141 used & new from $0.01

Have one to sell? Sell yours here
 
 
Slouching Towards Gomorrah: Modern Liberalism and American Decline
 
 
Tell the Publisher!
I’d like to read this book on Kindle

Don’t have a Kindle? Get your Kindle here.
 
  

Slouching Towards Gomorrah: Modern Liberalism and American Decline (Paperback)

~ (Author), (Author) "It is important to understand what the Sixties turmoil was about, for the youth culture that became manifest then is the modern liberal culture of..." (more)
Key Phrases: egalitarian passion, modern liberal culture, modern liberalism, United States, Supreme Court, New Left (more...)
3.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (137 customer reviews)


Available from these sellers.


15 new from $0.01 124 used from $0.01 2 collectible from $14.00

Formats

Amazon Price New from Used from
  Hardcover, May 31, 1996 -- $1.24 $0.01
  Paperback, November 30, 2003 $11.66 $5.11 $0.98
  Paperback, June 1997 -- $0.01 $0.01
  Audio, Cassette, Audiobook, Unabridged $69.95 $44.07 $44.06

Customers Who Bought This Item Also Bought

A Time to Speak: Selected Writings and Arguments (American Ideals & Institutions)

A Time to Speak: Selected Writings and Arguments (American Ideals & Institutions)

by Hon. Robert H. Bork
5.0 out of 5 stars (5)  $19.80
A Country I Do Not Recognize: The Legal Assault On American Values (Hoover Institution Press)

A Country I Do Not Recognize: The Legal Assault On American Values (Hoover Institution Press)

by Robert H. Bork
3.8 out of 5 stars (4)  $11.70
The TEMPTING OF AMERICA

The TEMPTING OF AMERICA

by Robert H. Bork
4.5 out of 5 stars (30)  $12.48
Coercing Virtue: The Worldwide Rule of Judges

Coercing Virtue: The Worldwide Rule of Judges

by Robert H. Bork
3.6 out of 5 stars (24)  $19.00
The Tempting of America: The Political Seduction of the Law

The Tempting of America: The Political Seduction of the Law

by Robert H. Bork
Explore similar items

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Robert Bork will go down as one of history's footnotes. Nominated to the Supreme Court by Ronald Reagan in 1987, he was voted down by the Senate following a no-holds barred confirmation fight. Almost a decade later, he returns to reopen old wounds with Slouching towards Gomorrah, an extended attack against everything liberal. From pop culture and our universities to the church (Protestant and Roman Catholic) and the Supreme Court--the very institution he once fought so hard to join--Bork finds fault wherever he looks. This is a bitter book from a passionate man who has very little good to say about the world he lives in. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.


From Publishers Weekly

Controversial former federal court judge Bork (The Tempting of America) has produced a wide-ranging but turgid jeremiad, citing mostly familiar, conservative explanations for American decline. Thus he attacks multiculturalism, racial and sexual politics, the Supreme Court and the criminal justice and welfare systems, among others, often relying on the work of critics such as Charles Murray, Thomas Sowell, Richard Bernstein and Christopher Lasch. Bork's tone can be overwrought: "[M]odern liberalism... is what fascism looks like when it has captured significant institutions, most notably the universities." He also offers a knee-jerk condemnation of rock and rap. Despite such verbiage, Bork does strike a chord with his criticisms that individualism and egalitarianism have loosened social ties and weakened America, and with his warnings that recent decisions on assisted suicide may have broad, Roe v. Wade-like implications. Several arguments should spur debate. Bork disagrees with those who call for greater economic equality?"it is not that America is odd compared to Sweden, but that Sweden is odd compared to us." He believes that constitutional legitimacy can only be reclaimed if we pass a constitutional amendment allowing Congress to override federal and state court decisions. He also supports censorship of "the most violent and sexually explicit material," though he doesn't suggest how it might be implemented. Bork finds some hope in the rise of religious conservatism, and proposes a multiple-front strategy to reclaim American institutions. Author tour.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Product Details

  • Paperback: 400 pages
  • Publisher: ReganBooks (June 1997)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 0060987197
  • ISBN-13: 978-0060987190
  • Product Dimensions: 7.9 x 5.3 x 1.1 inches
  • Shipping Weight: 11.2 ounces
  • Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (137 customer reviews)
  • Amazon.com Sales Rank: #425,510 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

More About the Author

Robert H. Bork
Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.

