Customer Reviews

The Left at War (Cultural Front)

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This is an interesting, if not very enlightening walk through the internecine battles among the left. Berube contradicts himself repeatedly throughout the book, and he seems to believe that political thinkers and their followers are necessarily discrete; that one cannot embrace Chomsky and Herman's propaganda model while also believing the average Joe can think critically. He relies too much on one thinker, Stuart Hall, just as others often do with Chomsky or Zinn. Reading this in May 2010, as the corporatist agenda of the Obama administration has become depressingly clear, all this discussion of how the left can be more effective felt rather moot. Nevertheless, an important message does get through the muddle: A big long-term goal for the left should be to build international institutions to protect human beings from oppression.

Berube writes well, and tackles the pathologies of the hawkish left and Manichean left of Chomsky et al. Well worth the time and effort.