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3.47 AVERAGE
3.47 AVERAGE
An extensive and well laid out look at why America is more conservative than other rich nations. I really appreciated the broad, accessible and sensitive look into the historic, societal and political depths of conservatism. A lot of events and figures are illuminated rather well and a lot of the assertions still hold up despite the book’s age. Naturally in the ~15 years since publication a lot has changed, so some of the conclusions and word choices have certainly changed (including calling black Americans ‘blacks’ and gay Americans ‘gays’). I found a few of the author’s assertions either disagreeable, such as their statement claiming that gay marriage should be left up to the states and that is is emphatically different than the civil rights’ movement in the 60s, or their over generalizations about Europe. Time has proven a few of their claims and projections wrong such as that liberalism is dead or that young people are increasingly more conservative. This book definitely encourages critical thinking and analysis and I really appreciated that about it.
A foriegn-eye-view of the rise, fall, and rebirth of conservatism in the United States. The first quarter of the book was a great history lesson, but then they got into the stuff about how America is so much further right than the rest of the world, and then tried to explain that Bush's non-conservatism is actually conservatism, and they honestly kinda lost me there. Regardless, there was a lot of interesting stuff in there, and I think is meant for a non-US audience more than a US one, but some of the flaws were too huge for me to really want to hand it off to someone as a worthwhile venture.
As difficult as it was (at times) for this California liberal to read this book, I am certainly glad that I did! It is a good reminder that we all live in our own bubbles--liberal, conservative, a mixture of the two, neither--and that to truly understand this country, we have to understand that there are other bubbles. A wonderfully researched and written book; I wouldn't mind an update given the chaos of this upcoming election.