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The Dark Side of the Left: Illiberal Egalitarianism in America (American Political Thought) Paperback – February 28, 1998

by Richard J. Ellis (Author)

13 customer reviews

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Why do people who identify themselves as liberal or egalitarian sometimes embrace intolerance or even preach violence? Illiberalism has come to be expected of the right in this country; its occurrence on the left is more paradoxical but no less real. Although equality lies at the heart of the liberal tradition, the earnest pursuit of egalitarian goals has often come at the expense of other liberal ideals.

In this provocative book, Richard J. Ellis examines the illiberal tendencies that have characterized egalitarian movements throughout American history, from the radical abolitionists of the 1830s to the New Left activists of the 1960s. He also takes on contemporary radical feminists like Catherine MacKinnon and radical environmental groups like Earth First! to show that, even today, many of the American left's sacred cows have cloven hooves.

Ellis identifies the organizational and ideological dilemmas that caused Students for a Democratic Society to transform itself from a democratic to an elitist organization, or that allow radicals to justify illegal acts as long as they are free of self-interest. He explains how orthodoxy arises within a group from the need to maintain distance from a society it views as hopelessly corrupt, and how individuals committed to egalitarian causes are particularly susceptible to illiberalism even poets like Walt Whitman, who celebrated the common people but often expressed contempt for their mundane lives. Political correctness, idealizing the oppressed, and an affinity for authoritarian and charismatic leaders are all parts of what Ellis calls "the dark side of the left."

Building on the groundwork laid by Richard Hofstadter in his pioneering book, The Age of Reform, Ellis exposes the shortcomings of today's left and provides a badly needed historical perspective on the contemporary debate over "political correctness." The Dark Side of the Left is a gutsy book that is essential reading for anyone who occasionally feels dark forebodings about seemingly noble causes.

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Product Details

Series: American Political Thought
Paperback: 440 pages
Publisher: Univ Pr of Kansas (February 28, 1998)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0700610308
ISBN-13: 978-0700610303
Product Dimensions: 1 x 6.2 x 9.2 inches
Shipping Weight: 1.3 pounds
Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars See all reviews (13 customer reviews)
Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,133,090 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #888 in Books > Politics & Social Sciences > Politics & Government > Ideologies & Doctrines > Radicalism
- #4200 in Books > Politics & Social Sciences > Politics & Government > Ideologies & Doctrines > Conservatism & Liberalism
- #11288 in Books > Politics & Social Sciences > Politics & Government > Political Science > History & Theory

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Customer Reviews

4.2 out of 5 stars

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46 of 50 people found the following review helpful

Blowin' in the wind

By Eugene A Jewett on June 25, 1998

Format: Hardcover

The remarkable capacity of mankind to hear what he wants to hear while disregarding the rest is as evident in the close mindedness of the Left as it is in the the religious zealotry of the Right. Ellis does a fine job of bringing this compartmentalized brain syndrome condition into focus as he covers all the bases while uncovering the corruption of the various Liberal bastions. Even the use of the word Liberal is corrupted in terms of its original definition. We need more intellectually honest social critics like Ellis to call the hand of the Tom Hayden's of the world. Anything to increase the speed of the pendulum as it continues its swing back toward the political middle. It can't happen soon enough.

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23 of 23 people found the following review helpful

Rigorous and salutary analysis of utopianism

By Oliver Kamm on August 22, 2001

Format: Paperback

This is a terrific work of cultural history, literary criticism and political philosophy. Ellis declares early in his book his own liberal-left political sympathies, before proceeding to identify the inherent illiberalism of much that has passed for left-wing thought in American history. His range is wide, and his knowledge of American culture impressive. But what is most devastating about his descriptions and analysis of the romantic illusions he catalogues is his awareness of the ostensible justice of the claims underlying them.
The abolitionist movement against slavery was a great moral cause, yet it included a wing devoted to violent and messianic extremism. The early activists in Students for a Democratic Society at least were aware of the need to formulate their demands in the language of liberal rights, before veering into advocacy of Maoist terrorism. Ellis traces these developments not to any simplistic teleology of the collapse of radical ideals into totalitarianism, but to the implict illiberalism of believing that all good things are necessarily compatible with each other, and that mere preferences (environmental protection, for example) should be treated as moral axioms. The sharpest analysis of this phenomenon in the book is Ellis's devastating exegesis of Edward Bellamy's now-forgotten but once vastly-influential utopian novel Looking Backward. Because the scheme of social organisation depicted in the novel has no awareness of how to reconcile conflicting claims to scarce resources or incommensurable values, the vision that it propounds is one of unabashed totalitarianism. Illiberalism and even totalitarianism are integral parts of the American left now; Ellis demonstrates how and why that intellectual tradition developed.

