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Type of bind: Hardcover
Dewey Decimal Number: 320.533
EAN num: 9780385511841
ISBN number: 0385511841
Label: Doubleday
Manufacturer: Doubleday
Quantity: 1
Page Count: 496
Printing Date: January 08, 2008
Publishing house: Doubleday
Release Date: January 08, 2008
Sale Popularity Level: 362
Studio: Doubleday
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“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.
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Rated by buyers 
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It is very unfortunate that people use the review process to attack a book which they are very unlikely to have read. It is always fascinating that the very same people who so often lecture to all of us about "tolerance" are the least so. It is particularly bothersome that Amazon chose to use one short, positive review and one very lengthy negative review. Despite some of the reviews, Mr. Goldberg's book is fair. Kool-aid drinkers from both sides of the aisle need not bother because neither side would much like what they are reading unless they are interested in truth. Whoever you are, whatever your notions, if you are opened minded, you will likely realize some of those notions require re-examination. This book is particularly helpful if you have been trying to educate yourself as much as possible about American history, have done much other reading, and are sincerely interested in seeking the truth. If you've been asking yourself: Just when did this country start to "go off the rails", you will find a lot of answers. Other well-written books about the history of Progressives, socialists, and Marxists support the documented information in this book. A couple of others I have read, and I have no idea from what political persuasion these gentlemen come, would be the very well documented book by Ronald J. Pestritto, Professor at the University of Dallas Woodrow Wilson and the Roots of Modern Liberalism (American Intellectual Culture)and another, by Richard Pipes, A Concise History of the Russian Revolution. Again, despite all of the partisan reviews, if you read at minimum, the three books noted, you will see the dots connecting. Mr. Goldberg is not about finger pointing or name calling, he's about laying out, step by step, point A to point B, etc. Michael Mann's review, in itself, is to be disregarded because he accuses Goldberg of leaving out labeling so-called "Conservatives" as the "f-word", like Richard Nixon. Mr. Mann has revealed his own lack of knowledge of historical facts or that he didn't read the book closely, or well. A number of so-called "conservatives" are mentioned, including Pres. George W. Bush. Many aspects of Pres. Bush's policies, do have, in fact, elements of the "f-word", as Mr. Mann calls it. It is a fallacy of the left or perhaps a lack of much contemplation, that every individual with an "R" behind their title in elected office are automatically conservative. Richard Nixon was not conservative, he was a "liberal" Republican. Pres. Bush's fiscal policies and "compassionate conservatism" alone disqualify him from being considered truly conservative. In order to make that assessment, as a conservative, I did much reading, but didn't arrive at my conclusions until I read this book. Until or unless people are willing to start "calling out" the wrong they see in their leadership, regardless to which political party they belong, it's hard to imagine how much, if anything, will come about to change the high amount of dissatisfaction and distrust most Americans feel about their government. To fully get one's mind around the definition of fascism, how it has weaved its way through history, and most importantly, what it means for freedom, this book is vital.
Rated by buyers 
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I liked the picture on the dust jacket. I opened the book; read the introduction, and even understood it. So far so good. Then I started reading a bunch of words in the chapters with all kinds of names of people I've never heard of. They influenced Mussolini, Wilson, Hitler, FDR, LBJ. And it kept going like that. I was looking for more one-lined Ann Coluteresque zingers like: Wilson imprisoned more political dissidents than Mussolini; FDR detained many times more non-enemy combatants (Americans mostly) than has GW Bush detained guys with guns found in combat areas; it takes a village to raise an idiot. Those kind of one-liners. Perhaps they could have been deployed at the start of each chapter to focus my meager attention span. Ultimately this book was just too smart for me. At least when I watch the Glenn Beck Show and see Jonah Goldberg as a guest, I understand what he is saying. Perhaps those thousands of Lefty Liberal College Professors should read this book, but they won't (can't be caught with it and risk tenure). As for me, I'm waiting for Mr. Goldberg to come out with a pop-up picture book.
Rated by buyers -
It does not surprise me that neocons are accusing Liberals of being fascists. It simply implies that neocons have recognized that they themselves are promoting fascism in government.
One of Karl Rove's mantras is to accuse your opponent of your own worst failings.
Rated by buyers -
I have been looking for more indepth study of liberalism written by someone who isn't one. This works well for me.
