesh, but certainly not Dinesh himself) away from that which they have been and will be. In the 21st Century why do Americans continue to celebrate the fact that people still want to come to America? It is this absolute failure to see America's possible larger role in the world that afflicts both Dinesh and those who leap without thinking to his side, mainly to simply stop feeling bad about their nation. Don't take a panacea; put down the remote, turn off Joe Millionaire or Robot Wars or the WWF, spend less time consuming and more time embracing fully the wholeness of your citizenship. Then again, that would be abdicating the few thing America IS great at today. D'Souza's work is a maze-like effort to justify himself and his cultural predilections. He could have made it easy on all of us by simply submitting "I like America cause, well, America likes me." In the final analysis, that's how simplistic this work is, and I rest replete in the knowledge that it will be sentenced, over the mid- and long-term, to the wonderful ignominy it deserves: INCREDIBLY failed rhetoric.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: What's So Great About This Book?
Review: Why do the Muslims hate us? Why do some Americans hate America? Did slavery benefit anyone in this country besides the slave traders and the plantation owners? Why didn't the framers outlaw slavery? Why do so many foreigners want to come to America? Why is America so rich and powerful? Should we pay reparations to black Americans for slavery? What led to the moral revolution of the 60s? Is America worth preserving? Ever wanted to know the answer to any or all of these provocative questions? Read this great book!

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: And there's more ...
Review: This is interesting stuff - but it's only part of the story.

When you've read Dinesh's book be sure to get a copy of Eric Schlosser's "Fast Food Nation" and see what else American business is doing to make the world a better place.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Why this is my favorite book....
Review: This book is one of my favorites and I sincerely believe that it should be mandatory reading in high school. The book is highly educational but more importantly it finally expresses a view that gets little attention these days. I think any reader will find D'Souza's views of America to be both fascinating and uplifting. His experience as an immigrant to this country combined with his thoughtful discussion of other cultures offers a rare glimpse into the way the rest of the world sees America.

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: Poorly written rhetoric
Review: Being a conservative, I looked forward to reading this book; however, I found Mr. D'Souza's arguments to be immature and not well thought out. The world need less of the liberal-hating rhetoric Mr. D'Souza spews forth and more answers to fixing the real problems within our great country. To think that America is perfect, with no problems, is a dangerous attitude, and criticizing those problems is not un-American. The only way for America to remain great is to see those problems and fix them -- not blame them on liberals or conservative. After all, we are more than liberals or conservatives -- we are AMERICANS!

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Recommended for every american
Review: I am, like Mr. D'Souza, an immigrant who came to America when I was fifteen. I completely agree with all the points that the author makes, especially in the chapter entitled "Becoming American". The American Experience is intoxicating, exciting and in the end full of opportunity and freedom. Yet, people who live in the US don't realize how lucky they are. This should be required reading for anyone living in America or anyone who wants to live in America. America is by far an imperfect country, but we pursue perfection and reward competence. If you want to know the state of the world and America's role in it, but don't know where to start, pick up this book. It is clear, concise and to the point and is a useful gateway to greater things.

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: Bill Maher has D'Souza's number--Coward
Review: From Salon.Com

SALON: You only made your comments [about the courage of the 9/11 hijackers] as a response to one of your guests, conservative author Dinesh D'Souza, who was the first to say that he disagreed with President Bush's assertion that the 9/11 hijackers were cowards, and went so far as to call them "warriors." Why do you think D'Souza escaped criticism?

MAHER: That is a question I have been asking. Because I like Dinesh but boy, he took a cab after that. I never heard from him. He never stuck his head up, and he'd been a guest on our show many times. Lots of people came to my defense -- people you never would have thought, like Rush Limbaugh. But Dinesh stayed way under the radar. He is not a warrior.


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