Soulless: Ann Coulter and the Right-Wing Church of Hate (Hardcover)

~ Susan Estrich (Author)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description

"A word to those of you out there who have yet to be offended by something I have written or said: Please be patient. I am working as fast as I can." -Ann Coulter, 2006

Is she ever!

Ever since the publication of her Clinton-bashing debut, High Crimes and Misdemeanors, right-wing fire-brand Ann Coulter has made herself one of the most talked-about figures in contemporary American life--and has done so by issuing a near-continuous barrage of insult and invective, which has been described as "shameless," "cruel," "shrill, bombastic, and mean-spirited," "grossly inappropriate," "hate speech." She has called the 9/11 widows "witches" and "harpies," referred to Muslims as "ragheads," called Al Gore a "total fag," and said that both New York Times editor Bill Keller and antiwar congressman Jack Murtha deserved to die. Yet with each new statement--and each new book launch--Coulter somehow manages to co-opt the media as a megaphone for her attacks, while emerging from the backlash miraculously unscathed.

Until now. With Soulless, political commentator Susan Estrich takes on Ann and the "Coulter culture" she has created, exposing how the pundit provocatrice has downgraded our political discourse with her irresponsible rhetoric, personal attacks, and slanderous asides. Trawling through Coulter's history of often-violent public statements, Estrich asks which are more cynical: the pundit and her headline-grabbing drive-by character assassinations, or the networks who happily bring her back for more. Soulless also casts a light on "the Anns," wannabes like Michelle Malkin and Glenn Beck, whose imitation Coulterisms coarsen our culture with every passing news cycle. And, most important, she challenges us--the readers, the voters--to remember that behind the huckster's rhetoric lurks a dangerous reactionary whose real agenda is wildly out of step with the American public.

As Estrich says, "She knows exactly what she is doing. And she is scary as hell because of it."

Product Details

• Hardcover: 272 pages
• Publisher: William Morrow (October 10, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0061246492
• ISBN-13: 978-0061246494
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 13.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 2.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (67 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #926,607 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

  Popular in this category: (What's this?)

  #44 in

  Books > Nonfiction > Social Sciences > Political Science > Rhetoric

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

21 of 29 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Good, not great, May 2, 2007

By	S. Potter "thepothole" (Mapleville, RI United States) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This is certainly one of the politest books taking on the meaness and rhetoric of a right-wing pundit I've ever seen. Throughout the work, Estrich differentiates between Coulter-the person (who she likes) and Coulter-the writer/speaker (who she does not).

This book is not so much just about Coulter herself, which has been done in many other places, after all, but the political culture that she creates and informs. While not containing as much "red meat" for readers on the left looking for a humerous denounciation of Coulter, I actually apreciated the approach Estrich took all the more for it.

Using Coulter's more famous comments, Estrich shows how they demean the debate while putting oppenents into the position of attacking the comments and not the issue they are supposedly about. Estrich then goes on to show how progressives can reframe the debate to reflect the issue and the common "middle" that the majority of Americans actually support.

It's a bit preachy at times, but I really liked how this was more a book on how to deal with the outrageous that hijacks the debate than just reacting to the outrageousness itself. This is more about returning civility and reason to the political scene than it is a simple knee-jerk attack on the queen of attack politics.

116 of 176 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars God knows this was long overdue!, October 20, 2006

By	Chuck Donegan (NY) - See all my reviews

Estrich has finally dared to take on whom Al Franken once called the "reigning diva of the hysterical right", and really nails it, exposing her innacuracies, hypocrisy, and general hatefulness...notice how the 1-star reviews on this page do little more than attack the author's physical appearance, deride her for making the title a parody of Coulter's latest attack piece (um, didn't you neo-cons do the same 10 years ago w/"Al Franken is a Buck-Toothed Moron"?), and regurgitate conservative talking points (the book's an attack on GOPers, Christianity, etc.)..if you actually READ the book, you'd see it's actually a debunking of someone who's distorting these values you supposedly hold dear and making your party look bad by assocation. And if you do read the book, I'm sure you'll find it to be a real eye-opener.

42 of 64 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars WITTY AND INSIGHTFUL LOOK AT THE PARTY OF HATE, October 14, 2006

By	Glenn Johnson "TOP 40 ADDICT" (Kentucky, USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Susan Estrich disembowels the wretched stinky monster that is the republicans who seem to of cornered the market on hate for the last 10 years . Corporate scandals, election rigging, child molesting, war mongering all coated in a slimy layer of lies and corruption is all that's left of Reagans monster. Not content with creating al Qaeda and wasting billions of taxpayers dollars (dollars they seem to whine about paying 24 hours a day) on a phony war in Iraq. Now hate mongers like Hannity and Limbaugh polute the American airwaves with vitriolic hatespeech that only Hitler could love. Coulter being the beast in the cellar people like Hannity wheel out every couple of days when the stench has started to die down.

I guess losing to Clinton twice drove what was once a fairly respectable political party in fits of despair and rage and they can't seem to let go of it. Estrich, in a wonderfully mocking cover, exposes these monsters for the soulless pitiful fools they are. Sure the rabid will infest this place with their brainwashed rants about liberals this, liberals that but true Americans will reach past the hatemongers and see these animals for what they are.