The Collier-Horowitz team have done at least three of these dynasty biographies, this one being their first. The biggest problem they have had in their project of writing on the Rockefellers, Fords and Kennedys is that they are often dependent on a few sources, especially when researching contemporary family goings-on. Maybe because it was their first stab at the dynasty biography, the problem is most acute with the Rockefellers. The founder of the dynasty, John D. Senior, is given less space than John D. Junior, almost as if Collier-Horowitz is saying "Senior has been done by others; let's nail down the more obscure Junior." And they do fill in the details of Junior's life rather well. The professional lives of the third generation, the five brothers, are rather well done but the personal lives are almost ignored. This is a failing because the reader can not understand why the fourth generation of Rockefellers have, for the most part, happily rejected their family unless you know why the five brothers were such abject failures as fathers. The fourth generation comes off, with only a couple of exceptions, as spoiled, childish brats filled with loathing of all things Rockefeller. David Rockefeller's children especially seem to despise their father, family and country. Abbie Rockefeller is particularly odious. Laura Rockefeller explains her own generation succinctly when she says, "the cousins are used to spending and donating money but not producing." The moral decay and personal supineness of the vast majority of the fourth generation is striking. It is also interesting is that the first Rockefellers were very religious people while the younger Rockefellers have turned their backs on religion. The Rockefeller trusts may keep the Rockefeller family going financially for several generations to come but as an important, vibrant family, the Rockefellers are a family in collapse.

This writing would make an excellent history book about one of the biggest families in Corporate America. This book details the building of the massive Rockefeller fortune through the exploits of the senior Rockefeller. His battles with rivals within the oil industry are also well documented. His son also has a prominent place in this book as well. His donations to charity and the development of several foundations are well covered. The third generation Rockefellers and their accomplishments are well described in this book. All in all this was an outstanding book about a prominent American family. Read it, you will not be dissapointed.

Former radicals Horowitz and Collier expose the Left again. This collection of vignettes from campuses (and other areas) across the nation are quite humorous -- and at the same time scary. McCarthyism alive and well? Sure is -- at your local university.

Have kids about to enter college? Read this first, and then examine what classes your child takes along with his/her reading materials and syllabi.

Oh, and make sure to read the letters section at the end of the book, especially those from university professors. These guys and gals are supposed to be the epitomy of "tolerant?"

This collection of materials (mostly essays, but also some parodies and, delightfully, readers' letters) from Heterodoxy is horrifying and invigorating. "These people are crazy," I kept telling myself as I read the book. "They need to be institutionalized."

But they're not crazy. They're mobilized, they're motivated, and they're out to get you. Okay, maybe not YOU, specifically...not yet. The essays in this collection reveal leftist individuals and organizations at work, putting their agenda -- the consolidation of their own power by the destruction of existing American institutions -- into action.

The title is mystifying. Many of the essays contained in this volume relate to American universities (one of the first redoubts to be siezed by the Raving Left). Others, though, deal with issues and incidents as diverse as fascist feminism's assault on the US military and a social workers' crusade against the "patriarchal" family.

Still, give it to your college-bound friend or relative. Think of it as inoculation.

American Universities, Islands of Oppression in a Sea of Freedom.

And daily the size of that sea is shrinking. We scratch our heads and wonder what is eating away at the America we once knew. This is a good place to start answering that question.

It is no surprise that David Horowitz is viciously despised on the left. He now attacks the left with the same persistence and self-righteousness that he once employed in service of radical causes. I can't help but notice, however, that many of his leftist critics choose to explain him in personal, psychological terms rather than discussing the truth of his claims about the left. Perhaps Horowitz leaves himself open to such an interpretation by including so much non-political material--his estrangement from his parents, his broken marriages--in his story. I believe the more important issues of contention are his various claims about the intentions and integrity of the leaders of the New Left, such as Tom Hayden, or their complicity in despicable acts of violence. His charges about the death of Betty Van Patter at the hands of the Black Panthers have brought a bitter exchange with some of his former comrades at salon.com. Say what you will about Horowitz, he is at least no coward and does not shrink from the most difficult issues. This book is important, because it is a necessary antidote to all the romanticized and hagiographic presentations of the sixties and its leaders stuffed down our throats by some of the Baby Boomers--too many people my age seem to swallow the myth that the sixties were about a bunch of idealistic, naive young people fighting against an oppressive system.

