Rating:  -
This is a brilliant, well-written book that makes you envy the erudition of the author. As a long-time National Review subscriber, I can be accused of a conservative bias but this well-researched book clarified in my own mind what a fascist really is. And it ain't 21st Century conservatives whose highest value is freedom. Sure, we believe in the rule of law but we are also suspicious of the all-powerful state, which President Obama is obviously building.
Goldberg traces the roots of fascism back to Mussolini who in retrospect seems to be very close to the liberals in power today. Then he follows up with an examination of the American progressives in the early half of the 20th Century, which I found very interesting, never having studied that period. It seems Silent Cal Coolidge was an oddity back then with his credo, "The business of America is business." He was overshadowed by Presidents Wilson and the two Roosevelts who obviously believed that the nanny state was the ideal and they vigorously set out to overturn the republic established by our founding fathers. It is obvious that President Barack Obama wants to continue their efforts in a blind, ultimately disastrous, drive to remake our society.
Context is important and I recommend every concerned American read this book. It traces the seeds, dare we call them Acorns?, of the totalitarianism that is looming today, thanks to a party and a president who are forcing us all to reeducate ourselves to the real meaning and source of fascism today. Hint: It isn't conservatives or the GOP.
Rating: -
All I can add to the already voluminous comments about this superior book is
that I wish it had been available years ago, during my own social-political
indoctrination. What ignorance and sheer foolishness it would have
saved me! Instead, my painfully slow liberation from all the "common wisdom",
"it goes without saying" Boomer-and-before biases that pollute our popular and
faux academic culture would not have crept along so confusedly.
Thank you, Jonah Goldberg, for having finally and authoritatively put it all
together for me. And for you, if you have the curiosity, patience and objectivity
to rewind history to the late 18th century and reexamine the roots of everything
we have been so smugly led into revering as enlightened, progressive, tolerant and
morally superior. Here, at last, is our history, hidden in plain sight for so long,
that simply must be learned in order to counter all the offensively puerile dogmas
that assault us from so much irrelevant yet pernicious mass-media and incompetent
educational "systems".
Do yourself a favor. The times have not changed all that much.
Rating: -
Jonah Goldberg's very well researched book "Liberal Fascism" will open your eyes to both the true ideologies and intentions of the Liberal Left. Just as importantly it will enlighten the reader as to the true history of the Leftists & "Progressives". Funny thing, once Americans actually understand what the Progressives see as "progress" Hillary Clinton's claim to be an "early 20th Century Progressive" really means, most see her and other Liberals & Progressives for the threat they really are. "Liberal Fascism" should be required reading by all freedom loving Americans.
Rating: -
A friend of my youth once said to me "That in this country there is the right and the far right with no representation of the left in either two political parties." Was he right? I didn't and don't think so. That said I have never been comfortable with my own understanding of what Fascism is. A simple Google search will show that Academia also is not agreed on a definition either.The author makes some valid points and some incorrect ones. Example: All revolutions are left wing in nature because they want to over throw the status quo and right wingers are by nature defenders of the status quo. Here we run into a problem. Is the definition of revolution dependent on physical violence?
In the sixties I saw politics in black and white. Age has taught me the fallacy of that belief. The author makes a strong case that the Nazi's were more left than right. He starts from the premise that the Nazi were fascists. If you jettison that idea and compare Italian, Spanish, and German political movements you will see that the argument is pointless. It is not comparing apples to oranges, but there were enough differences to make the case that you can not place all three under the single umbrella of Fascism. One thing is for sure; the use of the word Fascist has become meaningless and without proper context in current discussions. I seek to be exposed to as many opinions as I can even if subscribing to the Nation and the National Review makes for an interesting dichotomy in my mailbox. I don't agree that reading the book is a waste of time. Does the author have a point of view to push? Yes. What author doesn't? I think this book is worth reading, but like any non-fiction book the reader must be discriminating.
Rating: -
I finished reading "Liberal Fascism" by Johan Goldberg. This was an interesting read after reading Amity Shales, "The Forgotten Man: A New History of the Great Depression." As I suggested that Shales' book is not quite in your face enough, Goldberg does this quite well. He may turn off some readers who have beliefs from the other side but overall he gets his points across in a pushy but not too insulting stile. Of course my favorite part was about Fascism and Economics. He devoted a whole chapter to how fascism and corporations are connected. Obviously, the point of the book is to say that fascism is something that is always blamed to be right wing but is not. Some people may not be sold until they get to the chapter on Economics.
This book adds well to the debate of what is left and what is right. How most people my age and some much older and younger can sometimes believe that Republicans and right-wingers are the racists and the people that are only trying to hurt America. That if you want progress, you vote Democratic. If you are old and set in your ways (out-dated) you vote Republican. It is a shame that this book came out when we have a President who isn't the true conservative that Goldberg describes. Instead the reader may have a hard time comparing our idealized conservative and whom the media calls a conservative. This by the way is not the media's fault it is definitely our President's and many other Republicans who give right-wingers a bad name.
The only problems I found with the book are, why dedicated a whole chapter to Hillary Clinton? If she were president I would understand. Now she is just a washed up first lady/senator who tried to run for President. This chapter was good at showing how Hillary's rhetoric is very much like Hitler and other fascist types but that could have been shown throughout the book. I believe that this book may in fact be lost in history because of this chapter. Who would want to read this book in 20 years if Hillary never progresses past Senator? The only other part of the book I didn't like was the grouping of Anarchists with leftists. Anarchy by definition is people who do not want government. That is what is truly extremely right wing. How can you group complete government control and no government control together? What I believe Goldberg means is Communists. This is because Communists believe that the process after Socialism, which is complete government control of the economy. That Communism would take place when people lived communally and the state dissolved away. This is of course what is in theory. Most people do not see it this way because of the way Communism and Socialism has been portrayed in real life. The government never faded away so people considered Socialism like 70% government control and Communism 100%. That is for another post.
Overall, I was very impressed and hope that this book is passed on people who want to really know about the history of our great nation because Goldberg never says this but I believe it 100%. We are at a point in time where government is growing and growing. We haven't learned from our mistakes because we do not completely understand them. Goldberg does an excellent job of setting history straight so that Conservatives, Libertarians, and those ideas from our founding fathers can be brought forth again.
|