Visit Amazon's Robert H. Bork Page

Inside This Book (learn more)


What Do Customers Ultimately Buy After Viewing This Item?

Slouching Towards Gomorrah: Modern Liberalism and American Decline
90% buy the item featured on this page:
Slouching Towards Gomorrah: Modern Liberalism and American Decline 3.9 out of 5 stars (137)
A Time to Speak: Selected Writings and Arguments (American Ideals & Institutions)
3% buy
A Time to Speak: Selected Writings and Arguments (American Ideals & Institutions) 5.0 out of 5 stars (5)
$19.80
Liberty and Tyranny: A Conservative Manifesto
3% buy
Liberty and Tyranny: A Conservative Manifesto 4.7 out of 5 stars (2,062)
$14.33
The TEMPTING OF AMERICA
2% buy
The TEMPTING OF AMERICA 4.5 out of 5 stars (30)
$12.48

Tags Customers Associate with This Product

 (What's this?)
Click on a tag to find related items, discussions, and people.
 

Your tags: Add your first tag
 

Sell a Digital Version of This Book in the Kindle Store

If you are a publisher or author and hold the digital rights to a book, you can sell a digital version of it in our Kindle Store. Learn more

 

Customer Reviews

137 Reviews
5 star:
 (79)
4 star:
 (20)
3 star:
 (8)
2 star:
 (9)
1 star:
 (21)
 
 
 
 
 
Average Customer Review
3.9 out of 5 stars (137 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
Share your thoughts with other customers:
Most Helpful Customer Reviews

 
63 of 71 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Bork's incisive explication of our society's decline., February 23, 1997
By A Customer
"I use to call him 'Dork'," said a Liberal friend of mine recently. I patiently replied, "Ha, ha. I used to call him 'Railroaded'." He knew exactly what I was talking about--the 1987 confirmation hearing of Robert Bork before the Senate Judiary Committee. This confirmation hearing was very instructive to many of us--if you actually think that the Constitution of the United States has anything to do with Constitutional Law, don't bother looking for a job on the U.S. Supreme Court. Here in Slouching Towards Gomorrah Bork, in taking some well-earned and enlightening revenge, continues the incisive and dead-on analysis of his subject which he exhibited in The Tempting of America, his book about Constitutional Law, judicial activism, and the Court's hijacking of our country. Bork's thesis here is this: Modern America has been infected and weakened by two main currents embraced and perpetuated by Liberalism, (1) radical egalitarianism and (2) radical individualism. Interestingly, he doesn't just place the locus embryonicus for these intellectual and cultural viruses in the 1960s, although he certainly traces their major gestation period to that decade. Rather, Bork points out the historical and fairly old occurences of these maladies. He gets to the very seeds of these currents which germinate and blossom on the scene in the early 1960s. Well, the radical egalitarianism that Bork identifies perfectly is not an egalitarianism which stems from Jefferson, the Declaration of Independence, and Lincoln, but the egalitarianism that says that everybody, darn it, is going to be equal, or else. People should not be allowed to make too much money, or own too many things, or be too successful in this world. Hence this brand of equality leads, necessarily and logically, to government coercion, meddling, and refereeing. Further, then, argues Bork, this leads to an expanding Federal Government which, with the ample help of the activists courts, has taken over almost every meaningful aspect of our lives in the effort to level everyone in the name of equality and justice. Radical individualism, again to be distinguished from generic individualism, also to be found in our formational and fundamental documents, is the kind that recognizes no standards in any area of personal behavior, except, of course, where the government deems that equality is more important. It is this radical individualism that will accept no standards, except those thought up, or felt, by the individual, that wants government out of peoples' business. It is the acceptance, actually, of nihilism--that cuddly ol' deathwish germinated in Nietzsche's brain about a century ago. This nihilism has led to the problems of divorce, abortion, euthanasia, homosexuality, pornography, and just about any other malady that continues to tear the fabric of this country apart. Bork certainly presents us with an analysis of our cutlural and intellectual diseases that must make his detractors, and his admirers, think long and hard about our practices, ideas, and assumptions. The long road to reform has to start with the proper intellectual framework. Once this is accented to it will be a matter of will and determination to ensure that we "leap away from Gomorrah."
Comment Comments (2) | Permalink | Was this review helpful to you? Yes No (Report this)



