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Forgive Us Our Spins: Michael Moore and the Future of the Left Hardcover – August 1, 2006
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GEORGE MONBIOT, columnist, The Guardian (UK)
""Forgive Us Our Spins is a very smart and well-researched book about the ever-controversial Michael Moore. Larner does a great job at showing why Moore's political and cultural adventures often do more damage than good. And Larner is a man of the left who doesn't make excuses for the right. A concern for decency and the quality of public discussion in this country shine through in this booka healthy antidote to not just Michael Moore but also the intellectual clowns of the right, like Ann Coulter and Michael Savage. Let's hope Larner's voice is heard by many.""
KEVIN MATTSON, professor, Ohio University, and author of Upton Sinclair and the Other American Century
As the 2004 presidential election approached, Michael Moore repeatedly expressed confidence that his film Fahrenheit 9/11 would have a powerful impact on the outcome of that bitter contest. The talking cogs in the right-wing media machine were happy to agree with him. They foresaw that Moore and his flawed, shallow, and factually sloppy film would be major factors in motivating and energizing their base.
Left, right, or in between, everyone has an opinion about Michael Moore. His books reside on bestseller lists, his films are unfailingly controversial, and his politics range far to the left of any elected official on the national scene. So why is he the only voice capable of bringing progressive issues and ideas to public awareness? What message should the Democratic Party glean from his immense popularity? What impact will Moore and his work have on the future of the left?
In Forgive Us Our Spins, you'll meet Michael Moore as you've never seen him before. This witty, well-written critique of America's most commercially successful radical examines Moore's life and work, reveals the personal history that underlies his political passions, and takes a clear-eyed look at his controversial trouble with the facts.
Love him or hate him, you can't deny Michael Moore's political stature. Is he the champion the left has long yearned for or the kind of friend that's more dangerous than an enemy? Read Forgive Us Our Spins, then decide.
- Print length288 pages
- LanguageEnglish
- PublisherTrade Paper Press
- Publication dateAugust 1, 2006
- Dimensions6.44 x 1.05 x 9.28 inches
- ISBN-10047179306X
- ISBN-13978-0471793069
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Review
From the Inside Flap
How did this self-described working-class guy from the suburbs of Flint, Michigan, come to be touted as the preeminent voice of the American left? Have hard-hitting, polemical films such as Bowling for Columbine and Fahrenheit 9/11 brought important social issues to public awareness as nothing else could? Or are they mere entertainments that pander to true believers while playing fast and loose with the facts and failing to explore the issues honestly and in depth?
In Forgive Us Our Spins, public affairs analyst Jesse Larner traces the rise of America's most commercially successful radical and examines Michael Moore's impact on political discourse in a very conservative age. Larner digs deep into Moore's past to explore the roots of his activism, identify recurring themes and methods in his work, and describe crucial relationships that reveal the man behind the icon.
Larner offers honest, well-argued analyses of Moore's films, articles, and television shows, and of the right-wing responses to them. He looks at Moore's brief but rancorous tenure as editor of Mother Jones magazine and at other incidents in Moore's career that illustrate his problematic management style and call into question his self-proclaimed commitment to workplace egalitarianism.
Larner also poses broader questions about Moore's public role and about contemporary politics. Since 1980, the serious democratic left has largely surrendered the field of ideas, leaving a hole at the heart of American political discourse. Since 1994, when the Republicans captured Congress, there has been no effective check on conservative ambitions. Larner argues that this is an unbalanced and unsustainable situation that presents an opportunity for a combative champion of the left like Moore, but it's an opportunity that Moore has largely squandered. Through his poorly researched attacks on the Bush administration, his hostility to the American culture of free enterprise, and his refusal to take a serious position in the war on terror, Moore has motivated and sustained right-wing activismmost importantly during the 2004 presidential campaign. Is Michael Moore inadvertently the best political friend Karl Rove ever had?
Forgive Us Our Spins offers a serious, well-researched critique of one of the most important figures in American political life. This stimulating and thoughtful exposé is must reading for liberals and conservatives alike.
From the Back Cover
--GEORGE MONBIOT, columnist, The Guardian (UK)
"Forgive Us Our Spins is a very smart and well-researched book about the ever-controversial Michael Moore. Larner does a great job at showing why Moore's political and cultural adventures often do more damage than good. And Larner is a man of the left who doesn't make excuses for the right. A concern for decency and the quality of public discussion in this country shine through in this book--a healthy antidote to not just Michael Moore but also the intellectual clowns of the right, like Ann Coulter and Michael Savage. Let's hope Larner's voice is heard by many."
--KEVIN MATTSON, professor, Ohio University, and author of Upton Sinclair and the Other American Century
As the 2004 presidential election approached, Michael Moore repeatedly expressed confidence that his film Fahrenheit 9/11 would have a powerful impact on the outcome of that bitter contest. The talking cogs in the right-wing media machine were happy to agree with him. They foresaw that Moore and his flawed, shallow, and factually sloppy film would be major factors in motivating and energizing their base.
Left, right, or in between, everyone has an opinion about Michael Moore. His books reside on bestseller lists, his films are unfailingly controversial, and his politics range far to the left of any elected official on the national scene. So why is he the only voice capable of bringing progressive issues and ideas to public awareness? What message should the Democratic Party glean from his immense popularity? What impact will Moore and his work have on the future of the left?
