Taking Back America: And Taking Down the Radical Right (Nation Books) [Paperback]

Katrina vanden Heuvel (Editor), Robert L. Borosage (Editor)

Book Description

Series: Nation Books | Publication Date: March 1, 2004

Taking Back America is a direct challenge to the Bush administration. This important collection of essays, drawn from the historic Take Back America Conference in Washington D.C. and the pages of The Nation, exposes the radical, reactionary scope of the Bush agenda and the damage that it will do if left unchecked. Included in Taking Back America are outstanding essays by leading figures within the progressive movement. Barbara Ehrenreich explores how working people can be empowered; William Greider analyzes Bush ambitions and their destructive potential; Ralph Neas of People for the American Way explains the war Bush is waging against the American people and their rights; Danny Goldberg describes how youth can be mobilized; Ben Barber and Tom Andrews challenge the destabilizing Bush doctrine of pre-emptive war, and Robert Borosage and Katrina vanden Heuvel lay out a progressive strategy for the future. Anchoring the collection is an electrifying address by Bill Moyers that places the current struggle into historic context, and shows how it is democracy itself that is at stake.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Katrina vanden Heuvel is editor and publisher of The Nation. She lives in New York City.

Product Details

• Paperback: 256 pages
• Publisher: Nation Books (March 1, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1560255838
• ISBN-13: 978-1560255833
• Product Dimensions: 7.6 x 5 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 11.2 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,032,525 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

26 of 32 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Terrific Read, July 25, 2004

By 

A Patriotic Professor "universityprofessor2293" (New York, NY) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Taking Back America: And Taking Down the Radical Right (Nation Books) (Paperback)

This is a truly terrific read, and should be required reading for all patriotic Americans. During the past four years, America has been set on a dangerous and destructive path by the radical Bush administration. GW Bush's policies are so extreme that they bear almost no resemblence to the Republican party of yore- the one of Pat Buchanan and George HW Bush the First. Katrina Vanden Heuvel, editor of "The Nation" magazine (which has the highest circulation of any political weekly now) lays out a well-reasoned battle plan for everyone across the political spectrum who wants to put America back on track. As a professor at a prominent American university, I appreciated the scholarly approach of the book- it is not a liberal screed, but a well-reasoned and very convincing argument for patriotic policies that make America safer and stronger at home, and respected in the world.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Some Interesting Progressive Ideas., September 28, 2008

By 

J.L. Populist (WI,USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Taking Back America: And Taking Down the Radical Right (Nation Books) (Paperback)

This is a reader type book which includes some articles from "The Nation" magazine. Some of the contributors that I like the best were William Greider,Bill Moyers, and Miles Rapoport.

This book was published in 2004 prior to Bush's reelection so some of the material is now out-of-date.

William Greider took a critical look at the conservative plans for taxation, basically tax labor instead of capital.
Bush's "market friendly" health care reforms and how drug companies and HMO's benefited from it.

Robert Reich had this to say about Bush's tax cuts. "Their purpose was to reward the administration's wealthy friends, and at the same time to starve the government so that there's no money left for Social Security, Medicare, education, health care, or anything else. Privatization of such services becomes a more palatable alternative when there's no money for public provision."

Some of the obstacles in the way of universal health care are listed. Among them are the power of health insurance and big pharmaceutical company lobbyists.
Also examined were the large portion of the health care tab that pays administrative fees and profit.

Bracken Hendricks covered energy deregulation and the results of that strategy as well as Cheney's secret energy task force and how the energy plan didn't address the dependency on imported oil.

Benjamin Barber provided the less-known second verse of "America the Beautiful". "America! America! God mend thine every flaw. Confirm thy soul in self control. Thy Liberty is law!" Self Control and Liberty are words that stand out.

I didn't find any value in the "Declaration of Interdependence". It rings too much like a global or world order. No thanks. I'll stick with the "Declaration of Independence" and the Constitution.

I really like some of the election reform ideas that Miles Rapoport contributed.
Allowing sixteen and seventeen year old students to preregister to vote while in High School is one.
Making Election Day a national holiday is another idea that might stimulate more voter participation.

Bill Moyers gave some history comparing Karl Rove with Mark Hanna, the man that made William McKinley.

This book has some well thought out ideas for fixing a lot of the damage that the Bush administration has caused.