 "Calm words on the culture wars" | 2010-01-14 |
| - Reviewed By Art King from Portland, OR USA |
| The majority of books on one side or the other of the current American culture wars are shrill and hyperventilating. Here's one that's not. Calm, reasoned, and gently written, but making its points clearly. Recommended. |
| |
 "Should be mandatory reading in all High Schools." | 2009-12-05 |
| - Reviewed By rapariga from La Mesa, CA USA |
| Dinish D'Souza captures the real America that most Americans have forgotten. This book should be mandatory reading in all High Schools and perhaps we would still have a chance that our youth would recognize that the USA is the best place on earth. |
| |
| "great book!" | 2009-11-01 |
| - Reviewed By J. Clarke |
| This book gave me a better understanding of the freedoms we enjoy in America and how we are morally slipping as a nation. Dinesh D'Souza has a broad knowledge of cultures and countries and writes well. I have recommended this book to family members and friends. |
| |
| "Polarizing book, but must-read" | 2009-08-11 |
| - Reviewed By P. J. Owen from Atlanta GA USA |
Written in the aftermath of 9/11, What's so Great About America? was meant to address those multiculturalists who felt America `had it coming', those who did not understand why Muslims from halfway around the world would want to kill Americans, and those without the moral `self-confidence' to weather the coming fight, something D'Souza argues is a requirement of war unique to America. In a nutshell, he argues, with some interesting digressions, why America is worth fighting for.
He begins by explaining `why they hate us'. He explains the intractability of the clash of civilizations, the incompatibility of Islam with the West. Due to the nature of Islam, we cannot breezily brush over our differences, we cannot `agree to disagree'- something an American instinctively reaches for when a discussion reaches an impasse. This is because it is the very freedom that is the cornerstone of what America stands for that they find so repugnant. And it's not just that Islam is all about living your life for Allah and at the direction of Allah, which is entirely incompatible with the concept of freedom. They also feel it is that very freedom that has made America a morally bankrupt society. In essence a flip side to the question raised in the book's title, D'Souza goes on to discuss the question of America's morality in great detail.
An argument against the West has always been that it achieved its success through might and oppression of weaker peoples. But this completely ignores the fact that the West wasn't always the strongest, that there was a time when Huns and Muslims conquered and ruled over Western peoples. The West only became stronger gradually by exploring other lands and absorbing the good ideas they found. Admittedly they also imposed ideas on the colonies, primarily Christianity, but D'Souza argues that from Christianity came the idea of progress and it's progress that led to the three inventions he believes accounts for the Western domination of the current day: science, democracy, and capitalism. D'Souza convincingly argues that the targets of Western colonialism benefitted in the long-term where they absorbed Western advances, just as the West overcame their inferiority in the Middle Ages, when Islam and China reigned supreme, through absorption. This is demonstrated even now as China and India have risen through the use of Western capitalistic ideas while the Islamic world has remained poor and irrelevant because they seem to feel they have nothing to learn from the West. In fact, it's these three particular Western ideas that Islamic leaders are standing directly opposed to in this fight.
D'Souza makes an interesting digression to discuss the assimilation of different cultures into America, primarily by contrasting the Asian-American strategy versus that of blacks, before moving to what I thought was the most intriguing section of the book, the section where he takes the morality question head-on. He briefly addresses technology and capitalism's impact on social degradation, which is something argued pretty regularly within America itself, but points to the 60's revolution and eighteenth century French philosopher Jean Jaques Rousseau as the primary causes. He argues that it was Rousseau's philosophy of living life in the way the individual feels is best for them, social mores be damned, that stuck in the 60's and remains in vogue today. Rousseau expounded an `inner freedom' that instructed us to look deeply into our souls and to do with our lives what we find to be true to ourselves. D'Souza calls this `authenticity'. The prevalence of this idea in our culture can be seen today in the popularity of self-help books, which are popular because the flip side of authenticity has been an explosion of identity crises for those who cannot effectively read their inner tea leaves, and the love of artists, who are seen to be the rebels of society living the dreams of everyone else. D'Souza seems to agree with social commentators who in turn seem to agree with the Islamic world that Americans on the whole live immorally. But whereas Muslims believe it's freedom itself that's the cause of this immorality, D'Souza believes it's freedom without purpose that's the problem. He believes it's not enough to say that your inner self dictates what you choose, but there must be some compass that helps you choose wisely. The conservative's mission therefore should be to `steer the American ethic of authenticity to its highest manifestation and to ennoble freedom by showing it the path of virtue'.
In the end he thinks, despite America's identity crisis, that the path of freedom is closest to the path of virtue. He acknowledges that as long as we have freedom, we will have people who choose wrongly. However, he argues the virtue of the Islamic world is not authentic because it is forced. Thus, only freedom can get us to true virtue, and this is what's so great about the American ideal.