In Forgive Us Our Spins, you'll meet Michael Moore as you've never seen him before. This witty, well-written critique of America's most commercially successful radical examines Moore's life and work, reveals the personal history that underlies his political passions, and takes a clear-eyed look at his controversial trouble with the facts.
Love him or hate him, you can't deny Michael Moore's political stature. Is he the champion the left has long yearned for or the kind of friend that's more dangerous than an enemy? Read Forgive Us Our Spins, then decide.
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- Publisher : Trade Paper Press (August 1, 2006)
- Language : English
- Hardcover : 288 pages
- ISBN-10 : 047179306X
- ISBN-13 : 978-0471793069
- Item Weight : 1.1 pounds
- Dimensions : 6.44 x 1.05 x 9.28 inches
- Best Sellers Rank: #8,000,146 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #5,674 in Government Social Policy
- #8,953 in Political Conservatism & Liberalism
- #28,047 in Political Leader Biographies
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Larner is persuasive in delineating some of Moore's deceptive methods. Example: Contrary to the whole implication of "Roger and Me", Moore did indeed interview Roger Smith of GM - and at length. As Larner suggests, this and other misrepresentations (like the obvious distortion of depicting happy Iraqi children in Saddam's Iraq, pre-war) serve to give ammunition to the Right and detract severely from his cause.
But in the end I was disappointed with this book since it fails to give Moore enough credit for the enormous success he has had in shining light on injustice in our country. At the end, my clear impression was that Larner basically supports our war in Iraq and can't forgive Moore for "Fahrenheit 9/11".
So read this book, if you wish, but then do as I did and also read "Citizen Moore" by Roger Rapoport, another liberal. Rapoport also describes Moore's shortcomings, but he does the great service of quoting both people who know Moore, like Ralph Nader, and Moore himself at great length. He editiorializes very little and lets the reader sort out for him/herself the strengths and weaknesses of this very talented and complicated man.
No, this is not yet another demolition job by a petty critic of Michael Moore, exposing to horror his errors and contradictions with the aim of toting up his moral worth. Nor is it a hagiography of Moore as working-class hero.
It is interesting to see Jesse Larner actually defending Moore from various right-wing silliness. Larner agrees with many of Michael Moore's values, perhaps more than Moore himself, because he pays close attention to how well they are served in the changing American climate. But after much research, Larner does not find Moore to be a useful or honest advocate of these values.
Larner is a great story-teller, with a keen eye for telling events and humorously appalling details. Moving along through a hundred compelling and verified incidents, Moore's story unfolds with balance and perspective, and not a single trace of malice. Larner does not rub his hands with glee when he discovers that Moore is an American success story who keeps his place through calculation and a chillingly self-regarding coldness, and that his written and movie work is distinguished not only by playfulness, but by considerable lying and cheating. Up to now, when others have found inaccuracies and willful distortions in his work, Moore has brushed them off as right-wing vilification or says his movies are made to be only entertainment. But Moore makes serious claims for his work; he wants above all to be taken seriously, and Larner grants him his wish more fully than he himself could imagine.
One of the book's charms is that Larner indefatigably informs himself about the subject-matter of each of Moore's movies in turn. He probably knows more about the history of Flint, Michigan than Moore does... and more about how Moore picks and chooses from it. He presents a concise and convincing analysis of the GOP's ruthless theft of the Florida vote; he gives the essence of the Second Amendment and why it does not support indiscriminate gun-toting; and he travels to San Francisco to give us the story of Moore's brief and destructive term as editor of Mother Jones--and to Crawford, Texas (where Moore did not go) to find the Texas citizens who showed "Farenheit 9/11" not far from Bush's ranch, and to explore the environment in which it was received.
Larner argues that, although propaganda and demagoguery pervade the style of the right, and the major TV coverage which the rich and well-connected command, the left simply cannot afford that kind of discourse, either financially or politically. Enjoy Michael Moore's films for the pleasures they bring you, which include a look at events and personages not usually available on TV, but do not assume their absolute factuality, nor look to Moore as a democratic leader. (Moore gave his support, with angry fanfare, to Ralph Nader in 2000.) Liberals must question their leaders and look for those who answer in good faith and candor.
Anyone who has ever wondered why the Democratic Party could not hold the allegiance of a majority of Americans who agree with them on the major issues, not to mention the 9.8 out of 10 who do not share the fortunes of George Bush's major contributors, should read this book with fascination. It is, finally, a history lesson about the workings of American populism, from the point of view of a liberal-leftist who thinks the recuperation of his party is a matter of emergency, possibly of survival. And Larner even-handedly challenges conservatives to question the vicious crackpots who freely roam their side of the debate.
To follow Moore, in Larner's view, is to live in a simple-simon world of unreal simplicities, a religious world, in effect, of the saved and the damned, with a high priest whose ends justify his means. Larner is one of those who addresses himself to the problems of his time with toleration for those who disagree and attention to those who are uncertain. It is that latter group we democratic liberals must convince, not by inviting them to jump on the bandwagon, not by tricking or stampeding them, but by approaching them with respect.
For Larner, the left's connection with Moore only undermines its chances of creating a political climate of freedom, fairness and tolerance. The story he tells is gripping: once he got rolling, I could not put it down. And however I might quibble with a few of his conclusions, he makes it obvious that Moore, whatever else he may be, is a symptom of the problem we face, not its solution.