 
24 of 27 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Describes Impact of Traditional Liberalism Turned Radical, December 5, 1999
By A Customer
Judge Bork does a superb job of describing the various elements of destruction that have arisen from the application of modern liberalism to American society. He also offers best and worst case scenarios for the future of the Republic if the current trends continue.

Bork makes it clear that he speaks not of the traditional liberalism exercised by the Founding Fathers but rather an ideological departure from that tradition that has hijacked and bastardized the name.

The modern form of liberalism consists of radical egalitarianism, which inherently requires a coercive State. It also consists of a radical individualism that corrodes institutions of restraint (i.e. family, religion, etc.) eventually leading to a free-for-all that will require the strong hand of government to contain. The centrality and powerfulness of the State in modern liberalism is its most radical departure from traditional liberalism.

Bork does not deride the successes and accomplishment of liberalism when it still possessed the goals and intentions compatible with its tradition - e.g. civil rights for minorities, suffrage for women, etc. However, it quickly evolved into an entirely different beast in the mid-to-late 1960s and has never looked back. The fact that there are currently forty professed Socialists in the U.S. House of Representatives (all Democrat) is testimony to the extreme left-turn taken by those calling themselves liberal today.

Bork does deride the goals, intentions, and actions of this new breed of liberal. It is virulently anti-American and anti-Western Civilization. As it has with the term "liberalism," the modern liberal has hijacked worthy causes (e.g. civil rights) and has politicized them in order to advance their radical agenda. Modern liberalism wishes to rob America of its unique heritage and to replace it with a revolutionary concept of human nature and human governance.

Bork goes through the various components of society where modern liberalism has left the mark of its poison - crime, illegitimacy, welfare, abortion, assisted suicide, sex (feminism), race (racial-preferences), ethnicity (multi-culturalism), education (anti-intellectualism, post-modernism), religion, etc. While Bork is careful not to place the blame entirely on the 1960s radicals, he does point out that they were the climax of an ideological swing.

The 1960s radicals are now tenured professors and hold other positions of leadership and influence. They may no longer be assaulting police officers and burning buildings, but they continue to spread their poison in institutions of higher learning, government bureaucracies, think-tanks, and on the judicial bench. The impact of their influence permeates throughout society and is manifest especially on college campuses where the students of radical professors carry the torch of anti-Americanism, anti-Europeans, anti-capitalism, anti-Western Culture, anti-white, anti-male, etc.

Bork makes it clear that continuing down the current path can only spell disaster for America's future - where inter-racial, inter-gender, inter-ethnic antagonism reaches a peak of resentment and hostility leading to the breakdown of civil order.

Perhaps this is what modern liberals want - a revolution to remake America in their own image and dispense with its entire heritage. But this is clearly not what most Americans want, which leads to Bork's point that the liberal radicals are a small minority of élites that have an impact totally out of proportion to their numbers.

