The Left is Seldom Right [Perfect Paperback]

Norman Berdichevsky (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 10, 2011

The purpose of this book is threefold:

1. To further document cases in both the United States and abroad that verify Jonah Goldberg’s thesis that a considerable segment of the American public is misled by the use of the terms “RIGHT vs. LEFT,” which are  cliché ridden, and often erroneous in their presentation of the most essential relevant facts and the conclusions drawn.

2. To demonstrate that it is primarily the Political Left that has a vested interest in the continued use of this terminology due to the considerable inroads made by the liberal media on public opinion. Many political pundits have drawn on the prestige of major writers and Hollywood celebrities whose work was shaped by a critical view of American culture as the epitome of alienation, hypocrisy and crass materialism in modern society. Their assumptions are that other cultures and societies are more authentic, “holistic,” integral and devoted to a sense of solidarity and community. These views have been reinforced in popular culture, especially in film and popular song as part of the counter-culture that arose in the 1960s. 

3. To show that antisemitism was not inherently a part of many nationalist “right-wing” movements and that it is generated today overwhelmingly from the Far Left under the encouragement of the wealth and power of militant Islam.

Editorial Reviews

Review

A challenging and provocative look at the history of “right wing” vs. “left wing” political movements and personalities. Dr. Berdichevsky shatters the ideological prism those terms impose. This book will change the way you view the political world, forever.

--Rebecca Bynum, author of Allah is Dead: Why Islam is Not a Religion

 

Norman Berdichevsky peels away the superficial layers of Left and Right, digs deep into history, unearths the complex political realities masked by a Good guys-Bad guys dichotomy devised by the Left for its own self-glorification, and brings to light the moral imperative.  

--Nidra Poller, novelist and journalist

 

In his "twenty-five case studies of crises, wars, alliances, conflicts, personalities and elections" Norman Berdichevsky clarifies the confusing history of Left-Right terminologies. He illustrates why a single dimension is insufficient to understand the differences and the unlikely alignments of supposed political opposites.

Be prepared to be enlightened, surprised and entertained as Dr. Berdichevsky lays bare the history behind the history you thought you knew proving that politics makes for strange bedfellows indeed.

  --Baron Bodissey (Editor, Gates of Vienna)

 

The malcontents gnawing at the fabric of western society thought they found a safe place hiding under the misnomer of "progressives".  And then came the savvy Norman Berdichevsky!  

--Judi McLeod, editor Canada Free Press

 

It is the darkest times that most anxiously call for light. In a world of lies, the light we hold to is truth. Norman Berdichevsky's work represents a courageous truth. Truth about the world we live in and those who would destroy it. To stand up to lies in a world of them requires courage, and to tell the truth requires even more.

--Daniel Greenfield (Editor, Sultan Knish)

--New English Review

The terms LEFT and RIGHT are so taken for granted in any discourse on political affairs that Dr. Berdichevsky s remarkable book appears as a welcome antidote to get us off the habit. It is a novel, insightful and well written treatise that should be required reading in any 101 course on political science and international affairs.

The twenty five case studies cover a varied range of both American and international affairs and history that reveal how often the political extremes on both the Right and Left have found a common front that ..... Glorify and deify abstractions such as The Nation, The Working Class, The Party, The Race, The King, The Leader, The Church and worst of all, The People

The book also contains an engaging personal note on how the author matured from radical and impressionable teenager, captivated by the language of the Left, convinced that it is always right, to the mature student of human nature and fallibility that is apparent in his judgment today.

This is indeed a book that suits the times with the approaching American presidential election of 2012 in which a large segment of the public may be expected to follow the same trajectory of political thinking by rejecting the glamour appeals of the Left with its penchant for identifying itself with so called progressive policies.

A large element in the book deals with how popular culture, particularly the cinema, has molded opinion in identifying its heroes with a false image of THE LEFT and why Hollywood has never dealt honestly with either the crimes of Stalinism and the gulags, Pol Pot, Castro, Arafat, or the principled resistance in World War II to the Nazis on the part of conservative, Christian, monarchist, nationalist and authoritarian parties and leaders... --The Discriminate Thinker

Last year, Dr. Berdichevsky published two books, one on Danish culture and the other on the Left-Right dichotomy. He engages popular culture, films, and the news media to explain why radical leftism is embraced as heroic, while traditional culture is denigrated. Many writers pursue this theme, but few do so with such an interesting and accessible range of topics. It is rare today to find writers who earn the title public intellectual and even more rare that they receive their due: Norman Berdichevsky is a public intellectual in the best sense of the term, and his books and articles deserve a larger audience. --Tina Trent --The Dissident Professor

About the Author

Norman Berdichevsky is the author of The Danish-German Border Dispute, Nations, Language and Citizenship, Spanish Vignettes; An Offbeat Look into Spain's Culture, Society & History and An Introduction to Danish Culture. He is the author of more than 200 articles and book reviews that have appeared in a variety of American, British, Danish, Israeli and Spanish periodicals and is a contributing editor for New English Review.

