Homo americanus:: Child of the Postmodern Age (Paperback)

by Tomislav Sunic (Author)
Key Phrases: early postmodernity, intergroup relations movement, biblical fundamentalism, Eastern Europe, Cold War, Soviet Union (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description
In this book Dr. Tomislav Sunic describes the origins and dynamics of America's founding myths. Quoting and translating from many long-forgotten or suppressed sources from the fields of literature, history, anthropology and philosophy, the book represents an interdisciplinary compendium dealing with the topic of Americanism. The genealogy of early Calvinist Puritanism mixed with the techno-scientific religion of boundless economic progress and legally veiled in the obscure para-Biblical and Jewish-inspired sense of political self-chosenness, created a system that has little in common with its original design. Postmodern Americanism, with its abstract theories of multiculturalism and its global desire for world improvement, turned America into a menacing and self-destructive continent that puts not only the survival of America's European heritage at risk, but threatens the heritage of other peoples worldwide as well.

About the Author
Tomislav (Tom) Sunic is a former US professor, author, translator and a former Croat diplomat. He did his undergraduate work in literature and languages in Europe. He obtained his doctoral degree in political science at the University of California. Mr. Sunic has published books and articles in French, German, English and Croatian on subjects of cultural pessimism, the psychology of communism and liberalism, and the use and abuse of modern languages in modern political discourse.

Product Details

• Paperback: 252 pages
• Publisher: BookSurge Publishing (February 23, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1419659847
• ISBN-13: 978-1419659843
• Product Dimensions: 7.8 x 5.2 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 9.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars See all reviews (10 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #646,119 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

42 of 46 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars A flawed effort from a courageous, persecuted historian, March 16, 2007

By	Michael A. Hoffman "Michael A. Hoffman II" - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Dr. Tom Sunic is the scion of a persecuted people (the Croats under the Soviets) and has himself faced persecution for his revisionist views and has weathered this ordeal with courage and determination. I am reluctant to criticize someone with those credentials, but since considerations of pity have no place in historiography, I am duty bound to correct some pernicious myths he is repeating in this book for a new generation. Sunic's association of rabbinic Judaism with the Bible is a serious blunder. Orthodox Judaism nullifies the Old Testament; it is not in any way a Biblical creed.

From the fallacy of an Old Testament rabbinic Judaism, Sunic proceeds to revive the classic -but discredited- thesis that early American Puritan religion was the handmaiden to buccaneer capitalism. As a Protestant creed without a central Vatican issuing directives, Puritans reflected a diversity of theological and economic views, but the consensus of the majority was that free enterprise had to be tempered within Biblical social-justice limits. Jonathan Edwards, perhaps the single most influential American Puritan thinker, was, for example, unalterably opposed to usury and any economic system (like the our contemporary U.S. banking system) based on it.

Sunic tries to draw a link between the old Puritan commoweal of British America and the vicious imperium which fundamentalist Churchianity has fashioned in modern America today. Primary Puritan documents, including sermons, diaries, letters and manuscripts undercuts the degrading statements Sunic makes about the Puritans and their polity, and it is obvious that he has not consulted these original materials. He knows nothing of Puritan resistance to Judaism and is mainly rehashing classic ultramontane fallacies about American history. Students and activists seeking an encounter with a sound revisionist history of America's roots, will be poorly served by the anti-Puritan diatribe in "Homo Americanus."

However, with these points in mind, it should also be noted that Dr. Sunic's book contains a valuable critique of the cultural elites that gnaw at the American body politic, a critique worthy of serious consideration in the evolving debate over American nationalism, territorial integrity and destiny. In surveying the contemporary American scene, Sunic offers a credible challenge to the subversion wrought by neo-con conservatism and predatory capitalism in the 21st century. It is only when he attempts to analyze America's theocratic history in previous centuries, that he stumbles.

