Liberal Fascism

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Liberal Fascism  
Liberal Fascism (cover).jpg
Author Jonah Goldberg
Country United States
Language English
Subject(s) Politics
Publisher Doubleday
Publication date January 8, 2008
Media type Print (Hardcover)
Pages 496
ISBN 0385511841
OCLC Number 123136367
Dewey Decimal 320.53/3 22
LC Classification JC481 .G55 2007

Liberal Fascism: The Secret History of the American Left, From Mussolini to the Politics of Meaning is a bestselling book by Jonah Goldberg, a conservative syndicated columnist and the editor-at-large of National Review Online. The book reached #1 on the New York Times Best Seller list of hardcover non-fiction in its seventh week on the list.[1]

In the book, Goldberg argues that contrary to conventional wisdom, fascist movements were and are left-wing. He states that both modern liberalism and fascism descended from progressivism, and that prior to World War II, "fascism was widely viewed as a progressive social movement with many liberal and left-wing adherents in Europe and the United States".[2] Goldberg has told interviewers that the title Liberal Fascism comes "directly from a speech that H.G. Wells gave to the Young Liberals at Oxford in 1932."[3][4][5] Goldberg claims that Wells had stated that he wanted to "assist in a kind of phoenix rebirth" of liberalism as an "enlightened Nazism."

Goldberg writes that there was more to fascism than bigotry and genocide and, in fact, that bigotry and genocide were not so much a feature of fascism itself, but rather a feature of Nazism, which was forced upon the Italian fascists "after the Nazis had invaded northern Italy and created a puppet government in Salò."[6]

Goldberg argues that over time, the term fascism has lost its actual meaning and instead has descended to the level of being "a modern word for 'heretic,' branding an individual worthy of excommunication from the body politic" and that this devolution of the meaning is not new, noting that George Orwell (a democratic socialist) had observed this in 1946 when he described the word as no longer having any meaning except to signify "something not desirable".[7][7][8]

Goldberg explains that the smiley face on the cover is a reference to comments made by comedian George Carlin on HBO's Real Time with Bill Maher when he said that "when fascism comes to America, it will not be in brown and black shirts. It will not be with jackboots. It will be Nike sneakers and smiley shirts. Smiley-smiley."[9][10]

Contents

[edit] Positive reviews

Author David Pryce-Jones wrote,

Jonah Goldberg argues that liberals today have doctrinal and emotional roots in twentieth-century European fascism. Many people will be shocked just by the thought that long discredited fascism could mutate into the spirit of another age. It's always exhilarating when someone takes on received opinion, but this is not a work of pamphleteering. Goldberg's insight, supported by a great deal of learning, happens to be right.[11]

Publishers Weekly said the "provocative and well-researched" book "probes modern liberalism's spooky origins in early 20th-century fascist politics" and that the book is "seriously argued and funny."[12]

Larry Thornberry of the Washington Times called the book "a major contribution to understanding the history of political ideas and attitudes over the last two centuries and change."[13]

Ron Radosh of The New York Sun wrote that Goldberg "has read widely and thoroughly, not only in the primary sources of fascism, but in the political and intellectual history written by the major historians of the subject."[14]

Vox Day of WorldNetDaily described it as "the most ideologically significant work of political non-fiction since Allan Bloom's "The Closing of the American Mind." [15]

Marvin Olasky of World Magazine wrote,

Jonah Goldberg's Liberal Fascism is a flawed but useful attempt to redraw the political map. Goldberg shows how Woodrow Wilson began and Franklin Roosevelt amplified an almost-fascist concentration of power in Washington. FDR boasted of his 'wholesome and proper' buildup of power because he was leading 'a people's government.' Goldberg shows how liberals came to believe that authoritarian government is fine as long as representatives of 'the people' — themselves — are in charge.[16]

[edit] Negative reviews

Philip Coupland, whose paper "H.G. Wells's ‘Liberal Fascism'" was used as a source for Liberal Fascism criticized Goldberg's understanding of the term. Coupland wrote that Liberal fascism was the name Wells gave to his method of achieving a liberal social end, not the goal itself. In contrast, a liberal fascist would pursue fascist ends but in a more liberal way.[17]

According to Gary G. Kohls who wrote in Online Journal, Fascism, in the various definitions outlined in reputable textbooks, encyclopedias and dictionaries is a right-wing (not left-wing!) ideology of negativism which attempts to destroy liberalism, socialism, communism, true democracy, egalitarianism and labor unionism. It also tends to be ultra-nationalist, racist, sexist, corporatist and militarist.[18]

Austin W. Bramwell wrote in The American Conservative: "Not only does Goldberg misunderstand liberalism, but he refuses to see it simply as liberalism... Liberal Fascism reads less like an extended argument than as a catalogue of conservative intellectual clichés, often irrelevant to the supposed point of the book."[19]

