Tuesday, January 22, 2008

Liberal Fascism

I have it on reserve at the Rochester Public Library. I'm really looking forward to reading it.


Summary :

"Liberal fascism offers a new perspective on the theories and practices that define fascist politics. Replacing conveniently manufactured myths with surprising and enlightening research, Jonah Goldberg reminds us that the original fascists were really on the left, and that liberals from Woodrow Wilson to FDR to Hillary Clinton have advocated policies and principles remarkably similar to those of Hitler's National Socialism and Mussolini's Fascism." "These assertions may sound strange to modern ears, but that is simply because we have forgotten what fascism is. In this angry, funny, smart, contentious book, Jonah Goldberg turns our preconceptions inside out and shows us the true meaning of liberal fascism."--BOOK JACKET. Distributed by Syndetic Solutions, Inc.

Publisher's Weekly Review

In this provocative and well-researched book, Goldberg probes modern liberalism's spooky origins in early 20th-century fascist politics. With chapter titles such as Adolf Hitler: Man of the Left and Brave New Village: Hillary Clinton and the Meaning of Liberal Fascism Goldberg argues that fascism has always been a phenomenon of the left. This is Goldberg's first book, and he wisely curbs his wry National Review style. Goldberg's study of the conceptual overlap between fascism and ideas emanating from the environmental movement, Hollywood, the Democratic Party and what he calls other left-wing organs is shocking and hilarious. He lays low such lights of liberal history as Margaret Sanger, apparently a radical eugenicist, and JFK, whose cult of personality, according to Goldberg, reeks of fascist political theater. Much of this will be music to conservatives' ears, but other readers may be stopped cold by the parallels Goldberg draws between Nazi Germany and the New Deal. The book's tone suffers as it oscillates between revisionist historical analyses and the application of fascist themes to American popular culture; nonetheless, the controversial arc Goldberg draws from Mussolini to The Matrix is well-researched, seriously argued and funny. (Jan. 8) Copyright � Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. Copyright Reed Business Information

Table of Contents
Introduction: Everything You Know About Fascism Is Wrong1
1 Mussolini: The Father of Fascism25
2 Adolf Hitler: Man of the Left53
3 Woodrow Wilson and the Birth of Liberal Fascism78
4 Franklin Roosevelt's Fascist New Deal121
5 The 1960s: Fascism Takes to the Streets163
6 From Kennedy's Myth to Johnson's Dream: Liberal Fascism and the Cult of the State201
7 Liberal Racism: The Eugenic Ghost in the Fascist Machine243
8 Liberal Fascist Economics284
9 Brave New Village: Hillary Clinton and the Meaning of Liberal Fascism317
10 The New Age: We're All Fascists Now358
Afterword: The Tempting of Conservatism391
Acknowledgments407
Appendix The Nazi Party Platform410
Notes414
Index468

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