17 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars New breed of human?, April 22, 2007

By	S. Ludanov (Sacramento, CA United States) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

I must admit beforehand that this review may be biased by the fact that I was fortunate enough to meet Dr. Sunic in person and listen to his presentation of the book. I bought the book and the next morning decided to browse through it. I could not put it away! It is very well researched and written and it is not just about modern American society, but Western liberal ideology as well. I lived in the Soviet Union under communist regime for 30 years and can easily relate to many issues that Dr. Sunic discusses in "Homo Americanus". In fact, for people who came to the United States from the former communist countries, the similarity between communist ideology and practice and western liberalism is often shocking. The main difference according Dr. Sunic is hard oppression (under communism) vs. soft oppression (in the West). While in Russia and Eastern Europe communists came to power staging bloody revolutions, raise of "Cultural Marxism" in the West was not as dramatic. That is why for many Americans, I think, the statement that Dr. Sunic made in his book that communism failed in the East, because it has succeeded in the West may sound unbelievable but it is well proved in "Homo Americanus". After all both ideologies are based on the same foundation - belief in equality. Is not it ironic that most hideous crimes against humanity were committed in the name of liberty, equality and brotherhood: Lenin, Stalin, Mao, Pol Pot? French Revolution?
Author examines many different topics in the book that led to appearance of a new human creature he dubbed Homo Americanus, who is not surprisingly so similar to Homo Soveticus described by Alexander Zinoviev. I am not going to retell the book here, you just have to read it. For many it may become the eye opener, some will probably hate it, because the views expressed in the book clearly do not belong to "mainstream propaganda" and tolerating dissent is not something that is taught to us under the disguise of "tolerance".

21 of 22 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Dr. Tom Sunic Knocks Out the Politically Correct Establishment with His Insightful Book, Homo Americanus (The American Man) , June 30, 2007

By	Mark Farrell - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

In today's politically correct world, very few authors dare to criticize what is wrong with society. Despite the First Amendment, it is often political suicide to realistically recognize what is occurring, and may even cost one's job in some cases, if not more. Dr. Tom Sunic is one of those brilliant and fearless individuals who defies the politically correct ban, and he has written an astounding book that all fans of freedom should take the time to read.

Who is Dr. Tom Sunic, you might ask? He is a man of many talents, whose credentials are impeccable. He obtained his doctorate in political science at the University of California. He is fluent in Croatian, French, and German, and has had articles published in various publications in these languages, as well as several books. He has worked as a US professor, and was also a diplomat for Croatia for some time. He is no lightweight in either the political or intellectual establishment. And yet he dares to speak the truth about the destruction of the West, and doesn't cringe when mentioning the perpetrators largely responsible for America's ongoing transition to third-world status. It should come as no surprise that America's most brilliant psychologist, Professor Kevin MacDonald, has written the foreword of Dr. Sunic's book, for Dr. Sunic is a man to be admired: He is one of those brave-hearted and brilliant souls who dares to stand up to be counted among those who recognize America's reckless nature. He unapologetically speaks the truth of where this once mighty nation is heading: on a one-way, broken roller coaster--downhill and fast.

In Dr. Sunic's most recent book, Homo Americanus, he tries to define just "who" is the American man, and what the American man believes. Dr. Sunic's views are very interesting and somewhat refreshing, as he has lived under one of the former communist nations and knows firsthand how totalitarian governments infringe on personal liberties; and he doesn't hesitate to point out what some Americans already realize--namely, that we too are having our rights torn asunder by the politically correct crowd who stop at nothing to destroy the last vestiges of liberty in America. In a chapter of Dr. Sunic's book, Americanism and Anti-Americanism, he comments on America's new fangled Orwellian Society in terms that describe its politically correct policies to limit free expression:

"Admittedly, every epoch has its dominant ideas, and each ruling class in every country on earth is never too eager to discard its founding myths and replace them with other myths that may be seen as factors destabilizing for its political survival. Likewise, the dominant ideas at work in modern Americanism are often hailed by the ruling class and its court historians as 'self-evident.' Questioning the veracity of that self-evidence can cause serious troubles for an intellectual heretic and can even lead to the signing of a death warrant to their intellectual career. For instance, challenging the principles of American democracy or probing critically into the legacy of antifascist victimology must be strictly avoided. These prohibitions are not officially on display in America; they just constitute a public no-entry zone. An author or a politician who ventures into one of these forbidden fields is at best shrugged off as as a crank by the masters of modern American discourse or labeled as a 'prejudiced' person. At worst, he can end up in prison. In most cases, however, he will find himself cut off from academic discourse and political debate, which in effect means that he is intellectually sentenced to death."

