Liberal Fascism: The Secret History of the American Left, From Mussolini to the Politics of Meaning - Jonah Goldberg

A Book for the Intellectually Honest Seeking Truth About American History

It is very unfortunate that people use the review process to attack a book which they are very unlikely to have read. It is always fascinating that the very same people who so often lecture to all of us about "tolerance" are the least so. It is particularly bothersome that Amazon chose to use one short, positive review and one very lengthy negative review. Despite some of the reviews, Mr. Goldberg's book is fair. Kool-aid drinkers from both sides of the aisle need not bother because neither side would much like what they are reading unless they are interested in truth. Whoever you are, whatever your notions, if you are opened minded, you will likely realize some of those notions require re-examination. This book is particularly helpful if you have been trying to educate yourself as much as possible about American history, have done much other reading, and are sincerely interested in seeking the truth. If you've been asking yourself: Just when did this country start to "go off the rails", you will find a lot of answers. Other well-written books about the history of Progressives, socialists, and Marxists support the documented information in this book. A couple of others I have read, and I have no idea from what political persuasion these gentlemen come, would be the very well documented book by Ronald J. Pestritto, Professor at the University of Dallas Woodrow Wilson and the Roots of Modern Liberalism (American Intellectual Culture)and another, by Richard Pipes, A Concise History of the Russian Revolution. Again, despite all of the partisan reviews, if you read at minimum, the three books noted, you will see the dots connecting. Mr. Goldberg is not about finger pointing or name calling, he's about laying out, step by step, point A to point B, etc. Michael Mann's review, in itself, is to be disregarded because he accuses Goldberg of leaving out labeling so-called "Conservatives" as the "f-word", like Richard Nixon. Mr. Mann has revealed his own lack of knowledge of historical facts or that he didn't read the book closely, or well. A number of so-called "conservatives" are mentioned, including Pres. George W. Bush. Many aspects of Pres. Bush's policies, do have, in fact, elements of the "f-word", as Mr. Mann calls it. It is a fallacy of the left or perhaps a lack of much contemplation, that every individual with an "R" behind their title in elected office are automatically conservative. Richard Nixon was not conservative, he was a "liberal" Republican. Pres. Bush's fiscal policies and "compassionate conservatism" alone disqualify him from being considered truly conservative. In order to make that assessment, as a conservative, I did much reading, but didn't arrive at my conclusions until I read this book. Until or unless people are willing to start "calling out" the wrong they see in their leadership, regardless to which political party they belong, it's hard to imagine how much, if anything, will come about to change the high amount of dissatisfaction and distrust most Americans feel about their government. To fully get one's mind around the definition of fascism, how it has weaved its way through history, and most importantly, what it means for freedom, this book is vital.

Me Dumb. Book Smart.

I liked the picture on the dust jacket. I opened the book; read the introduction, and even understood it. So far so good. Then I started reading a bunch of words in the chapters with all kinds of names of people I've never heard of. They influenced Mussolini, Wilson, Hitler, FDR, LBJ. And it kept going like that. I was looking for more one-lined Ann Coluteresque zingers like: Wilson imprisoned more political dissidents than Mussolini; FDR detained many times more non-enemy combatants (Americans mostly) than has GW Bush detained guys with guns found in combat areas; it takes a village to raise an idiot. Those kind of one-liners. Perhaps they could have been deployed at the start of each chapter to focus my meager attention span. Ultimately this book was just too smart for me. At least when I watch the Glenn Beck Show and see Jonah Goldberg as a guest, I understand what he is saying. Perhaps those thousands of Lefty Liberal College Professors should read this book, but they won't (can't be caught with it and risk tenure). As for me, I'm waiting for Mr. Goldberg to come out with a pop-up picture book.

"Liberal Fascism" and the Karl Rove approach

It does not surprise me that neocons are accusing Liberals of being fascists. It simply implies that neocons have recognized that they themselves are promoting fascism in government.

One of Karl Rove's mantras is to accuse your opponent of your own worst failings.

Helpful

I have been looking for more indepth study of liberalism written by someone who isn't one. This works well for me.

Excellent Primer on the Development of Modern Liberalism

Over the past decade, the ideological battle between liberals and conservatives has been fought on the internet and in the local bookstore. Whether it is Al Franken calling conservatives liars, or Ann Coulter imploring her followers to refrain from speaking to liberals, the public has been inundated with many opinions from which to choose. Conservative writer Jonah Goldberg has recently joined the fray with Liberal Fascism: The Secret History of the American Left from Mussolini to the Politics of Meaning. Though Franken, Coulter, and others like them are long on opinion and short on truth, Goldberg's contribution is well thought out and based on facts. In Liberal Fascism, Goldberg traces liberalism from its origins in the nineteenth century through its maturity in the twentieth century while cleverly showing how it fed off the European Fascism movement. He then brings the reader to the Liberal Fascism of today.