In The Nation, Eric Alterman wrote that Goldberg's grouping of left-wing politics with fascism is based on weak, tenuous associations: "Some fascists were vegetarians; some liberals are vegetarians; ergo... Some fascists were gay; some liberals are gay... Fascists cared about educating children; Hillary Clinton cares about educating children. Aha! ... This is a book that argues that Woodrow Wilson 'was the twentieth century's first fascist dictator' and that it is 'impossible to deny that the New Deal was objectively fascistic.'"[20]

Blogger and journalist David Neiwert, writing in The American Prospect, called the book "bizarro history" and "classic Newspeak." He wrote: "The title alone is enough to indicate its thoroughgoing incoherence: Of all the things we know about fascism and the traits that comprise it, one of the few things that historians will readily agree upon is its overwhelming anti-liberalism."[21]

David Oshinsky of The New York Times wrote: "Liberal Fascism is less an exposé of left-wing hypocrisy than a chance to exact political revenge. Yet the title of his book aside, what distinguishes Goldberg from the Sean Hannitys and Michael Savages is a witty intelligence that deals in ideas as well as insults — no mean feat in the nasty world of the culture wars."[22]

Michael Tomasky wrote in The New Republic: "...I can report with a clear conscience that Liberal Fascism is one of the most tedious and inane — and ultimately self-negating — books that I have ever read. ... Liberal Fascism is a document of a deeply frivolous culture, or sub-culture."[23]

When Jonah Goldberg was a guest on The Daily Show to promote his book, the interview with host Jon Stewart went overtime, as Stewart and Goldberg debated many of the claims made in the book. The recorded interview was edited down for broadcast. The interview ended with a laughing Goldberg and Stewart remarking "Can we air any of this?"[24]

[edit] Notes

  1. ^ "Hardcover Nonfiction". New York Times. March 9, 2008. http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/09/books/bestseller/0309besthardnonfiction.html?_r=1&oref=slogin. Retrieved 2008-03-05. 
  2. ^ Goldberg 2008, p. 9.
  3. ^ Glenn Reynolds & Helen Smith. The Glenn and Helen Show: Jonah Goldberg on Hillary, Huckabee, and Liberal Fascism Politics Central.
  4. ^ Coupland, Philip (2000). "H.G. Wells's 'Liberal Fascism'". Journal of Contemporary History 35 (4): 541–558. doi:10.1177/002200940003500402. http://jch.sagepub.com/cgi/content/abstract/35/4/541. 
  5. ^ Goldberg 2008, p. 21.
  6. ^ Goldberg 2008, p. 25.
  7. ^ a b Goldberg 2008, p. 4
  8. ^ Politics and the English Language George Orwell, 1946.
  9. ^ When a conservative and liberal 'talk'South Florida Sun-Sentinel, Jonah Goldberg, January 25, 2008
  10. ^ Goldberg 2008, pp. 1–2.
  11. ^ http://liberalfascism.nationalreview.com/post/?q=M2M2ZWUyZGIzNDFhZjE2NzVlM2VjMDQxMjRkYzdmYzA=&p=1 "Praise for Liberal Fascism"
  12. ^ "Nonfiction Reviews: Week of 11/26/2007". Publishers Weekly. 2007-11-26. http://www.publishersweekly.com/article/CA6504692.html. Retrieved 2007-12-24. 
  13. ^ What liberal thought has in common with fascism, The Washington Times, Larry Thornberry, February 17, 2008.
  14. ^ "America's 'Fascist Moment" The New York Sun, Ron Radosh January 4, 2008
  15. ^ "Liberal Fascism" WorldNetDaily, Vox Day December 31, 2007
  16. ^ "Fascists on the left" World Magazine, Marvin Olasky July 12, 2008
  17. ^ 2009 Abstract to "H.G. Wells's ‘Liberal Fascism’", Journal of Contemporary History, Vol. 35, No. 4, (2000)
  18. ^ Gary G. Kohls (9/2/2009). "There is no such thing as liberal fascism". Online Journal. http://onlinejournal.com/artman/publish/article_5081.shtml. 
  19. ^ Goldberg's Trivial Pursuit, The American Conservative, Austin W. Bramwell January 27, 2008.
  20. ^ "Conservative Cannibalism The Nation, Eric Alterman February 21, 2008
  21. ^ Jonah Goldberg's Bizarro History, The American Prospect, David Neiwert, January 8, 2008
  22. ^ "Heil Woodrow!". 2007-12-30. http://www.nytimes.com/2007/12/30/books/review/Oshinsky-t.html. Retrieved 2008-02-20. 
  23. ^ Michael Tomasky (March 12, 2008). ""Jackboots and Whole Foods"". The New Republic. http://www.tnr.com/article/books/jackboots-and-whole-foods. Retrieved 2008-03-05. 
  24. ^ http://www.thedailyshow.com/video/index.jhtml?videoId=147884&title=jonah-goldberg

[edit] External links

Preceded by
In Defense of Food
by Michael Pollan		 #1 New York Times Best Seller Non-Fiction
March 9 2008		 Succeeded by
Losing It
by Valerie Bertinelli
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