Product Details

• Perfect Paperback: 288 pages
• Publisher: New English Review Press; First edition (June 10, 2011)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0578080761
• ISBN-13: 978-0578080765
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 5.9 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (14 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,324,839 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

17 of 17 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Exceptional perspectives of great insight August 1, 2011

By Michael A. Zimmerman

Format:Perfect Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase

This exceptional book is directed, the author writes, "primarily to reach all those ... who grew up in an ultra liberal environment assuming that 'the left is is always right.'" Thus the book's title. The extremes of Left and Right, both often wrong, actually meet on many issues.
Several of the 25 chapters describe examples of European conservatives and right-wingers fighting the Nazis.
During Spain's civil war (1930s), Gen. Franco's military forces were supported by Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy. Berdichevsky reminds the reader that Franco went on to keep "right-wing" Spain neutral during WWII, making possible British naval operations in the Med, and that "right-wing" Franco also provided refuge to Jews escaping occupied France.
The book describes George Orwell's conversion to anti-Commnism while in Spain as a volunteer with the International Brigade in the late 1930s. Orwell wrote about the corrosive murderousness of communists and anarchists who grew to dominate the Republican alliance. The brave idealism of the volunteers to Spain and their horrendous casualties are described, while Berdichevsky suggests the side on which they fought, as it developed, may not have deserved their heroic contributions.
Another story is told of a far less-known volunteer movement, which aided Finland when it was attacked in 1939 by the USSR, just after Germany and the USSR as allies crushed Poland.
Berdichevsky shows "anti-Semitism was not inherently a part of many nationalist 'right-wing' movements and that it is generated today overwhelmingly from the Far Left encouraged by the wealth and power of militant Islam...."
The author counters Arab claims that Western democracies helped Israel in its 1948-49 independence war, explaining the primary Arab invaders -- from Transjordan and Egypt -- were armed by the British, with the eastern Palestine forces led by Brit officers. The USA actually prohibited arms shipments to the Mideast cutting off Israel, which was supplied by the USSR for a critical short period.
This book by Norman Berdichevsky is a welcome addtion to the political commentary of recent and current times, with perspectives of great insight. Read more ›

13 of 15 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars The Censored History of the Political Left August 10, 2011

By Billy Rojas

Format:Perfect Paperback

The Censored History of the Political Left

Norman Berdichevsky's new 2011 book deserves serious attention. Entitled, The Left is Seldom Right, the volume discusses a range of important --current-- political issues from a unique perspective that so far is mostly absent from the blogosphere and from the writings of the punditocracy.

Berdichevsky clearly has strong political views and is an outspoken critic of the Obama administration, but he is a political independent more than anything else and analyzes contemporary problems in an altogether fresh way.

The book starts with a tribute to Jonah Goldberg's Liberal Fascism, but takes the story much further. Still, for anyone who has read Goldberg's book Berdichevsky's follow-up will be very welcome. Here is the influence of Liberal Fascism but given new perspective, so unlike many other writers who also have been impressed by Goldberg but mostly have taken his theory as strict doctrine, rather than as a starting place from
which to rethink contemporary politics.

From one viewpoint Goldberg's thesis, that the far Left and the far Right converge, needs substantial modification since he seems to assume only a Marxist Left as bona fide, when in fact the Left was an amalgam of many different radical movements until well into the 20th century. Hence there is this weakness in Berdichevsky's volume also, since he does likewise. However, and the word deserves highlighting, there is so much more to Berdichevsky's overall argument that it would be almost pointless to get into a debate about this kind of reservation.

When reading The Left is Seldom Right you may also come to think to yourself,as I did, that several chapters should receive further treatment.... Again and again you will probably find yourself saying, "I thought I knew the subject but here is
something else that previously completely escaped me. If only other people knew this information it really would make a major difference in political thinking generally."

Possibly half of the book's 25 chapters are in this category. Not because they are too short, but because they generate genuine curiosity for even more.Several seem to be especially important. such as :
10. The Anachronistic American Jewish Affection for the Left
13. Franco, Fascism and the Falange : All Far Right but Not One and the Same.
19. Communist Party Support of Both Castro and Batista
21. Israel : From Darling of the Left to Pariah State.

Be prepared for a wealth of little known historical information that has major importance for how most people interpret contemporary politics.

There are two problems with the book, nonetheless, even if neither subtract from its overall value. One is a need for greater balance, since a variety of questions can be raised about the all-too-often dubious past of the Right( which sometimes is not "right" itself ). And then there is the author's overuse of words spelled out in ALL CAPS for added emphasis, a practice that is inexplicable on the part of a published writer who, in all of his scholarly articles that I have read so far, never does anything similar. But this sort of thing is almost entirely confined to scattered passages in the first half of the book. Otherwise the volume has few problems and, in any case, as anyone who reads it will likely say, the information in it is extremely valuable.

