Customer Reviews

The Devil's Advocate

5 star:		(11)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

This is the history of an America that developed differently, a country where citizens gave up their rights and freedom slowly until a communist state developed. Freedom of thought, religion, speech, and democracy are replaced by militia, secrete police, and and a few men's reign of terror. This is the powerful story of the new Minutemen and thier quiet fight to free the citizens of the U.S.A. again.

Read this book and you may see how much of this is actually happening today. You may be startled to see the people around you giving up their liberty and rights to others' control. You may be scared to see our country following a pattern Caldwell wrote about 30 years ago. You may even be offended and angry enough to do something about it... and that's exactly how a Minuteman is born.

Unlike Orwell's distant and dismissable prognostication "1984", Caldwell's "The Devil's Advocate" traces a straight line between American Freedom and American Fascism, showing each step in the journey, from ignoring Franklin's warnings about trading liberty for security to the deceptive seduction of liberal socialism. Read this book, and then give it to a friend to read also.

As mentioned in the other reviews, this book is right on the money! I've read it twice this year, and it is so close to what we have going on in the USA today that it's scary.
If any of us ever have to go underground, this book needs to be taken along as guidance.

I read this book for the first time over 30 years ago. I remember being completely taken in by the book - I couldn't put it down. It is among the best written novels I have ever read, and believe me, I have read quite a few. It is the one book that I remember most clearly. About six months ago, I found my copy of it when I was preparing to move. Over the years I had read it several times, but it had been at least 20 years since the last read. I wondered if I would feel the same way about it - would I be as moved by the story as I was so many years ago? The answer is a resounding yes. It is a classic and I'm sorry that it's not readily available today. I certainly recommend it highly to anyone who can find it.

I just finished reading another novel. Starting tomorrow, I think I'll read "The Devil's Advocate" again.

I read this book a couple of decades ago. It was written in 1952 and I compared it to George Orwell's "1984"--a fantasy that this nation would never allow to happen. During the last six years of Cliton's ineptitude, I kept thinking of this so called fictional novel. Our current political and cultural situation seemed so familiar that I finally re-read the book. It scared the HELL out of me that Taylor Caldwell could be so prophetic from pre-1952. The people of this nation are doing exactly as she imagined almost 50 years ago. GOD save our society if it gets to the point she writes about. Please read and recommend to Friends!!!!!

. . .and in the mind of this reviewer, the blame is properly placed! (See my review of "The Abolition of Man".)

Imagine, if you will, a world in which the United States has been reduced to a totalitarian state; a world in which your neighbors may be spies; a world, frankly, in which was passes for modern political correctness has run amok.

What I found particularly interesting was the admission of one character (formerly a college professor, now a lowly domestic) that it was the educational establishment who was largely responsible for the depredations of the system. It was the educational system who substituted the classical liberalism of the 19th century (and previous) with the "liberalism" now claimed by the Establishment. And when the very persons these educators had trained finally gained power, the first persons they turned on were their former teachers.

What scary foresight for 1952! Please God we turn back before it's too late.

The novel has a happy ending. Will American civilization be as fortunate?

In this work, author Taylor Caldwell has given us a frightening portrait of an America controlled by the far Left, with only a handful of dedicated Patriots working to restore the Republic. Recommended!

Excellent book, Almost like your reading todays headlines!!! Fast paced, can't put down.

Although Caldwell's book was published in 1952, it tolls a warning bell loudly for us even today. So much of what she wrote of is coming to pass: America arming, then fighting, Her enemies; our freedoms slowly eroding, life becoming unbearable in a totally unrecognizeable world.

Too bad she got one small detail so very wrong: creeping fascism is in our world and in our America today, but it's not due to any misguided liberalism. I think Miss Caldwell, if she were alive today, would know our world, but would not believe who our leaders are and what they are doing to us.

This is a great read. It is vintage Caldwell and this lady could really write to keep your interest.