I found this book interesting. D'Souza is a sharp writer who excellently crafts his arguments. While the purpose of the book was to explain what's so great about America, he was able to be effectively even-handed in his arguments, I believe, because he is an immigrant and can spot things that are unique to America, including negative traits. Sometimes his language veered into the zealous patriotism of that time, but he mostly kept that sort of thing in check. Even though this book was written seven years ago, it's still relevant as we're still debating most of the issues he addresses, both internally and with the rest of the world.
|
| |
| "Well argued, yet dated defense of American culture" | 2009-08-11 |
| - Reviewed By J. Hubble from Northern California |
This book was written after the September 11th attacks, but before the Iraq invasion. As such, I wasn't expecting much more than rah rah patriotism. I was presently surprised to find a good argument in favor of western civilization. He turns many of the objections to western (and American) culture into positives, pointing out that only a sufficiently open and advanced society would allow (and condone) such behavior. He similarly argues that the many different cultures add to the fabric of the country, but that most immigrants move because they prefer the western/American culture (not because they want to totally preserve their old culture.) The western position on slavery is also seen as a positive, as western society willingly gave up the institution (in spite of being encourage by Africans to maintain it.)
The author, though obviously quite conservative in outlook acknowledges that others don't share the views, and further argues that there ability to have differing views is a benefit to the culture.
Unfortunately, in his discussion of Islamic society and the "enemies" of America his knowledge and arugments come across as far less convincing. And I imagine, they would have even more problems if he had to defend the past few years debacle in Iraq. |
| |
| "A thorough refutation of leftist propaganda" | 2009-08-09 |
| - Reviewed By Norseman from Minnesota |
In this day and age, there are people who were born in America, who derisively refuse to be classified as Americans.
There are some people now living in America, who were born abroad, but became citizens of the U.S., and are more American than some people who were actually born here.
Mr. Dsouza is one of those foriegn-born Americans.
He logically summarizes precisely WHY America is unique, and what positive influences America, and the West, have to offer. This is not just a defense of the United States, but the West in general.
Sure, America has had some ugliness in its history. Name one nation that has a perfectly benign history. What nation has ever been a "perfect" society from day one?
In fact, vast areas of the world exhibit on-going cultural injustices and conflicts that have not been resolved after a milennia.
Consider this:
America is a very young nation, with only two centuries and a few decades of actual history. Most of the other nations of the world have at least a thousand years of history, or much more. In the short time that America has existed, you can not ignore the vast and rapid progress that has been achieved. America, and the other Western nations, are a work in progress.
We have confronted our flaws, and continue to do so.
Among the oldest continuing cultures, an individual was/is strongly discouraged, if not blatantly prohibited, from advancing beyond the so-called "social-class" into which he/she is born.
In America (and the West), YOU largely determine your own progress and success in life. You are limited only by your own drive, ambition, and luck.
Among the various issues that D'Souza addresses in this book:
-Slavery:
America, and other Western nations did in fact practice slavery, ...but the America and the Western nations are significant in their achievement of ABOLISHING slavery.
-Colonialism:
Yes, many Western nations established colonies for the commercial exploitation of foriegn lands. However, the West GAVE UP its empires. In time, the West evolved in its beliefs to percieve that colonialism was immoral. Colonialism was humiliating for the subjugated cultures. However, under Western influence, many of these former colonies have adopted institutions that resulted in rapid and positive advancement in the world.
-For example: D'Souza's own culture of origin, India, was a Medieval society, stagnantly entrenched in its "caste" system, before the era of British colonialism. Look at India now: An up and coming economic power, a nation that produces a large number of scientists, engineers, and technologists.
- Slavery Reparations:
Precisely WHY this is a ridiculous concept, and why the descendants of slaves in America are much better-off than the descendants of Africans who remained in Africa. The LAST people born into slavery in North America, were born before April of 1865. The Confederacy surrendered, and all slaves were finally free. Well, THERE IS NOT ONE OF THOSE PEOPLE ALIVE TODAY!
But "reparations" advocates think "whitey" had better pay up anyway. Everyone? MY ANCESOTORS HELPED LIBERATE THE SLAVES! When someone is desperately trying to convince you that an ethnicity or race is "collectively guilty" for alledged "evils" commited by that groups ANCESTORS, ...you understand how PROFOUNDLY RACIST the accuser actually is.
-Conflict with the islamic world:
Why does the islamic world so savagely HATE the West, ESPECIALLY AMERICA?
A thousand years ago, muslims had established the first universities in Europe, ...while much of what would become Europe was struggling to establish actual nations out of its various barbarian tribes, in the aftermath of the collapse of Rome.
Consider how far the West has come in that time. Consider how far the West has come in just half that time. Consider how far America has come in less than a quarter of that time.
...What has the Middle-east produced or achieved since then?
|
| |
Expedited Available
