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Best Books of 2014
Looking for something great to read? Browse our editors' picks for 2014's Best Books of the Year in fiction, nonfiction, mysteries, children's books, and much more.
A rare and vivid glimpse into the bowels. -- Wall Street Journal
Collier and Howowitz knew the scene from the inside, and write about it with intelligence, gossipy intimacy, and savage introspection. -- National Review
If words can turn the tides of history, Collier and Horowitz...have achieved what bombs and bullets failed to do. -- Washington Post
About the Author
David Horowitz is the author of Radical Son, The Politics of Bad Faith, Left Illusions, and other books. He is the President of the Center for the Study of Popular Culture in Los Angeles, California.
Looking back on one's past generally evokes one of two responses. Either a) "Wow, wasn't that a great time!" or b) "Dear God, what was I thinking?" Occasionally one can summon up a bit of both but at the very least we look back with a degree of bemusement. When self-professed "New Left radicals" Peter Collier and David Horowitz look back at the 1960s their reaction is decidedly "what was I thinking" sort. The result is that this book has essentially two speeds: bitchy and cranky.
The bitchy parts comprise some of the most enjoyable reading of the year for me.
Since this is a tale of apostasy the cranky parts are to be expected. The authors went from the New Left to embracing anti-communism in a big way, they're looking back in bitterness. Because they were insiders the perspective Collier and Horowitz aren't giving us the Woodstock and tie-dyed Sixties, they're telling stories that range from ironic ("Post-Vietnam Syndrome") to heartbreaking (Fay Stender) to verging on self-parody (The Weather Underground) to just flat out hilarious (the Berkeley City Council). The little known story of Fay Stender alone makes this book worth reading. How can the story of a nice Jewish girl who embraced every cause of the 1960s, became a major force in a prison rights, joined the feminist movement, found true love only to become the target of an assassination attempt by the very prisoners for whom she once so tireless fought have not been made into a movie yet.
The Weather Underground chapter, on the other hand, could make a fine absurdist comedy. What's more hilarious than upper middle-class white boys declaring themselves "crazy motherf*ers" devoted to "scaring the s* out of honky America"?Read more ›
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10 of 11 people found the following review helpful
I'm still in the middle of the book but am haunted wondering if Horowitz and Collier would ever have imagined when they wrote this that Ayers and the militant left would have one of their own in our very White House! We are in diabolical times and the enemies are wandering the earth in search of souls to destroy.
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29 of 37 people found the following review helpful
This is a superbly written history of American's 60's ordeal. It is a discussion from the inside of the movement and helps explain why we can't get over that decade. I'd rank it with Chamber's Witness as a must read for those who want to know the truth about what happened.
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11 of 13 people found the following review helpful
Collier and Horowitz provide a passionate, detailed, meticulously researched account of the days of insanity that plagued America 40 years ago. The work is made that much more poignant by the fact that the two were willing participants in the actions they describe. While others have derided this book because they disagree with the authors' political shift, the facts speak for themselves. The book is a must read for today's youth, caught up in self-importance and blind worship of iconic, but hollow leaders. The failure of those in the sixties to use reason and logic to understand the threats of mob rule and communist ideology echoes today in those who choose to "make history" without questioning the common sense of those they follow. Hopefully, if we are still around in 40 years, today's "activists" will be able to benefit from the same soul searching and reflection that encouraged Collier and Horwitz to issue this call to arms for those who believe in America as the last hope for the world. A primer text for those who want to change the world.
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First, I'd much rather learn the history of the 60's from someone who participated in it - in the inner circles - than from any academic. There are some words that the human species finds hard to utter, "I'm sorry," "I don't know" and hardest of all "I was wrong." To write this, David and Peter have to muster up that big one - right at the start - "I was wrong." And that indicates the passion for truth and the kind of introspection that is rare - especially among those who were so thoroughly indoctrinated. The book is concise, historical and revealing. It is a must read for anyone interested in present day politics and how we got here. It shows how the destruction of the structure of our society is not a collateral casualty of the left movement but is the murder of an inept victim too stupid to understand the brutal, robbery, rape and beating it has just taken. This is classic Marxism, to turn the people against each other and accumulate power. None of the ills the left sought to solve has been solved - because it is not about solving anything - its always been about power. In every case, those who Don Quixote portended to help are worse off. No doubt the horrific road we are on is driven by the likes of these wanna be world dictators who propagate all that is vile and evil. They are in the end-game now. And woe to us if they succeed. A MUST READ IF YOUR BRAIN IS NOT BEER SOAKED OR POT STAINED.
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This book is dated a bit, having been written in the 80s, but it is an excellent explanation of the origins of the present president of the United States. It recounts the story of the radical left, specifically the black radicals and the Weathermen and Bill Ayres, mentor of Barack Obama.
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