Although this is Goldberg's first book, he is no stranger to the written word. According to his biography on the web site National Review Online, where he is an editor,Goldberg is a columnist for the Los Angeles Times, and his syndicated column appears in the Chicago Tribune, New York Post, Philadelphia Inquirer, and many others. He also appears as a political commentator on a number of television shows including "Good Morning America," "Larry King Live," and "Special Report with Brit Hume." Though a writer since his college days, his big break came when he wrote about the media frenzy surrounding his mother, Lucianne Goldberg and her role in the Monica Lewinsky/Bill Clinton scandal of the late 1990s. She advised Linda Tripp to tape record her conversations with Lewinsky and to convince her to save the now-infamous "blue dress."

From the introduction, entitled "Everything You Know About Fascism is Wrong," Goldberg grabs the reader's attention. He quotes the late George Carlin, "When fascism comes to America, it will not be in brown and black shirts...It will be Nike sneakers and Smiley shirts." (1) This statement should remove any question about the artistry of the book's front cover: a large yellow smiley face complete with a Hitler mustache. While lengthy, the introduction spells out exactly what Goldberg is going to tell the reader in the remainder of the book. It is no mystery that he believes we are living in a time where the fascistic bent of Italy's Mussolini and Germany's Hitler are being blended with the quasi-socialistic policies of presidents Woodrow Wilson, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, and Lyndon Baines Johnson.

After the introduction, Goldberg leads the reader through a fascinating history of the rise of fascism in Europe. Although Benito Mussolini, the leader of Italy, has been vilified, mostly due to his association with Hitler and the Third Reich, we are reminded that for the good part of a decade, he was considered a great leader. In 1923, the New York Times boasted that, "Mussolini is a Latin [Teddy] Roosevelt who first acts and then inquires if it is legal. He has been of great service to Italy at home." (27) Noted Americans such as humorist Will Rogers, Hollywood mogul Lionel Barrymore, and legendary journalist Lowell Thomas proclaimed his greatness. On the international scene, Sigmund Freud and Winston Churchill were quite smitten with him. In addition, James A. Farrell, the president of U.S. Steel Corporation, said he was "`the greatest living man' in the world." (29) Goldberg concludes the Mussolini chapter with a brief description on how Mussolini gained his beliefs, first as a socialist then as a fascist, ending with his ill-fated attempt to flee to Switzerland in 1945 when he was captured by Italian partisans and executed.

Mussolini might have been remembered more favorably had he not associated himself with the subject of the next chapter, Adolph Hitler. Goldberg leads the reader on a brief history of the rise of Hitler and how he became so enamored with socialism. Students of history will be familiar with the 1923 "Beer Hall Putsch" and his subsequent imprisonment where he wrote the infamous Mein Kampf, as well as the efforts to promote Germany in the 1936 Olympics and the murderous "Kristallnacht" of 1938. Here, Goldberg begins to paste together how today's liberals use the term Nazi to describe those who call themselves conservatives. He says that the left "cherry-pick[s] the facts to form a caricature of what the Third Reich was about...[with] the desired effect to cast Nazism as the polar opposite of Communism." "[The] roles of industrialists...[are] greatly exaggerated, while the very large and substantial leftist and socialist aspects of Nazism..." are minimized. (57) Rather than being a right-wing conservative as many on the left would proclaim, Hitler should be considered a leftist because Nazism "...emphasized many of the themes of the later New Lefts...the primacy of race...an emphasis on the organic and holistic - including environmentalism, health food, and exercise - and...the need to `transcend' notions of class." (59)

Woodrow Wilson and Franklin Delano Roosevelt are the subjects of the next two chapters and each provides a bridge from which fascism in Europe crosses over to the United States. One could argue, as Goldberg does, that Wilson was the grandfather of modern liberalism in America. Back then, liberals were called progressives and Wilson led the way with a progressive agenda, including proclaiming the Constitution's series of checks-and-balances as outdated and by furthering the Darwinian cause of a "living Constitution." Wilson also formed the "West's first modern ministry for propaganda" in the Committee on Public Information (CPI). This group implored Americans against protesting the country's involvement in World War I. Another Wilson organization, the War Industries Board (WIB), was fascist in that it dictated to the business community what would be produced by the nation's industries under the banner of nationalizing the people for war. Throughout the section on Wilson, Goldberg paints a bleak picture of how America was nearly swallowed up by a type of benevolent dictatorship. Goldberg is equally repulsed by the Roosevelt years. He reminds the reader that Roosevelt was the only president to break with the tradition of George Washington by serving more than two terms. Moreover, he compares Roosevelt's National Recovery Administration with Wilson's WIB, saying that the former was modeled on the latter. Throughout these two chapters Goldberg deftly cites example after example of how these two presidents, considered great by many - Wilson for his Fourteen Points and Roosevelt for supposedly ending the Great Depression - did more than anyone up to that point to introduce socialism and fascism into American culture.