Rated by buyers -
Over the past decade, the ideological battle between liberals and conservatives has been fought on the internet and in the local bookstore. Whether it is Al Franken calling conservatives liars, or Ann Coulter imploring her followers to refrain from speaking to liberals, the public has been inundated with many opinions from which to choose. Conservative writer Jonah Goldberg has recently joined the fray with Liberal Fascism: The Secret History of the American Left from Mussolini to the Politics of Meaning. Though Franken, Coulter, and others like them are long on opinion and short on truth, Goldberg's contribution is well thought out and based on facts. In Liberal Fascism, Goldberg traces liberalism from its origins in the nineteenth century through its maturity in the twentieth century while cleverly showing how it fed off the European Fascism movement. He then brings the reader to the Liberal Fascism of today.
Although this is Goldberg's very first book, he is no stranger to the written word. According to his biography on the web site National Review Online, where he is an editor,Goldberg is a columnist for the Los Angeles Times, and his syndicated column appears in the Chicago Tribune, New York Post, Philadelphia Inquirer, and many others. He also appears as a political commentator on a number of television shows including "Good Morning America," "Larry King Live," and "Special Report with Brit Hume." Though a writer since his college days, his big break came when he wrote about the media frenzy surrounding his mother, Lucianne Goldberg and her role in the Monica Lewinsky/Bill Clinton scandal of the late 1990s. She advised Linda Tripp to tape record her conversations with Lewinsky and to convince her to save the now-infamous "blue dress."
From the introduction, entitled "Everything You Know About Fascism is Wrong," Goldberg grabs the reader's attention. He quotes the late George Carlin, "When fascism comes to America, it will not be in brown and grey shirts...It will be Nike sneakers and Smiley shirts." (1) This statement should remove any question about the artistry of the book's front cover: a large orange smiley face complete with a Hitler mustache. While lengthy, the introduction spells out exactly what Goldberg is going to tell the reader in the remainder of the book. It is no mystery that he believes we are living in a time where the fascistic bent of Italy's Mussolini and Germany's Hitler are being blended with the quasi-socialistic policies of presidents Woodrow Wilson, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, and Lyndon Baines Johnson.
After the introduction, Goldberg leads the reader through a fascinating history of the rise of fascism in Europe. Although Benito Mussolini, the leader of Italy, has been vilified, mostly due to his association with Hitler and the Third Reich, we are reminded that for the good part of a decade, he was considered a great leader. In 1923, the New York Times boasted that, "Mussolini is a Latin [Teddy] Roosevelt who very first acts and then inquires if it is legal. He has been of great service to Italy at home." (27) Noted Americans such as humorist Will Rogers, Hollywood mogul Lionel Barrymore, and legendary journalist Lowell Thomas proclaimed his greatness. On the international scene, Sigmund Freud and Winston Churchill were quite smitten with him. In addition, James A. Farrell, the president of U.S. Steel Corporation, said he was "`the greatest living man' in the world." (29) Goldberg concludes the Mussolini chapter with a brief description on how Mussolini gained his beliefs, very first as a socialist then as a fascist, ending with his ill-fated endeavor to flee to Switzerland in 1945 when he was captured by Italian partisans and executed.
Mussolini might have been remembered more favorably had he not associated himself with the subject of the subsequent chapter, Adolph Hitler. Goldberg leads the reader on a brief history of the rise of Hitler and how he became so enamored with socialism. Students of history will be familiar with the 1923 "Beer Hall Putsch" and his subsequent imprisonment where he wrote the infamous Mein Kampf, as well as the efforts to promote Germany in the 1936 Olympics and the murderous "Kristallnacht" of 1938. Here, Goldberg begins to paste together how today's liberals use the term Nazi to describe those who call themselves conservatives. He says that the left "cherry-pick[s] the facts to form a caricature of what the Third Reich was about...[with] the desired effect to cast Nazism as the polar opposite of Communism." "[The] roles of industrialists...[are] greatly exaggerated, while the very large and substantial leftist and socialist aspects of Nazism..." are minimized. (57) Rather than being a right-wing conservative as many on the left would proclaim, Hitler should be considered a leftist because Nazism "...emphasized many of the themes of the later New Lefts...the primacy of race...an emphasis on the organic and holistic ... Read More
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