Bork offers several options for reversing the trend towards social implosion. However, he quickly reduces the choices to one that focuses on the re-assertion of institutions of order and virtue - family and religion. It is only by reviving these institutions that there may be any hope of taking the momentum out of the modern liberal onslaught. While Bork does sense a glimmer of hope in this approach, he wonders whether such an approach may merely slow the onslaught that will eventually end in the disintegration of our society and culture.

This book is an absolute eye-opener to what damage has already been wrought by modern liberalism. If there is any chance at all of taming and turning back the beast, the first step is to "know thy enemy." This book serves that purpose. Hence, I recommend it to every freedom-loving American. Obviously, most liberals won't like what Bork has to say, but I think most people calling themselves liberals today have no idea what some are doing under that label. Therefore, I recommend this book to liberals as well so that they can read for themselves what liberal radicals have done and are doing to undermine American culture and society.

Comment Comment (1) | Permalink | Was this review helpful to you? Yes No (Report this)



 
114 of 146 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Describes Impact of Traditional Liberalism Turned Radical, December 23, 1999
By A Customer
Judge Bork does a superb job of describing the various elements of destruction that have arisen from the application of modern liberalism to American society. He also offers best and worst case scenarios for the future of the Republic if the current trends continue.

Bork makes it clear that he speaks not of the traditional liberalism exercised by the Founding Fathers but rather an ideological departure from that tradition that has hijacked and bastardized the name.

The modern form of liberalism consists of radical egalitarianism, which inherently requires a coercive State. It also consists of a radical individualism that corrodes institutions of restraint (i.e. family, religion, etc.) eventually leading to a free-for-all that will require the strong hand of government to contain. The centrality and powerfulness of the State in modern liberalism is its most radical departure from traditional liberalism.

Bork does not deride the successes and accomplishment of liberalism when it still possessed the goals and intentions compatible with its tradition - e.g. civil rights for minorities, suffrage for women, etc. However, it quickly evolved into an entirely different beast in the mid-to-late 1960s and has never looked back. The fact that there are currently fifty-five professed Socialists in the U.S. House of Representatives (all Democrat) is testimony to the extreme left-turn taken by those calling themselves liberal today.

Bork does deride the goals, intentions, and actions of this new breed of liberal. It is virulently anti-American and anti-Western Civilization. As it has with the term "liberalism," the modern liberal has hijacked worthy causes (e.g. civil rights) and has politicized them in order to advance their radical agenda. Modern liberalism wishes to rob America of its unique heritage and to replace it with a revolutionary concept of human nature and human governance.

Bork goes through the various components of society where modern liberalism has left the mark of its poison - crime, illegitimacy, welfare, abortion, assisted suicide, sex (feminism), race (racial-preferences), ethnicity (multi-culturalism), education (anti-intellectualism, post-modernism), religion, etc. While Bork is careful not to place the blame entirely on the 1960s radicals, he does point out that they were the climax of an ideological swing.

The 1960s radicals are now tenured professors and hold other positions of leadership and influence. They may no longer be assaulting police officers and burning buildings, but they continue to spread their poison in institutions of higher learning, government bureaucracies, think-tanks, and on the judicial bench. The impact of their influence permeates throughout society and is manifest especially on college campuses where the students of radical professors carry the torch of anti-Americanism, anti-Europeans, anti-capitalism, anti-Western Culture, anti-white, anti-male, etc.

Bork makes it clear that continuing down the current path can only spell disaster for America's future - where inter-racial, inter-gender, inter-ethnic antagonism reaches a peak of resentment and hostility leading to the breakdown of civil order.

Perhaps this is what modern liberals want - a revolution to remake America in their own image and dispense with its entire heritage. But this is clearly not what most Americans want, which leads to Bork's point that the liberal radicals are a small minority of élites that have an impact totally out of proportion to their numbers.

