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Gore Vidal

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Perpetual War for Perpetual Peace: How We Got to Be So Hated Paperback – April 10, 2002

by Gore Vidal (Author)

4.4 290 ratings

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The United States has been engaged in what the great historian Charles A. Beard called "perpetual war for perpetual peace." The Federation of American Scientists has cataloged nearly 200 military incursions since 1945 in which the United States has been the aggressor. In a series of penetrating and alarming essays, whose centerpiece is a commentary on the events of September 11, 2001 (deemed too controversial to publish in this country until now) Gore Vidal challenges the comforting consensus following September 11th and goes back and draws connections to Timothy McVeigh's bombing of the federal building in Oklahoma City. He asks were these simply the acts of "evil-doers?" Gore Vidal is the master essayist of our age. - Washington Post Our greatest living man of letters. - Boston Globe Vidal's imagination of American politics is so powerful as to compel awe. - Harold Bloom, The New York Review of Books.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

In this collection of essays, noted novelist and critic Vidal turns his acerbic wit on the United States. Never shy about expressing his opinion, Vidal questions U.S. assumptions regarding the Oklahoma City and World Trade Center bombings: "That our ruling junta might have seriously provoked McVeigh and Osama was never dealt with." His critique of the coverage of September 11 is slim, mostly centering on already reported truisms about why many in the Muslim world sympathize in some way with Osama bin Laden. Some readers, however, will share his unease with the willingness on the part of the American government and the American people to put concerns for civil liberties on the back burner during the war on terrorism. Vidal's criticisms of McVeigh, with whom he struck up a correspondence and a relationship, is more detailed. In Vidal's view, it is unlikely that McVeigh was solely responsible for Oklahoma City, and he saw himself as a martyr for a libertarian cause that would rescue America. But in this book, the tone is as important as the text. Vidal gleefully skewers American capitalism and the role of the religious right in American politics at every opportunity. Critics of American policy and American life, as well as those prone to conspiracy theories, are likely to find a lot of fodder. Many will not be surprised that Vidal's views have not received a wider hearing a piece on McVeigh was rejected by Vanity Fair, another by the Nation but even at his most contrarian, Vidal's writing is powerful and graceful.
Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist

Vidal couldn't find an English-language publisher for the first essay in this collection, his response to September 11, until it became a best-seller in Italy. He argues that Osama bin Laden's attack on America pales in comparison to the government's attack on American civil liberties since September 11. Vidal views the unwinnable wars on terrorism and drugs as the government's excuse to implement a police state, which he repeatedly compares to Nazi Germany. With his trademark wit and imposing intellect, he attacks everything about the Bush administration's response to 9/11, from the president's characterization of terrorists as "evil" to the war in Afghanistan. The clever, thoughtful diatribe is sometimes overwhelmed by tangents (at one point, Vidal ridicules Barbara Bush as a George Washington look-alike, which hardly seems relevant), but the essay is compulsively readable. The remaining essays in this slim volume have been published before and address Timothy McVeigh and the bombing in Oklahoma City. In a surprisingly convincing argument that McVeigh might not have been behind the bombing, Vidal weaves conspiracies from the Opus Dei order of the Catholic Church to Waco. These essays are held together by Vidal's belief that we must take the McVeighs and the bin Ladens of the world seriously and not dismiss their actions as simply "evil." Vidal fans will find everything they love here: these essays are witty, often convincing, and pull no punches. John Green
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Review

"Vidal writes with verve, passion and style that complements [his] controversial views." -- Walter Russell Mead, Foreign Affairs, Sept/Oct 2002

"[Vidal] provides plenty of examples to sustain his shimmering abhorrence for current American politics...Challenging as ever." -- Kirkus Reviews, March 15, 2002

