Roots of Radicalism: Jews, Christians, and the Left

by Stanley Rothman (Author), S. Robert Lichter (Author)

4 customer reviews

ISBN-13: 978-1560008897

ISBN-10: 156000889X

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When Roots of Radicalism first appeared. Nathan Glazer noted "this is a major work on the relationship between radical politics and psychological development." He went on to predict "no one will be able to write about the left and radicalism without taking it into account." Now finally available in a paperback edition, with a new introduction, the reader can evaluate just how prescient the authors are in their review of the student radical movement. Replete with interviews of radical activists, their provocative book paints a disturbing picture.

The book raises critical questions about much previous social science research and ultimately about the reason an entire generation of Americans was so infatuated with the radical mystique. Robert A. Nisbet called the book "an extraordinarily skilled fusion of historical and psychological approaches to one of the most explosive decades in American social history." Robert E. Lane added "it will be prudent to read Rothman and Lichter along with our well worn copies of Keniston and Fromm." Writing in Political Psychology, Dan E. Thomas argued "the [book] is arguably the most important and definitely the most provocative book in the field of personality and politics to have appeared in the past several years." Recently, in Forbes. Peter Brimelow referred to Roots of Radicalism as "Rothman's main achievement as a political scientist...his definitive study of the 1960s New Left."

In the new introduction, the authors review the initial reception of Roots of Radicalism and its subsequent treatment. They also review the major literature on the causes, course, and consequences of the student movement of the 1960s which has appeared since the publication of the book. Finally, they update their own analysis.

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Stanley Rothman
Hardcover
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Editorial Reviews

About the Author

S. Robert Lichter is currently the co-director of the Center for Media and Public Affairs in Washington, D.C. The authors, while writing with others and by themselves, have continued their collaborative work. Their most recent work is the forthcoming Is Environmental Cancer a Political Disease?

Paperback: 502 pages
Publisher: Transaction Publishers (January 1, 1996)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 156000889X
ISBN-13: 978-1560008897
Product Dimensions: 6.2 x 1 x 9.2 inches
Shipping Weight: 12.6 ounces
Average Customer Review: 4 customer reviews
Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,618,163 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #3551 in Books > Textbooks > Social Sciences > Political Science > Political Ideologies
- #4748 in Books > Textbooks > Social Sciences > Political Science > Political History
- #6840 in Books > Politics & Social Sciences > Social Sciences > Social Work

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Myrna Minkoff

Inconvenient truths that scholars know but few speak about

June 13, 2016

Format: PaperbackVerified Purchase

This is an excellent, fair, and scholarly inquiry into the roots of contemporary radicalism with an emphasis on the nexus between Judaism and the propensity toward radical political stances and behaviors. An important point repeatedly made in various contexts is that the significance of Jews in radical movements is based less on their absolute numbers in those movements than on their tendency to provide the intellectual and political leadership. Certainly this is not the first time that Jewish scholars and writers have made these observations and yet they never really penetrate popular understanding, It is -- as we all know -- not politically correct to speak of such things. The whole point of political correctness is to distort everyone's reality field so that history becomes a propaganda tool of the left with all the inconvenient truth scrubbed out.

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A response to the other reviews to date

June 17, 2016

Format: PaperbackVerified Purchase

The other reviews till now (6/16/16) act as if the leading role played by Jews in the radical movements of the Sixties has was unknown or kept secret before this book was published. In truth, it was Jews themselves, like Norman Podhoretz, Irving Kristol, and Ralph de Toledano, who pointed this out at the time and inveighed against the young Jewish malcontents. Moreover, the authors of this book are themselves Jews. Unlike Christians, who await utopia after the second coming, Jews often try to create it now. There are many reasons for this, one being that Jewish radicals came to America from Eastern Europe where they were oppressed. Some, shamefully, did not alter their views upon coming here. Most did, however. The Jews who came from Western Europe, like Germany, were more than eager to become thoroughly Americanized and tended to hide their Judaism, just like they fought vehemently against the creation of the State of Israel. (One can still see this tendency among the Jews-- many of Germanic origin-- of places like San Francisco.)

Interestingly, Jews tend to be damned if they do, and damned if they don't. With the growth of
"neoconservatism" in the Sixties, they were not welcomed into the traditional conservative movement except for a few , like William Buckley. Even today, the term "neoconservatism" is used as an anti-Semitic slur by some of those on the Right.

Yes, the Jews played a leading role in the radical left. On my campus, Columbia University, I used to curse at the Jewish rioters in Yiddish and encouraged the police to treat them forcefully.

Yes, some Jews have sometimes fought against "The Establishment" here, but most seized upon the American Dream and sought to fulfill it through contributions to high culture, medicine, popular culture, entertainment, and military service (e.g., the Jewish War Veterans of America). They have also been in the vanguard of efforts to insure civil rights for other groups, e.g., blacks. This last mentioned attribute is particularly annoying to me because every study done shows that blacks and Hispanics are the two most anti-Semitic groups in the U.S. In general, anti-semitism today comes mainly from the Left, not the Right, something my brethren refuse to see.

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Robert Mann

Alarming and obvious proof of the Jewish creation and management of the 1960's counter culture revolution via the New Left Movem

July 10, 2014

Format: PaperbackVerified Purchase

Not a single review from a book published in 1996 by two Jewish academics providing irrefutable proof of the subversive role of radical Jews in transforming the US from a nation of traditional values to one of European socialism and Marxism?

This book will change your life and help you understand why America has taken such a nose dive and the true culprits involved in promoting the degradation of our rich traditional values.

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Japan Family Academy LLC

Five Stars

May 24, 2016

Format: PaperbackVerified Purchase

Very good.

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