The Death of Liberalism [Hardcover]

R. Emmett Tyrrell Jr. (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 8, 2012

The grave is dug, the headstone carved, the hearse idling out front. A once-potent political and cultural scourge of our time, Liberalism, is breathing its last―and loudest―breaths.

In this provocative postmortem, R. Emmett Tyrrell, Jr. traces the dubious rise and inevitable fall of the deeply flawed Liberal-Progressive movement, which has culminated in the nation's first stealth socialist, President Barack Obama―the unwitting pallbearer for American Liberalism. While exposing this nonsensical worldview, Tyrrell also winsomely reaffirms the timeless values Liberalism has endeavored to undermine: free enterprise, personal liberty, limited government, empiricism, reason, and common sense. Ultimately, Tyrrell welcomes conservatives, moderates, independents, and the heretofore apolitical to step forward at this crucial juncture, and take the final steps necessary to administer Liberalism's last rites.

 "From Harry Truman to Ed Koch to McGovern, Liberalism has been in decline. With Obama, Liberalism is dead. Now comes Crony Capitalism. This is a hilarious and profound book―especially because Tyrrell sees the value of Fox News nd Talk Radio." ―Sean Hannity, author of Conservative Victory, and radio host of The Sean Hannity Show and Fox News Channel's Hannity.

"R. Emmett Tyrrell . . . chronicles with growing joyfulness the high points of Liberalism's demise until we get to 2010 and Liberalism's lurch into the grave. . . A wonderful read and a fitting send-off to a very dreary ideology." ―Mark Levin, host of The Mark Levin Radio Show and author of the bestsellers Liberty and Tyranny and Ameritopia

"The Death of Liberalism is a dashing, sharp, well-argued and succinct tract for the times. Mr. Tyrrell is a controversialist of stature, a polemicist of robust energy and a man who knows how to present his case with power and precision."―Paul Johnson, author of Modern Times, Intellectuals, and A History of the American People

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

R. Emmett Tyrrell Jr. is founder and editor in chief of the famous and feared The American Spectator. The author of several books including the New York Times best-selling Boy Clinton, Madame Hillary, The Liberal Crack-Up, and The Conservative Crack-Up, Tyrrell's syndicated column is published weekly in such papers as the New York Post, Los Angeles Times, and the Washington Times.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 208 pages
• Publisher: Thomas Nelson (May 8, 2012)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1595554882
• ISBN-13: 978-1595554888
• Product Dimensions: 5.6 x 0.9 x 8.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 13.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (14 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #756,009 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

51 of 59 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars outstanding! May 10, 2012

By Eddie Moore

Format:Hardcover

Defines and discusses the death of liberalism. Or maybe more accurately the slow descent into irrelevancy. Liberalism currently seems to be on the rise but that it an illusion. This book points out the fatal flaws in liberalism and how and why the decline will occur. It must have been over the head of some of the reviewers. Maybe Terrell can, like Hawkins, write a lighter version that can be more easily grasped by the challenged.

28 of 32 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Time will Tell But Read the Book May 14, 2012

By babachf

Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase

Tyrrell did an excellent job in this slim book of reminding readers of the folly and deliberate deceits of Liberalism as practiced today. He also reminds readers of when Liberalism was a serious and confident outlook. How many people today remember Arthur Schlesinger's book The Vital Center? Probably very few do. That book's theme and outlook are worth recalling as a wonderful antidote to all the hokum that passes for Liberal thought today. As are the ways that Liberals have been on again off again "episodic" apologists for Bill Clinton. Have they no memory of their own love hate relationship with the chubby Lothario? Well, if they don't Tyrrell does remember the complaints and obsequious praise Liberals heap on the former President. Tyrrell also coins a new apt description for the icons of Liberalism; they are Sages Manqué. (There are other clever phrases, too, but I'll leave them for the reader to find.)
An abiding theme in all of Tyrrell's books has been that the Left has been ruined by its lack of seriousness but frenetic members (a mob, really) who are in effect nothing more than public nuisances. Since the Occupy Wall Street movement began, it's clear there are still plenty of young know-it-all hotheads keen to carry on the Left's public nuisance campaign. If these howlings are the death knell of Liberalism or just another whiny pity party we'll be forced to endure for another generation, is, to me, uncertain. For Mr. Tyrrell, there is a confidence that these or the Liberals last days. Buy the book and enjoy it for its memories and its vision of the future.

13 of 16 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars The Left's False Confidence May 23, 2012

By Boethius

Format:Hardcover

This book is a valuable antidote to the smugness of the left, which assumes it will enjoy dominance over the country for years to come. Liberalism is still politically alive, but it is morally and intellectually dead. Tyrrell traces the moment of that death to the nomination of George McGovern in the 1970s and his agenda of abortion, amnesty, acid, and socialism. So while liberalism's "zombies," as RET puts it, still roam the corridors of power, the ideology from which they draw their last breaths is politically doomed for the simple reason that it is based upon a denial of reality. False ideologies always end up on the ashheap of history.

6 of 7 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars An alluring book June 10, 2012

By Geoff Puterbaugh

Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase

The years may have clipped Tyrell's acerbic wit a bit (although there is still plenty on display), but that has been more than compensated for by an increase in that rarest of human things: wisdom.

I call the book "alluring" because I would like to believe that the death of Liberalism (what I call "leftism") has really arrived, and Barack Obozo is merely its pallbearer. But what else can I think, when the lefties have already spent all the money in the world on their Godforsaken "programs" -- which range all the way from destroying families on welfare, and subsidizing gay porn artists -- all the way to the near-destruction of the US economy through their idiotic claim that housing is a "right." I ask you: if housing, food, medical care, and supplemental income turn out to be "rights," why would anyone go to work?

Especially when such clever leftie ideas are running up deficits of 1.5 trillion per year?!

So what comes next? A prolonged "detox" program, where federal program after federal program is eliminated for the simple reason that we are BROKE. Mitt Romney may do this, and I wonder whether the American people will love him or hate him for it.

In any case, this book is highly recommended reading!

6 of 7 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars World Class Wit May 31, 2012

By Bernard Chapin VINE™ VOICE

Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase

I'm a huge fan of Bob Tyrrell's and I've always enjoyed his column at the American Spectator--which is probably the most consistent and intelligent of conservative publications. RET is no longer a young buck and is now nearly 70, but this book is proof that he's still as funny as ever. The Death of Liberalism compares favorably with After the Hangover (2010) and is a natural follow up. A theme of his 2010 book is that the left always overreaches and assumes that the electorate has given them "a mandate" to enact their goofiest and most controlling schemes. Tyrrell relays here that this eventuality is exactly what occurred in the last national election when the American people voted out of Congress those rabid leftists who gave us Obamacare and the completely wasteful Stimulus Plan. The Death of Liberalism clocks in at just under 170 pages and is a very quick read. Tyrrell's tone and narration is very conversational and entertaining. As a writer, he is always consistent and makes frequent use of a term he created, the Kultursmog. That term describes the fashion by which the left has poisoned the greater culture with its constant manipulation of the public via the media, the universities, and Hollywood. This book is part present analysis and part history, and that's a fine approach to a pathology that is presently undermining the future of my country. Best of all, is that The Death of Liberalism is really, really funny. That makes it worthwhile in itself. His ultimate conclusion is incorrect, however. Liberalism most certainly is not dead as demographic trends suggest that it will plague us as long as our borders remain porous. Yet intellectually, it's a basketcase so let us at least celebrate that! Part of the reason for liberalism's decline is the influence of R. Emmett Tyrrell......and we should all be grateful to him. Read more ›