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by: Jonah Goldberg  List Price: $27.95 Amazon.com's Price: $18.45 You Save: $9.50 (34%)Prices subject to change. Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
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Binding: HardcoverDewey Decimal Number: 320.533 EAN: 9780385511841 Edition: 1 ISBN: 0385511841 Label: Doubleday Manufacturer: Doubleday Number Of Items: 1 Number Of Pages: 496 Publication Date: January 08, 2008 Publisher: Doubleday Release Date: January 08, 2008 Studio: Doubleday Related Items:
Browse for similar items by category: Click to Display Editorial Review: Product Description: “Fascists,” “Brownshirts,” “jackbooted stormtroopers”—such are the insults typically hurled at conservatives by their liberal opponents. Calling someone a fascist is the fastest way to shut them up, defining their views as beyond the political pale. But who are the real fascists in our midst? Liberal Fascism offers a startling new perspective on the theories and practices that define fascist politics. Replacing conveniently manufactured myths with surprising and enlightening research, Jonah Goldberg reminds us that the original fascists were really on the left, and that liberals from Woodrow Wilson to FDR to Hillary Clinton have advocated policies and principles remarkably similar to those of Hitler's National Socialism and Mussolini's Fascism. Contrary to what most people think, the Nazis were ardent socialists (hence the term “National socialism”). They believed in free health care and guaranteed jobs. They confiscated inherited wealth and spent vast sums on public education. They purged the church from public policy, promoted a new form of pagan spirituality, and inserted the authority of the state into every nook and cranny of daily life. The Nazis declared war on smoking, supported abortion, euthanasia, and gun control. They loathed the free market, provided generous pensions for the elderly, and maintained a strict racial quota system in their universities—where campus speech codes were all the rage. The Nazis led the world in organic farming and alternative medicine. Hitler was a strict vegetarian, and Himmler was an animal rights activist. Do these striking parallels mean that today’s liberals are genocidal maniacs, intent on conquering the world and imposing a new racial order? Not at all. Yet it is hard to deny that modern progressivism and classical fascism shared the same intellectual roots. We often forget, for example, that Mussolini and Hitler had many admirers in the United States. W.E.B. Du Bois was inspired by Hitler's Germany, and Irving Berlin praised Mussolini in song. Many fascist tenets were espoused by American progressives like John Dewey and Woodrow Wilson, and FDR incorporated fascist policies in the New Deal. Fascism was an international movement that appeared in different forms in different countries, depending on the vagaries of national culture and temperament. In Germany, fascism appeared as genocidal racist nationalism. In America, it took a “friendlier,” more liberal form. The modern heirs of this “friendly fascist” tradition include the New York Times, the Democratic Party, the Ivy League professoriate, and the liberals of Hollywood. The quintessential Liberal Fascist isn't an SS storm trooper; it is a female grade school teacher with an education degree from Brown or Swarthmore. These assertions may sound strange to modern ears, but that is because we have forgotten what fascism is. In this angry, funny, smart, contentious book, Jonah Goldberg turns our preconceptions inside out and shows us the true meaning of Liberal Fascism. Average Rating:
 Rating:  - So biased that it is impossible to get to wanted factsI was genuinely interested in reading this, but he was so caught up with his fervor, talking points, and preconceived notions of reality that I couldn't get to the wonderfully researched history. His thesis relies on his own (rather uninteresting, though mildly creative) manipulation of semantics. At best his arguments are eye-rolling. More disgracefully, he completely discounts general historic attitudes that were pervasive across party lines. All in all, rather than being ... Read More Rating: - Sick F'ing F'sHow DARE you Amazon place this on my screen where I have to look at it as a RECOMMENDED book! How dare you place the image of this hateful, narrowminded, uneducated, propagandizing, hating, fearing, polarizing DETRITUS in my face! Keep this political clap trap to yourselves! Rating: - TruthWhat is this book about? Walmart got an unfair trade advantage by trading with Communist China, using their slave labor, and putting millions of small mom and pop American businsess out of business. Walmart then supports the Republican party with their communist money. Then some Commi Republican writes a stupid book. The Bush family has orchistrated our current free trade sysetem with China - the only country that systemiszes abortion yet they claim to be anti ... Read More Rating:  - Not What You Think It's Going To BeSo many people, to include certain friends of mine, are all too willing to write this book off as just one more salvo from the Republican noise machine without ever bothering to read it. Goldberg's title is perhaps unfortunate in this regard, as it leaves one with the impression that it is another rightist screed targeting the usual suspects--"feminazis," militant environmentalists, and the like. Goldberg had me right away, though, when he discussed the ways in which the word "fascism" (in ... Read More Rating: - Most HelpfulI have really enjoyed this book. Goldberg has shined a light on what it truly means to be Liberal today. While I had heard some of this in college a lot of the information, especially about Wilson was all news to me. At times it does seem that Goldberg reaches a little to make his point, but he does make it. I would, and have, recommend this book to Liberals I know so that they can lean a little about their history and where their beliefs come from 
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