Synopsis:
Who’s on the wrong side of history? Liberals, argues Mona Charen in this New York Times bestseller. And they've been on the wrong side for far too long. A former speechwriter for the Reagan White House, Charen describes how the left has continually attempted to rewrite history, all the while refusing to learn from it. She fearlessly calls out the prominent liberal media figures, professors, and opinion makers who flocked to Castro’s Cuba and called it paradise, visited the Soviet Union and proclaimed its glorious future, and who, only a generation ago, proclaimed communism to be a "force of good" in the world. She won't let them get away with their snide disdain for America when the lessons of the past should have humbled them long ago. From D.C. elites Madeleine Albreight, Bill Clinton, John Kerry, and Ted Kennedy, to Hollywood celebs like Woody Allen and Jane Fonda, to academic snobs like Noam Chomsky and Susan Sontag, Charen’s devastating critique of the left's philosophical incompetence is a must-read for Americans on both sides of the aisle.
Review:
"I prayed that such a book would be written but doubted anything so wonderfully readable and instructive at the same time would come along. But here is Mona Charen’s great explication of the central conflict of our times." –William F. Buckley Jr., editor-at-large, National Review "This valuable book documents the extent of liberal bias in American political commentary. It is simultaneously insightful, delightful, and deeply disturbing." –Jeanne Kirkpatrick, former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations "With America once again at war, it’s useful to be reminded of the phenomenon of useful idiots. Unfortunately, they’re once again with us. So Mona Charen’s fine historical study is uncannily relevant." –William Kristol, editor, Weekly Standard "Mona Charen documents the endorsement of Marxist-Leninist rhetoric by the American Left throughout the Cold War and the current attempt to hide that ugly legacy. All those interested in Cold War politics should add this to their library." –William J. Bennett, former Secretary of Education under President Ronald Reagan "Mona Charen shows us in all its gory detail the history of the liberal Left’s hatred of America, from toadying to murderous communist regimes, even during the Cold War, to excusing the slaughters committed today by Islamofascists. Useful Idiots reminds us that the West is endangered by enemies within who seek to weaken our morale even as we face assault from without." – Robert H. Bork, Professor of Law at Yale and former United States Attorney General "Charen's marshaling of the written record powerfully supports her conclusion that many on the Left got the Cold War very wrong, are trying to reshape its history, and worst, in knee-jerk fashion are transferring old attitudes and errors to new threats." – The Montana Professor "Syndicated columnist and CNN commentator Charen offers a moral indictment of those public figures―politicians, entertainers and professors―who, she says, stubbornly refused to see communism for what it was: a brutal, dictatorial death machine." – Publisher's Weekly "Useful Idiots ... recalls example after jaw-dropping example of American liberals defending, flattering, and excusing the crimes of one Communist ruler and regime after another. Fidel Castro, Ho Chi Minh, Mao Zedong, the Khmer Rouge, Leonid Brezhnev, Kim Il Sung, the Sandinistas: Over and over the pattern was repeated, from the dawn of the Bolshevik Revolution to the collapse of the Iron Curtain ― and beyond." – Boston Globe
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