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49 of 54 people found the following review helpful

Valuable retrospective AND helpful analysis

By Amazon Customer on July 2, 2000

Format: Hardcover Verified Purchase

When I first saw the title of this volume, I'd anticipated that the author might be a right-wing activist. And while I appreciate varying opinions, i.e., different from those of the lefty ideologues with whom I work who delude themselves into thinking that anyone outside of their clique has the least concern for their opinion, I've about had it with the Horowitzes and the like who've merely changed the names of their enemies but haven't grown beyond their santimony and Manicheanism. Ellis introduces himself by stating that he's always voted for Democrats, etc. In other words, he's not someone just slamming at "liberals" but examining persons with whom he might have something in common. As a leftist myself (with growing reservations about that status), I've found the left to dread self-criticism. So I welcomed that kind of examination.
The book is set up historically, from the 19th century egalitarians, like Walt Whitman, then onto the 60s, that era of (alleged) social experimentation, then onto the present left. I'd started the book about five times and got caught in the introduction which was already good. Then, on a few days off, I decided to read the whole thing, and I'm glad.
I agree with an earlier reviewer that the Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) are the "stars" of the book. They felt they were such pioneers, changing the world by leaps and bounds. Yet they'd (1) romanticized the victim (Southern blacks, Vietnamese, Third World in general) and (2) demonized anyone who didn't think the same way they did. It was, in that era, the radical leftists, not the Limbaughs, who decried "liberals," who were ostensibly not changing the world fast enough. Only we dyed-in-the-wool radicals had the gumption to do that. And what happened?Read more ›

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11 of 12 people found the following review helpful

A well written critique of the radical left

By Jeffrey D. Salzer on June 7, 2001

Format: Paperback

In a well written work of medium (300 pages or so) length, Dr. Ellis does an excellent job of analyzing the manner in which certain leftist movements have traveled the road from liberalism to illiberalism. In particular, Dr. Ellis illustrates the dangers posed by the radical left to moderate American style democracy. Although his work was intended primarily as a critique of the radical left, some of the general conclusions that Dr. Ellis draws would apply with equal force to all radical political movements whether of the left or of the right. As such, his work is something of a cautionary tale in that it demonstrates that we should beware of those who would circumvent (or undermine) the democratic process to obtain some desired end.

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6 of 6 people found the following review helpful

Much needed antidote

By Aristotle's Beast on October 25, 2000

Format: Hardcover

This book is unbeatable. It covers numerous different attempts to found radical egalitarian communities, charting some very telling failures and stupidities that they ran into. It sports a devastating final chapter on the evil intent in the demand for more equality than it is reasonable to assume we could ever bring into being. The demand for ever more equality is a self-promotion, it is a vain strut, a moral pose that makes one important, ups your status. The radical moralizer is a wanna-be priest.

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Most Recent Customer Reviews

Great Insights!

This book was written by a person of the Left as a warning of how the Left can turn to its "dark side. Read more

Published on December 11, 2011 by No Tomorrow

The intoxication of power

Eric Blair, writing under the pen name of George Orwell had these monsters pretty well pegged:

"The Party seeks power entirely for its own sake. Read more

Published on November 3, 2009 by Ward Dorrity

An outstanding book

Ellis is a lefty, but at least he's able to look a bit realistically at the data. I think the blurb (above) misses Ellis' point. Read more

Published on March 4, 2009 by Snipe

Dark, indeed

With the racial connotations of much that Ellis discusses in this book, I wonder if calling his book The "Dark" Side of the Left has any subconscious footing. Read more

Published on April 13, 2005 by D. kc

what the alarmists don't realize is that

in the end, my friend, postmodernism worships the god of the free market. Alarmists should be happy.

Published on November 28, 2003

The Danger of Utopianism

This is an important book, not because it "exposes" the "hypocracy of the left". Such right-wing polemics are common, and usually worthless. Read more

Published on December 13, 2002

Absolutely Fabulous, Darling!

Loved it. Cheers, thanks a lot!

Published on November 7, 2001 by John E. Carlson

How many times must a man look up, before he sees the sky

The remarkable capacity of mankind to hear what he wants to hear while disregarding the rest is as evident in the close mindedness of the Left as it is in the religious zealotry of... Read more

Published on August 22, 2001 by Eugene A Jewett