Uncivil Wars: The Constroversy Over Reparations for Slavery (Hardcover)

by Daivd Horowitz (Author) "The ad I decided to place in a series of college papers in the spring of 2001 gave "Ten Reasons" why reparations for slavery was..." (more)
Key Phrases: reparations proponents, reparations advocates, reparations movement, New York, United States, Badger Herald (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Review
"Horowitz sees . . . the reparations movement is motivated not primarily by a concern for justice. It exists instead to denigrate America's founding ideals--ideals that contributed to slavery's end--and to perpetuate a sense of race-based entitlement and victimhood that harms blacks today far more than does the legacy of slavery."

Product Description
The idea that taxpayers should pay reparations to African Americans for the damages of slavery and segregation is quickly becoming a central demand of some civil rights leaders. It has the backing of important black politicians like Rep. John Conyers (D-Mich), distinguished black intellectuals like Henry Louis Gates and activists like Randall Robinson, who led the successful boycott movement against South Africa a decade ago. The Chicago City Council has overwhelmingly endorsed the concept and municipalities and state governments around the country are considering giving it support.

In this well researched and carefully argued book, David Horowitz traces the origins of the reparations movement. He examines the case made by its advocates and concludes that it is "morally questionable and racially incendiary." He notes that only a tiny minority of Americans ever owned slaves; and most Americans living today (white and otherwise) are descended from post-Civil War immigrants who have no lineal connection to slavery at all. More intriguingly, he also points out that the GNP of black America is so large that it makes the African American community the tenth most prosperous "nation" in the world. But this book is more than just an in depth casebook on the hot button issue of reparations. In the hope of initiating a dialogue, Horowitz originally presented a summary of his ideas on this subject in the form of an advertisement that appeared in several college newspapers and was rejected by many more. Editorialists in America's leading papers and several chapters of the American Civil Liberties Union weighed on Horowitz's side. With the assistance of Richard Poe, Horowitz uses the response to the reparations issue to show how the new racial orthodoxy collides with the free speech battle and what its implications are for American education and culture.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 139 pages
• Publisher: Encounter Books; 1 edition (December 25, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1893554449
• ISBN-13: 978-1893554443
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.3 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 14.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars See all reviews (89 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #863,954 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

67 of 70 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Nobody can reasonably oppose slavery reparations..., January 14, 2002

By A Customer

...unfortunately, all slaves and their former masters are dead. Demagogues like Cornell West base their demand for payout on fallacious and ridiculous arguments that defy reason and logic. Forcing the current population of Americans to pay for the sins of people that lived over 150 years ago is not the triumph of morality, it is the negation of morality, holding people responsible for acts that not only weren't committed by them, but weren't even committed by any of their ancestors. (We are an immigrant nation, after all.) To argue that people who had no part whatsoever in slavery are morally responsible requires such intellectual contortions as would confound any psychologist. David Horowitz has provided a public service with this book, both by exposing both the fraud of the reparations movement, and the intellectual dry-rot that has infected an academia that would support such a proposition and engage in browshirted tactics to try to silence any opposition to it.

40 of 43 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A must read for the open-minded, January 14, 2002

By	"greze" (Miwaukee, WI USA) - See all my reviews

In this book, conservative commentator David Horowitz actually fights two fronts in he liberal-conservative "culture war".One is the idea of race reparations for slavery, the other, the entrenched leftist ideology of the modern American university. Horowitz began his battle by formulating "Ten Reasons Why Reparations for Slavery Is A Bad Idea--And Racist, Too" and sent it to 71 college newspapers nationwide in the form of an advertisement. The first half of the book deals mainly with reaction to the ad on college campuses. Horowitz details the reaction of university student newspaper editors, profeessors and administrators at places such as UC Berkeley, The University of Wisconsin at Madison, and Brown University. Here, Horowitz tells a chilling, frightening account of the kind of censorship attempted by the far left-of-center campus "commisars". This section is an eye-opener for those who still believe that our American universities are centers for the free exchange of ideas. The section on Brown University, and the lengths that some of the students would go to to suppress the ad is particularly disturbing.The last sections of the book are mainly devoted to the idea of reaparations for slavery itself. The idea itself has been floating around for many years, but has gained monmentum in the last decade due to the publication of the bestselling book "The Debt" by black activist Randall Robinson as well as the formal adoption of the reparations concept by the city councils of several US population centers including Chicago, Los Angeles, and Dallas. Horowitz gives a reasoned,well-researched refutation of the reaparations concept which leaves one wondering what the folks populating the campi were worried about. Could they be afraid of the truth? Buy this book. It is an essential part of the debate on an issue that will continue to be part of the American landscape, and a revelation to those who seek the truth.

31 of 33 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The startling truth..., January 15, 2002

By A Customer

Many of us sit back and enjoy the world through the prism of another's eyes. All too often this is the case with America's age-old racial conflict. We are told how bad the situation used to be, and it was quite terrible for all who experienced the days of Jim Crow and the fight to resist him. We are told by much of today's commentators that we have not come very far in this fight and how white America is still oppressing their neighbors with tenacious, overt hatred. And this despite the fact that most American's today identify with a much more egalitarian American society. Horowitz's book poses a succinct, common sense argument against reparations for slavery. He delves sufficiently into several precedents, showing how each is inapplicable to this case, and finishes with the very correct conclusion that American tax payers owe nothing but kindness and brotherly respect to those around us. Read this book for an insightful look at the reparations debate.