From the Back Cover

The United States has been engaged in what the great historian Charles A. Beard called "perpetual war for perpetual peace." The Federation of American Scientists has catalogued nearly 200 military incursions since 1945 in which the United States has been the aggressor. In a series of penetrating and alarming essays, whose centerpiece is a commentary on the events of September 11, 2001 (deemed unpublishable in this country until now) Gore Vidal challenges the comforting consensus following both September 11th and Timothy McVeigh's bombing of the federal building in Oklahoma City: these were simply the acts of "evil-doers." "None of these explanations made much sense, but our rulers for more than half a century have made sure that we are never to be told the truth about anything that our government has done to other people, not to mention our own. That our ruling junta might have seriously provoked McVeigh and Osama was never dealt with. We consumers don't need to be told the why of anything. Certainly those of us who are in the why-business have a difficult time in getting through the corporate-sponsored American media, so I thought it useful to describe here the various provocations on our side that drove both bin Laden and McVeigh to such terrible acts." "The awesome physical damage Osama and company did us is as nothing compared to the knock-out blow to our vanishing liberties: the Anti-Terrorism Act of 1991 combined with the recent request to Congress for additional special powers to wiretap without judicial order; to deport lawful permanent residents, visitors and undocumented immigrants without due process." Could it be that the greatest victim of the September 11th terror attackswill be American liberty?"Once alienated, " Vidal writes, "an 'unalienable right' is apt to be forever lost." Gore Vidal is the author of twenty-two novels, five plays, many screenplays, more than two hundred essays, and a memoir. The Times Literary Supplement (U.K.) noted that Vidal's "United States (Essays 1952-92) is one of the great American books of the twentieth century." It won the 1993 National Book Award."Gore Vidal is the master essayist of our age." Washington Post "Our greatest living man of letters." -- Boston Globe"Vidal's imagination of American politics is so powerful as to compel awe." Harold Bloom, New York Review of Books

About the Author

Gore Vidal is the author of twenty-two novels, five screenplays, more than two hundred essays, and a memoir. Winner of the National Book Award for United Sates: essays 1952-92, Vidal lives in Los Angeles.

Product details

Publisher ‏ : ‎ Nation Books (April 10, 2002)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Paperback ‏ : ‎ 175 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 156025405X
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1560254058
Reading age ‏ : ‎ 13 years and up
Grade level ‏ : ‎ 11 and up
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 2.31 pounds
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 5 x 0.44 x 8 inches

Best Sellers Rank: #428,229 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #114 in War & Peace (Books)
- #1,438 in Essays (Books)
- #1,544 in History & Theory of Politics

Customer Reviews:
4.4 290 ratings

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Gore Vidal has received the National Book Award, written numerous novels, short stories, plays and essays. He has been a political activist and as Democratic candidate for Congress from upstate New York, he received the most votes of any Democrat in a half-century.

Photo by David Shankbone (Photographer's blog post about the photo and event) [CC BY 3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0)], via Wikimedia Commons.

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Customers say

Customers find the book an interesting and witty read for anyone interested in the future direction of their country. They appreciate the author's insightful and fresh perspective, as well as his bold opinions and ideas. Many describe the collection as solid and brilliant, giving America an almost unassailable strength. However, some customers feel the content is somewhat dated.

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30 customers mention "Readability"30 positive0 negative

Customers find the book engaging and informative. They appreciate the author's witty writing style and good points. Readers find it refreshing to read a book that can discuss serious topics without being overly serious.

"...You can learn a lot by reading a book, and this book is one of the most provocative. You (and America) will be better for it." Read more

"The flow of the book is sometimes choppy, but overall a very good book by the very talented Gore Vidal...." Read more

"great writer-honest ." Read more

"...The essays with these themes provided a lot of food for thought and read easily with Vidal's trademark wit...." Read more

7 customers mention "Insight"7 positive0 negative

Customers appreciate the book's insights and writing style. They find it insightful, with a fresh perspective on conflict within the workings of a government. The book provides good information and ideas, and is considered Vidal's best work.

"This book is probably not Vidal's best book, but its historical importance is growing daily...." Read more

"Supremely well-written and enlightening...." Read more

"...Vidal had his quirks; however, his intellect and powers of observation [even of the obvious] far outweigh them...." Read more

"An interestingly fresh perspective on the state of conflict within the workings of a Western democracy...." Read more

3 customers mention "Strength"3 positive0 negative

Customers appreciate the book's strength. They find it a solid, brilliant collection that gives America an almost unassailable strength. Readers also mention Gore Vidal is brave, blunt, honest, and remarkable as ever.

"...that makes Vidal possible and precious, and gives America an almost unassailable strength...." Read more

"...All in all, a solid and occasionally brilliant collection of previously printed essays...." Read more

"Gore Vidal is brave, blunt, honest, and remarkable as ever...." Read more

3 customers mention "Dated content"0 positive3 negative

Customers find the book's content dated.

