Take Back the Right: How the Neocons and the Religious Right Have Betrayed the Conservative Movement [Paperback]

Philip Gold (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: July 29, 2004

From the days of Barry Goldwater through his work for presidential candidate Steve Forbes, Philip Gold was an active and influential conservative. The Great Society of the ‘60s seemed like a scam to this poor Jewish kid from Pittsburgh, so off he went to Yale and thus began a thirty-year crusade for the Right as an Ivy League marine, a cog in the think-tank world, participant in political campaigns, and a Beltway defense intellectual in the ‘80s and ‘90s. But growing disillusionment with the creed and its people provoked his clean break from the Right in 2002. Lithely written yet earnest, peppered with humor and insight, Take Back the Right is an anecdotal tale of a Republican policymaker's breakup with the conservative movement. While regaling readers with personal and political tales, Gold explores the forces that prompted his opposition to the war in Iraq, his first published critiques of Bush and the neo-conservatives around him, and his dismay at the cultural conservatives who have alienated the party from its roots. Gold predicts that our country is facing its greatest crises since the 1850s as his book prepares readers for what lies ahead and how we can avert disaster.

Product Details

• Paperback: 256 pages
• Publisher: Basic Books (July 29, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0786713526
• ISBN-13: 978-0786713523
• Product Dimensions: 8 x 5.2 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 11.2 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,660,981 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Right, Left and Center: Take a Look at This Book, October 8, 2004

By 

Virginia C. Torbert "freelance writer" (Yardley, PA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Take Back the Right: How the Neocons and the Religious Right Have Betrayed the Conservative Movement (Paperback)

This is not your mother's election season knockoff. Philip Gold takes the reader on a fascinating personal and intellectual journey inside and outside the conservative movement from the Vietnam era to today. He skewers the movement for abdicating its responsibility to help govern America and for engaging in the politics of mass resentment.

But this is not just gang up on the right-wing time. No sacred cow is left unscathed. Gold dives into the Culture War, blasting the media, liberals, psychologists, Hollywood and anyone contributing to the coarsening, materialism, and "if it feels good, do it" mentality of society.

But Gold has a higher purpose here. He is really calling for all of us to take back the political dialogue in this country from the media, the ideologues, the pollsters, the pundits, etc. He is talking about a new concept of citizenship and civilization to unite us and guide our role in the world. Curious? You won't find a more intriguing or "out of the box" argument, and you'll have lots of fun along the way.

12 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A (ex) Conservative With Something to Say, October 4, 2004

By 

Erin Solaro "Erin" (Washington) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Take Back the Right: How the Neocons and the Religious Right Have Betrayed the Conservative Movement (Paperback)

Philip Gold has rewritten the post-Korean War political history of the United States as if citizenship matters, and he does so lightly, with grace and humor, using the personal to make larger points. The book's title is something of a bait-and-switch, probably imposed upon him by publishers who like to stick to their formulas, for it hints at bad things that have happened, of which there are plenty.



But in fact, Take Back The Right is about the good things conservatism might have offered, and didn't, then. An answer to the civil rights movement that respected Black people's pain, while viewing them as more than the sum of the wounds inflicted upon them. A response to the gimme-gimme-gimme of the usual feminist suspects who proclaimed men evil: that civilization is nothing short of the public life men and women create together as equals, and must defend together. A principled, prudent objection to the Vietnam War. Nor does now: a foreign policy that addresses the fact that half the species is women; the case for gay marriage, there being no morally coherent opposition to it; the prudent, adult reasons for America risking unilateral rationality and withdrawing from Iraq; and the deep concerns over an economic policy that is bankrupting this nation and threatening its very future.



I am a long-time fan of Philip Gold's original, thoughtful articles in the conservative press, but here he steps beyond the constraints of the narrow, outworn categories of left and right, liberal and conservative, Republican and Democrat, to offer us something of enduring worth: an invitation for us to cease being taxpayers, or worse, consumers, and reclaim our birthright as citizens. People, men and women, of all races, religions and sexual orientations, coming together in public, to define and create an American civilization, and defend it against very real enemies.

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars This is a smokin' good book, October 8, 2004

By 

Marianne Mcdonald (Yardley, PA USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Take Back the Right: How the Neocons and the Religious Right Have Betrayed the Conservative Movement (Paperback)

I always thought that conservatives were intolerant, brain dead bigots. They are, BUT THIS GUY SHOWS THAT IT DIDN'T HAVE TO BE THAT WAY. He explains what went wrong and shows that it's not too late for conservatives, Provided they give up the ugliness and the phoniness. The nice thing is, Gold makes his points with good humor and forgiveness. I especially recommend the story of his encounter with the Barbie doll when he was in the MARINES. This has nothing to do with the book's themes, but I laughed for ten minutes after I read it.

Marianne Cramer