Almost always a pleasure to read, Berdichevsky has a sense for style and each chapter tells a story, not just presents facts and theories.

Several chapters in the book also discuss the part Islam plays in the modern world. One quote will tell you something about both the writer's style and about his interpretation of the substance of Islam as it is practiced by a majority
of the world's Muslims :

" Our media and government and even more incredibly the forces on thepolitical Left in much of the world have essentially promoted ignorance of what motivates Muslims to undertake violent acts, preferring to focus, on their individual problems..."

This nails it. Indeed, it should be regarded as axiomatic that the position of the Left is only possible because popular ignorance is taken for granted. Which is also my own independently derived theory. And such ignorance is anything
but limited to the issue of Islam. It is pervasive. What you will read in The Left is Seldom Right will make this abundantly clear.

Billy Rojas Read more ›

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Finally, a true "Must Read!" October 31, 2011

By King David

Format:Perfect Paperback

In "The Left is Seldom Right", Dr. Norman Berdichevsky writes with the authority & clarity born only of a true and complete knowledge and understanding of the subject. This is a book you will read more than once, quote often during debates and recommend to your friends . . . and they will thank you! - - Masterfully done, -- Bravo!

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars If you read history, you have to keep notes on right vs. left November 8, 2011

By SUSAN W PHIPPS

Format:Perfect Paperback

As I went through this marvelous book, I had to think as I read, since these labels changed vastly over time. We are so quick as a society to plant these words like a Scarlett Letter on other people. As I went through this history, I realized these terms have had very different meanings. Thanks for this read.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Berdichevsky Is a True Iconoclast September 23, 2011

By Ned May

Format:Perfect Paperback

Being a student of European history, my first introduction to Norman Berdichevsky's work was through a gift from my wife: this work on the Danish-German border dispute is for anyone who likes Europe's cultural history.The Danish-German Border Dispute, 1815-2001: Aspects of Cultural and Demographic Politics

So when "The Left is Seldom Right" came out, I knew it would be full of useful information. And so it is.

For one thing, the chapters can be read as stand-alone essays.

For another, it's full of "recent-ancient" history. For example, what *really* happened in 1948 when Truman gave Israel official US recogition, and the "striped pants boys" at the Dept of State were most unhappy with that decision.

Truman comes across as he really was (or at least as he sounds in his own autobiography): a feisty, humane, intelligent-but-uncredentialed outsider. He wasn't one of the elites like Marshall and the others. But he was people smart and he rose thru the ranks of the Dem political machine back home in Missouri. When he was appointed as Vice President it was a strategic move to capture some of the middle America vote; a nod to the "common people" - which FDR decidedly was not.

No one ever expected Truman would have to run anything. That's why he was given so little chance to win re-election by the pros. I wish there had been a picture in the book - the famous picture - of Truman triumphantly holding that newspaper, printed in the thousands ahead of time, With HUGE font headlines about Dewey's win. Truman's big smile in that photo is immensely enjoyable.

He heartily disliked the MSM and they returned the favor, making fun of his family.... That was the only thing that made Truman mad: when they went after his daughter.

But that's only a small part of this enchanting book. It's full of information many of you know but will enjoy recalling. Berdichevsky's perspective will remind you...

Also this is definitely a book to give to ANYONE under fifty. Even the well-educated ones won't know most of this material. Prof. Berdichevsky will fill in many of the lacunae in their knowledge of modern American history. No one can fill in ALL of them, but that's why the book has a bibliography.

His salute to the three women at the back of the book was the most informative part for me. Orianna Fallaci I know and have read. Sigrid Undset was a jewel of a find. My wife, Dymphna, now has the trilogy that won the Nobel Prize for literature in 1928:
Kristin Lavransdatter: (Penguin Classics Deluxe Edition)

She says it is riveting, and I guess it was since I didn't see much of her till she'd finished it. There is an excellent wiki on Undset's life and her conversion to Catholicism. Just use her name +wiki and you'll get all the information on this amazing woman.

The third woman is Pilar Rahola. No, I don't know her, either, but as Berdichevsky says, he was writing about three EUROPEAN "women of courage", and Rahola fits the bill. See her wiki:

[...]

There is an external link there to an editorial of hers in Haaretz two years ago. If anyone knows of translations of her work into English, I'd be interested. Given the strong anti-Semitism in Spain, she is obviously a woman of valor.

"The Left is Seldom Right" is my favorite book of 2011. One of those books that makes you grab people by the lapels...be sure to see the chapter "The Attractions of Jihad for the Far Right and the Far Left...see? Berdichevsky is a true iconoclast. Read more ›