"...A great read but unfortunately a little dated. It leaves you with a feeling that it is unfinished, that more ought to be said." Read more

"Despite its engaging and incisive title, the book is a a hodge-podge of mostly outdated and disconnected polemics touching on subjects as varied as..." Read more

"Although dated (published in late 2001/early 2002) Gore Vidal's Perpetual ......" Read more

Top reviews from the United States

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Theodore A. Rushton
Vidal, like Tom Paine, truly irritates the fat and comfortable
Reviewed in the United States on July 9, 2006
Verified Purchase
Anyone who wants to understand the basic value of free speech in America needs to read this long litany of the abuses of government authority by the police, politicians and press.

All criticism of power obviously infuriates conservatives, and Vidal constantly skewers the rich, complacent, corrupt and conniving. It is definitely not meant to be read by rich fat conservatives of the Greedy Old Party, or even the Dumb Enough for Me set. Instead, it's a wonderful expose of the abuses of power by people who hold power; it's not meant to be fair, any more than 'Common Sense' by Thomas Paine was meant to be even handed. Like the Founding Fathers, Vidal believes American can be better if some of its inherited bad habits are discarded.

From Paine to Thomas Jefferson to Michael Moore, America has thrived in part because of its critics. And who reins in the critics? They must wage a constant rearguard action against everyone from Rush Limbaugh to Ann Colter. The very best are often betrayed by even their friends; but, this is often the price of being right instead of popular. Public debate in America is waged in a playpen of paranoid wolves; there is no mercy for anyone who bleeds in the arena of public comment. It is no place for the weak-minded.

Vidal is one of the best. Of course he's unfair; he's quick to cite government slaughter at Waco, but ignores the slaughter by religious cults from Jonestown to Heaven's Gate, and the appalling sexual child abuse by polygamist Mormons in Arizona. His talent is defending individual freedom against government conformity. This is the heart of a free society. In some countries conformity is an art form, such as Cuba, Iran and North Korea, but it is not the fate chosen by free people.

Government in America is truly as bad as Vidal states; but, every fault Vidal cites was brought to his attention by news reports and government studies and not by his own original effort. In other words, a free press exists and is effective. A century ago, critics such as Upton Sinclair were the first to tell all Americans about appalling conditions in industry. The result was major reform. Today, critics thrive throughout society from village newspapers to national publishers, plus millions of bloggers, book critics and letter writers. The result is a constant process of incremental reform.

Amazon.com book reviews are one such utterly new bastion of free expression; they offer another means to praise or cauterize the cogent or corrupt arguments of everyone from Vidal to myself. It is this freedom that makes Vidal possible and precious, and gives America an almost unassailable strength. This is one society where error of opinion or fact is pounced upon with vigor and glee, instead of being covered over in the genteel ivy of sacred tradition, pride and heritage.

Vidal is one of the best. You can learn a lot by reading a book, and this book is one of the most provocative. You (and America) will be better for it.

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Amazon_ton
Gore Vidal does it again
Reviewed in the United States on December 23, 2024
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The flow of the book is sometimes choppy, but overall a very good book by the very talented Gore Vidal. We could use a writer of his stature in this present time. R.I.P. Gore Vidal

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Jan Wlochowski
Outstanding book -a must read.
Reviewed in the United States on October 30, 2024
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great writer-honest .

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Anastasia McPherson
Reasoned Critique of American Policy
Reviewed in the United States on April 4, 2013
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I heard about Gore Vidal's "inflammatory" essay about 9/11 long before I actually read it. The consensus seemed to be that Vidal had succumbed to senility of some sort, a bitchy old queen in his dotage subscribing to conspiracy theories on the level of Loose Change. Instead of a screed, I got a well reasoned attack on America's foreign policy and how that policy may well create terrorists - all so the US has the excuse to fight them. The ultimate benefit of the war on terror is a corporate sponsored government that no longer represents the people, the institutionalization of greed and corruption, the dismantling of America's Bill of Rights and the further entrenchment of the military industrial complex that Eisenhower spoke so eloquently against.

Can anybody observing the current state of the world argue that this isn't our current state? And given that and that this benefits a very specific and small group of powerful people, that those people in fact conspire to keep things this way? If anything, Vidal was measured in his attacks on the wars on terror and drugs and how this benefits multinational corporations and the people who control them. We are no longer governed by our representatives, bought as they are via corporate donation and sponsorship, but by corporate megaliths whose interests may not even reside in the United States. The essays with these themes provided a lot of food for thought and read easily with Vidal's trademark wit.