Indeed, an increasing number of Americans seem to suffer under the politically correct rules of debate. One needs only to look at such individuals as the Ph.D.-level chemist Germar Rudolf, who was deported from the U.S. and ripped from his American wife and child for having dared to write his doctoral dissertation on a politically incorrect topic in Germany years prior, where he was imprisoned after being deported. The same can be said of Ernst Zundel, another victim of thought crime who was also ripped away from his wife in the hills of Tennessee and shipped to Europe for having dared to venture into politically incorrect territory by questioning some of aspects of history. Of course, while it's political taboo to discuss such things, it is unlikely either would have been deported if they weren't white. In today's Great Society, that is undoubtedly the greatest crime--being white--and trumps all others.

Sunic touches on the topic of white guilt that has plagued America for far too long. In his chapter, E Pluribus Dissensus: Exit European Americans, he describes some of the logic used to keep southern whites in a constant state of guilt and self-hate, and how similar actions have been used elsewhere as well:

"The end of the antebellum South can serve as a laboratory for studying the guilty feelings that European people have been subject to in early postmodernity. The social malady consisting in self-hate started in America after the Civil War, only to be re-enacted a hundred years later all over Europe and postmodern America. In early postmodernity, Europe and America participated in the same joint guilt trip that can only be atoned by financial gifts and excuses to non-Europeans. . . .

"Every opposing viewpoint was labeled by the liberal North as 'hostile to freedom,' similar to the smear campaign of modern Northern successors against authors who criticize globalism and Americanism."

Dr. Sunic also breaks the social taboo of commenting on those people who call themselves the "Chosen Ones" for their involvement in changing the racial make-up of the US. For instance, after the Senate defeated the recent immigration bill, which would have changed the status of over 12 million illegal aliens, one of the first to cry about this was the exclusively Jewish organization known as the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) of B'nai B'rith. The ADL then put forth an article arguing on the illegal immigrants' behalf. Such comments further prove Dr. Sunic's many statements:

"The process of Americanization seems to be enhanced by the rapid growth of multiracial society, which has always had strong supporters among Jewish intellectuals in America who have never hidden 'that making of the US into a multicultural society has been a major Jewish goal from the beginning of the nineteenth century' [citing George Sunderland]."

While Russia further distances itself from the Soviet apparatchik, we in America are slowly drifting that way, Dr. Sunic notes. If we in America are not too timid to take a hard look at reality, we must admit that America's laws discriminate against whites in the name of "equality," and America's white citizens are often afraid to even voice dissent against such ridiculous policies for fear of being socially stigmatized, just as it was the old Soviet policy to stigmatize the families of those who criticized its similar policies. As a result of such policies in America that discriminate against whites, it is causing our universities and companies to significantly lower the bar in an effort to have a racial make-up that is reflective of the population. Testing and skills can no longer be used as the main criteria for entrance, as America's educational institutions and companies become increasingly dysfunctional--similar to society itself in America. As time progresses, such policies will undoubtedly put America further behind in the world, and will eventually lead to third-world status unless something is done. As the economy slowly withers, there is no real need to ask ourselves, "Why?" It is but a matter of time when wide-scale non-white riots like those that have occurred in all of America's cities from time to time occur again; the real question remains whether America will be able to quell such riots. All it will take is a major, sudden drop in the economy, or perhaps the media's focus of an isolated incident such as the Rodney King case of '92. In the concluding chapter of Sunic's book, he seems to point out this self-evident truth that all Americans see but most fail to openly recognize:

"The egalitarian appetite, once observed in communist Homo sovieticus, is well under and under a new name in America and in Americanized Europe. American ideology will gain more prominence in the future, as egalitarian dynamics and wide-spread advocacy of permanent economic progress gain momentum. Once, when inequality was considered something natural, as it was in the antebellum South, or prior to the American Revolution, then even the crassest sign of inequality did not offend the observer's eye. By contrast, when everybody is declared equal, even the smallest dose of inequality becomes unbearable. 'The desire for equality becomes more and more insatiable as equality increases,' noted De Tocqueville. Consequently, as the American system becomes more and more economically opulent, even the slightest economic crisis, resulting in a small drop in living stands, is bound to cause social discord and political upheavals."

Dr. Sunic's views are refreshing and well worth reading. His book Homo Americanus should be required reading for all college students, and it is a tragic shame that it is not--yet, at least. Consider purchasing a copy of Homo americanus: Child of the Postmodern Age for yourself, and ask your local librarian to order a copy as well.