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Summary: A book everybody needs to read
Review: This book deals with a vital problem for America. Why is it that while milllions of people all over the world dream about living in the United States, many American intellectuals believe that this is a uniquely deformed and unjust society? How did the radical beliefs of the 60s survive and become, for many Aericans, in the new conventional wisdom? How is it possible that while communist systems are colapsing and seeking market economies, critics in the United States remain convinced of the evils of capitalism? Why are there more Marxists on only a hanful of Aerican ampuses than in over Eastern Europe or the Soviet Union? While Anti-americanism abroad has been lamented, ntil now it has not been closely examined nor compared to domestic social criticsm. Paul Holader separates the justified critiques of the Uited States from Anti-Americanism which he defines as a biased attack against American soociety and its core values. It is the first systematic study of this phenomenon in its domestic and foreign aspects.It is an extremely important book. I have ordered 5 copies, to send to different friends. I wonder why it has not been translated into Spanish. I am sure it would be eagerly read all over Latin America.
Rating:
Summary: A poignant book for these times
Review: This underappreciated book, written by a survivor of Soviet and Nazi oppression, plumbs the depths of human ignorance with a thorough dissection of the Anti-American fervor of the Left both here and abroad. He methodically lays out the intellectual origins of Leftist thought as it relates to the churches, higher education, the mass media, Nicaragua, the worldview of college students, the third world, western intellectuals, and Mexican and Canadian intellectuals. Including the index and references the book spans over 500 pages. At the end the reader is given pause by the strict adherence of these worshippers of the secular humanist faith to a completely discredited Marxist dogma that has been a total failure, on a worldwide basis, wherever it has been enacted into public policy. What's so thought provoking is that even when confronted by overwhelming factual evidence refuting the initial premise's of this failed dogma, that human nature retains such a profound capacity for self-deception. Perhaps this explains man's need for religion and its attendant explanations of the intricacies of life in the hereafter? None the less the words of Saul Bellow ring true when he says, "a great deal of intelligence can be invested in ignorance when the need for illusion runs deep". Another apt adage is that "if a man doesn't know his limitations, or more to the point when he's ignorant of the pertinent facts, he will be misled by his knowledge". A companion read should be "the True Believer" by Eric Hoffer. It's a shame more people haven't read this book, but looked at in the framework of the takeover of academia and the media by Leftist thinkers it's not wholly unexpected. Don't look for your average political science professor to put this book on your reading list.
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