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

A 20th century trip through liberal history

From Teddy to Bill, provides a great review of just where liberal thought comes from and how it has been applied in the western world during the 20th century. If you have socialistic leanings this will clarify the advances and retreats of socialism here and abroad. if you have conservative leanings this will help you understand your liberal friends and provide background to argue for conservative thought. Both liberals and conservatives desperately need to read this very even handed book.

Thought-provoking and challenging work

I purchased this in hardcover as soon as it came out, and when I received my Kindle I purchased it again so I'd have it handy. Simply put...this is an outstanding work. Meticulously researched yet written in an approachable style, Goldberg makes an effective argument. I found some of the themes challenging, particularly since I had to "unlearn" a number of things I had discovered I had accepted as dogma prior to opening this book. As a lay reader I needed to put the book aside every so often to simply process what Goldberg was saying to me, but it's a testament to his literary prowess that he was able to get through to me.

While it is, as I said, approachable, I don't consider it a light beach read. The engaged reader with an open mind will get the most out of this book.

Interesting reading regardless of your politics

Usually, I tend not to bother with rightist or leftist polemics whose sole purpose is to make the other side look bad. But this is different.

Essentially, the thesis of Goldberg's book is that the American Left has more in common with bona fide facism than the right for whom it frequently uses this epithet.

He begins by talking about Benito Mussolini and Otto Von Bismark, the founding fathers of what we now call facism, and makes note of the fact that many liberals initially praised these men and their ideas.

From this, he discusses Americna lefitists (in some cases, people who did not identfy themselves with the left) such as Margaret Sanger, Huey Long, Father Coughlin, Upton Sinclair, etc. and the inevitable comparisons of FDR's New deal and LBJ's Great Society. He ties all of this in with the indefensible extremes of the "New Left" of the 60s that has tarred the reputation of the left ever since.

In fairness, he uses excellent research to back up his points and the primary sources are worth checking into. What keeps this from becoming a typical dogmatic political rant is his willingness to admit that the right's hands are not entirely clean in this matter either. So it is somewhat balanced. The problem is a "throw out the baby with the bath" approach to some of these concepts. For example, he chides Blacks who support Planned Parenthood because of the admitted racism of Margaret Sanger (Goldberg never mentions that Dr. Martin Luther King was also among PP's major supporters) and a few slips of outright bad history (He accuses JFK of masterminding Patrice Lumumba's murder when that actually happened during the Eisenhower administration earlier in January 1961).

But with that's said, it's still an interesting read and sobering for leftists as well as the right.

Liberal Fascism

So far, it is a good factual history of the beginnings of what is now accepted as the new religion of the Liberal Left and the likes of Move-on.Org! A sad commentary of what people "feel" rather than what they "know" or what they wish for instead of what is real! How ideology has replaced religion.

Great Book As Evidenced by Liberal Reviews & Placement

Plainly this book has been out for quite some time but until it showed up on audio I didn't even know it existed. Why? Because it was well hidden by the major book stores that typically hide anything conservative on the bottom shelf of some sociology section in the back of the store. If this were a fascist-liberal tome like Al Frankens "Rush Limbaugh is a Big Fat Idiot", there would have been 500 copies stacked at the front of every store. Meanwhile, even the "mainstream media" reviews chosen by Amazon were dismissive. What Mr. Goldberg has attempted to do is tell liberals that if you want to uproot fascism in our midst, you best start by looking in the mirror and studying your own history on Eugenics, Abortion, Racism, Class Warfare, Political Correctness, etc. What is more fascist than getting wayward blacks to step back into line by threatening them with Sexual Harassment lawsuits (ie, Clarance Thomas, Juan Williams, and Bill Cosby!!!). To Mr. Thomas' credit, it didn't work on him but it sure seemed to work on Mr. Williams, formerly of the Washington Post, who hasn't said a kind word about conservatives since and on Mr. Cosby who has muted his community responsibility comments. While liberals have educated us all that WWII was a just war for freedom over fascism, what it really was as proven (but perhaps left unsaid), was a struggle for the ideological heart of socialism. As Mr. Goldberg did say, the Soviet propaganda machine (a fascistic organ if ever there was one) successfully painted Hitlerism and Mussolini Fascism as "right wing" and pro-capitalist when they were only such in comparison to Communism. Drawn to its logical conclusion, todays liberals who yell "fascist" at every turn relative to conservatism (ie, "classical liberalism") are in fact, communists. Three cheers for Mr. Goldberg. Its unfortunate that the liberal response to challenges of their orthodoxy is to stick their fingers in their ears and yell "nyah nyah nyah....".