Before bringing the reader into the latter half of the twentieth century, Goldberg shifts to the decade of the 1960s. On its face, the chapter is important because it lays the groundwork for upcoming criticism on John F. Kennedy and Lyndon Johnson. Unfortunately, for the reader, it is here that he provides minutia that keeps an otherwise informative and entertaining book from flowing by chronicling the histories of radical organizations such as the Students for a Democratic Society (SDS), the Black Panthers, and the Weathermen. If one were to skip this chapter, however, one would miss the author's wry sense of humor that was disbursed throughout the book. For example, Goldberg laments the fact that one of Fidel Castro's closest compatriots, Che Guevara "...has become a chic branding tool... [representing] a disgusting indictment of...American consumer culture." (193) He goes on to say that Guevara's likeness has made its way onto shirts and even toddler onesies. Depending on one's viewpoint, Guevara could be described as a misunderstood revolutionary or a mass murderer, but he is popular with the left because he is associated with an idol of the left, Fidel Castro. He arguably killed more people than Mussolini and was as despicable as Nazi SS Chief Heinrich Himmler. Nevertheless, Goldberg wittingly asks, "Would you put a Mussolini onesie on your baby? Would you let your daughter drink from a Himmler sippy cup?" (194)

John F. Kennedy and Lyndon Johnson, the two presidents from 1961 to 1969, are thoroughly dissected and each given their own chapters. Johnson's "Great Society" certainly gives Goldberg plenty of fodder for blasting a program that was built upon the New Deal. No political commentator who wants to keep his conservative credentials supports Johnson's program in any way, and Goldberg lives up to the task of describing how the Great Society has been detrimental to the country.

Tying fascism to modern liberalism is the task of the remaining third of the book. Chapter Seven discusses the subject of eugenics. One of the staples of modern liberalism is the support for unfettered abortion. Margaret Sanger, the woman credited with the founding of Planned Parenthood and who is one of the heroes of the Left, "...sought to ban reproduction for the unfit and regulate reproduction for everybody else." (271) In 1939, she created the "Negro Project" where she attempted to control the black population's ability to reproduce. Her plan was to eventually allow the black race to die out. One could find similarities in her ideas and those of Hitler's Nazi Party.

Hillary Rodham Clinton, the current junior senator from New York, former first lady, and recent presidential candidate, is the focus of Chapter Nine, "Brave New Village." When this book was published in 2007, she was the likely Democratic Party nominee for president. As of this writing, it does not appear that she will meet that goal. Her competitor, Barak Obama, a senator from Illinois, will take her place on the ticket. Goldberg must have been sure that she would get the nomination (Barak Obama is only mentioned on two pages) as he chronicled her history and picked apart her designs on moving the country even farther to the left. It would be a stretch to call her book, It Takes A Village, her version of Mein Kampf, but Goldberg does emphasize that part of her plan for America includes early governmental involvement with children and reeducating them in the elementary and secondary public school system, similar to the plan that Hitler used in 1930s Germany.

For the student of the period's historiography, Goldberg does an excellent job of highlighting the ways that liberal scholars have been able to slant history in a way that puts the New Left in the best light. With over fifty pages of notes and hundreds of references, his documentation is sound. He has successfully demonstrated that much of what has been accepted American history has been distorted. Students of an earlier generation were taught that Woodrow Wilson died of a broken heart because the Senate did not ratify his League of Nations. Goldberg teaches us that we nearly went down a path that changed the Constitution. Similarly, we had been taught that Roosevelt got the country out of the Great Depression. Again, we learned here that Roosevelt's initial plans were not that much different from those of Hitler and Mussolini. In Liberal Fascism, the myths are exposed and the foundation upon which modern liberal fascism has been built is shown. Goldberg, of course, is an anti-Liberal Fascist and would like to bring the country farther to the conservative side. He is saying through his book that the only way to understand how to dismantle the New Left establishment is to know how it was first put together.