The essay on McVeigh was slightly harder to get a handle on. Just why did McVeigh participate in the bombing of a federal office building in Oklahoma City, if indeed he did and if he did not, why did he take the blame for it? Vidal doesn't provide any answers, easy or otherwise, except in one instances where he muses that McVeigh was born in the wrong era - that his was a personality that needed a cause to which he could dedicate his entire existence such as the abolition of slavery or the fighting of a "moral" war but instead he is stuck in our current era of confusion, helplessness and apathy. That rang true, but did little to explain why a person of such fierce morality would or could condone the collateral murder of innocents even as part of a military target as an act of war. McVeigh remains a mystery, though Vidal once again provides questions to ponder.

All in all, a solid and occasionally brilliant collection of previously printed essays. I highly recommend Vidal for his wit, erudition and content; as an essayist he really does have it all.

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20 people found this helpful

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Okla Elliott
History and Politics
Reviewed in the United States on November 6, 2002
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This book is probably not Vidal's best book, but its historical importance is growing daily. At first I (like others) was slightly disappointed that the entire book was not about 9-11. Now, looking at the arc of terrorism and anti-government sentiments, it is very fitting that Vidal has tried to draw these tenuous connections between Timothy McVeigh and 9-11 and David Karesh.
The most shocking item is the list of 200-plus military excursions America has initiated in the last 50 years. We wonder why we're so hated. Gore Vidal clearly explains why our government has made the world hate us.

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Brandon
A Bit extreme
Reviewed in the United States on June 27, 2002
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To start off with, Gore Vidal is one angry man. This book is basically saying that it really isn't McVeigh's fault for the Oklahoma bombing but the governments for their involvement in Waco and other instances. He gives McVeigh's point of view on the entire events from Waco to his execution and then shows where the Government went wrong and could have prevented the whole thing. He does take it a bit far with the government bashing though (not that I'm saying our governemtn doesn't deserve a little bashing here and there!)
The plus side to this book is it DOES give the other side of the story in Oklahoma which is a quality lacking in todays one sided, corporate media.

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ronald smith
a great read
Reviewed in Canada on February 13, 2016
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we understand how the profits of war are important to this rich, corrupt and greedy 1%

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Jürgen Schwarzer
tja - why do they hate us!?
Reviewed in Germany on February 25, 2014
Verified Purchase
Gore Vidal, verwandt mit jenem Al Gore, der sich leider von George "W" so schmählich hat um's präsidentenamt betrügen
lassen (mit hilfe von brüderchen Jeb Bush, der florida-connection & den manipulierbaren wahlcomputern), kann man nun wirklich
nicht anti-amerikanismus vorwerfen - zeigt hier den bedarf für eine längerdauernde legitimation künftiger erdumspannender
(verteilungs)kriege auf. der militärisch-industrielle "komplex", heute ungleich mächtiger (& gefährlicher) als zur zeit Eisenhowers,
der in seiner abschieds(sic!)rede so nachdrücklich vor ihm warnte, hat mit seinen vordenkern Wolfowitz, Perle, etc., & seinen
erfolgreich an den schalthebeln installierten machern Rumsfeld &, vor allem, Cheney, mit dem "war against terror" ein viel aus-
baufähigeres, weltumspannendes szenario erfunden als es die "balance of power" mit dem ostblock, der ohnehin inzwischen
zusammengebrochen war, je hätte sein können - inklusive massivem ausbau der geheimdienste im eigenen land & überall sonst, wie wir dank Snowden inzwischen auch ansatzweise begreifen... Vidal erklärt all das äußerst überzeugend.

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Jim123
Great read!
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on September 2, 2012
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Upon hearing of Gore Vidal's death I bought this book not quite knowing what to expect, despite reading the reviews here.

This book ended up being one of the best books I've read for a long time.
The author's insight and intellect are simply brilliant.

But most of all he challenges the common stereotypes and assumptions we all carry due to media manipulation.
Reading this book will open your mind, and change how you think regardless of whether or not you actually agree with what he says.

Enjoy!

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ccb
liked it
Reviewed in Australia on November 27, 2014
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first time reading Mr Vidal, liked this book alot, really graceful and biting prose

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cire
A book you can not put down.
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on February 10, 2015
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A truely earth shattering expose of what we always thought but did not dare to believe. Gore is accurate and yet makes the serious business of Government both worrisome and amusing leaving us with no doubts about those leaders who are mismanaging the worlds major Nations.

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