Bork offers several options for reversing the trend towards social implosion. However, he quickly reduces the choices to one that focuses on the re-assertion of institutions of order and virtue - family and religion. It is only by reviving these institutions that there may be any hope of taking the momentum out of the modern liberal onslaught. While Bork does sense a glimmer of hope in this approach, he wonders whether such an approach may merely slow the onslaught that will eventually end in the disintegration of our society and culture.

This book is an absolute eye-opener to what damage has already been wrought by modern liberalism. If there is any chance at all of taming and turning back the beast, the first step is to "know thy enemy." This book serves that purpose. Hence, I recommend it to every freedom-loving American. Obviously, most liberals won't like what Bork has to say, but I think most people calling themselves liberals today have no idea what some are doing under that label. Therefore, I recommend this book to liberals as well so that they can read for themselves what liberal radicals have done and are doing to undermine American culture and society.

Comment Comment | Permalink | Was this review helpful to you? Yes No (Report this)


Share your thoughts with other customers: Create your own review
 
 
 
Most Recent Customer Reviews

2.0 out of 5 stars How Bork was wrong
A big issue among the right is the supposed question of "moral relativism." The problem with that is that it is basically a strawman. Read more
Published 7 months ago by C. Kronquist

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent Articulation of What has Happened in America

God Bless Judge Bork for his honest service to this country and for writing this marvelous historical assessment of what has transpired in the United States. Read more
Published 7 months ago by Nicholas Fernandez

4.0 out of 5 stars Intelligent Conservative Philosophy (even though I don't agree w/ it all)
thoughtful, well-written perspective on conservative theory. although i'm very liberal in almost every topic in politics, at least this author presents his points intelligently
Published 10 months ago by S. Riley

2.0 out of 5 stars Worthwhile ideas destroyed by too many errors and omissions
Robert Bork's "Slouching Towards Gomorrah: Modern Liberalism and American Decline" has long attracted my attention - an attention that ultimately I often feel comes from being a... Read more
Published 12 months ago by mianfei

5.0 out of 5 stars Required reading in schools?
Never in history has a nation embraced a radical individualistic and egalitarian ideology as ours has. Read more
Published 13 months ago by Robert Decell

5.0 out of 5 stars The definitive statement of the conservative critique of liberalism
This book was first written in 1996. Not many books are worth reading, 12 years after they are published. This one is. Read more
Published 19 months ago by Richard Gibson

5.0 out of 5 stars A must-read for anyone who cares about our nation's future
This book is not to be missed by anyone who is concerned about where our country is heading. With surgical precision, Judge Bork dissects our declining culture, discovering in the... Read more
Published 20 months ago by Kitty Foth-Regner

5.0 out of 5 stars Not for Sissies!
This is definitely not a book for sissies. If you want hard hitting, historically accurate, and unassailable truth smacking you upside the head in every page, and you are willing... Read more
Published 21 months ago by Michael Driskill

5.0 out of 5 stars Remains Immaculate.
I had no idea that Slouching Towards Gomorrah was re-released in 2003. I'm surprised and pleased though about how many reviews there are for it. Read more
Published 22 months ago by Bernard Chapin

5.0 out of 5 stars BAM!!!
Never before have I read a review summarily describing the rise of the Leftist movement (at least in modern times and in American culture) than I have seen here. Read more
Published on September 23, 2007 by Heather Light

Only search this product's reviews



Customer Discussions

This product's forum
Discussion Replies Latest Post
No discussions yet

Ask questions, Share opinions, Gain insight
Start a new discussion
Topic:
First post:
Prompts for sign-in
 


Active discussions in related forums
Search Customer Discussions
Search all Amazon discussions
   




Product Information from the Amapedia Community

Beta (What's this?)


Look for Similar Items by Category


Look for Similar Items by Subject

 

Feedback

If you need help or have a question for Customer Service, contact us.
 Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?
Is there any other feedback you would like to provide?

Your comments can help make our site better for everyone.



Your Recent History

 (What's this?)

After viewing product detail pages or search results, look here to find an easy way to navigate back to pages you are interested in.