"Radical Son" is a very interesting book. The author's parents were life-long Communists and he was a New Leftist/Socialist for the first 40 years of his life. Slowly he was forced to admit to himself the nihilism of socialism. The murder of a friend by the Blank Panthers crystallized his thinking.

If only this book could be read by high school students and again when they attend college, there might be some hope of ending the untrue and dangerous myths of socialism perpetuated by left-wing politicians, the mainstream media and college elites. Horowitz states, "It was what I thought was the humanity of the Marxist idea that made me what I was then; it is the inhumanity of what I have seen to be the Marxist reality that has made me what I am now. . . . The lesson I had learned from my pain turned out to be modest and simple: the best intentions can lead to the worst deeds. I had believed in the Left because of the good it had promised; I had learned to judge it by the evil it had done."

(...)

"Radical Son" is one of the most important books written in this decade. The author's parents were life-long Communists and he was a New Leftist/Socialist for the first 40 years of his life. Slowly he was forced to admit to himself the nihilism of socialism. The murder of a friend by the Blank Panthers crystallized his thinking. If only this book could be read by high school students and again when they attend college, there might be some hope of ending the untrue and dangerous myths of socialism perpetuated by left-wing politicians, the mainstream media and college elites. Horowitz states, "It was what I thought was the humanity of the Marxist idea that made me what I was then; it is the inhumanity of what I have seen to be the Marxist reality that has made me what I am now. . . . The lesson I had learned from my pain turned out to be modest and simple: the best intentions can lead to the worst deeds. I had believed in the Left because of the good it had promised; I had learned to judge it by the evil it had done." Please do yourself and this nation a favor and read this book. It is only through education that the evils of communism and socialism can be exposed for what they really are.

If nothing else, "Hating Whitey" serves a very useful function to awaken those who are still under the illusion that the American Left represents freedom and equality. Indeed, the books most powerful weapon is its exposure of Liberal hypocrisy: The Left have treated "diversity" as the core of their conviction, yet are all too willing to censor ideas and beliefs that dissent from their view. The Left behave as the very Fascists they claim to oppose. But this plugs straight into another issue former radical Horowitz brings up: the deep influence of tyrannical Communism within the Liberal infrastructure. Communism is a system of murder and slavery, yet its sympathizers in the Leftwing American university are legion.

Horowitz has called for an end to Affirmative Action, rightly insisting that it is the ultimate representation of the anti-White racism that has deeply infected the Left. David Horowitz explains that there is no "institutional racism," no all-powerful White racist machine that controls America. This is a myth the Left uses to keep themselves in power. And of course the Left and its soldiers in the media are not afraid to plaster act's of racism against non-Whites all over the news, but when it comes to the racism of Black's and Hispanic's against Whites, the Left is silent, or more likely, silently approving. Though "Hating Whitey" isn't perfect, one has to smile when watching a former influential Communist insist his "former comrades" are the enemies of the First Amendment.

It's a pity that David Horowitz has to write this account thirty-five years after the 1964 Civil Rights Act was passed. But the sad truth is that the vision of Martin Luther King has been bastardized into racial Marxism, where non-blacks have become the everlasting foe that must be crushed. As Horowitz makes clear, much of the regress and setbacks in the African-American community is a result not of "whitey" but of black leaders themselves -- who encourage young blacks to think of themselves as oppressed victims needing assistance and protection from a benevolent government. But notions of victimhood encourages resentment and does nothing to help blacks to reach their full potential. Instead, it makes them focus on obstacles, real or imagined. And this state of mind is self-fulfilling, producing failure more frequently than success. And the failure, in turn, drives the drumbeat of "blame whitey" instead of focusing on the real cause of failure -- the black victimhood mentality perpetuated by intellectual elitists who claim to have the interest of black people at heart. Horowitz refers to decades of carnage (e.g. the destruction of the black family via liberal anti-family welfare incentives) to demonstrate the consequences of following the line that blacks need ever more government to help them because they can't help themselves. It's time to end the insanity! Blacks are human beings equally capable of reaching their potential if only others would stop lying to them about hurdles and roadblocks. A positive message of hope along with elevating black role models (e.g. Clarence Thomas, Thomas Sowell, Alan Keyes, etc.) is the key not only to black achievement -- but also the key to reducing racial tensions -- and the culture of blaming one another for our own failures.

Racism, in all its forms, by all its many practitioners, black, white, Hispanic, Asian, Indian and a myriad other ethnic groups, be they majorities or minorities, is a barbarous threat to civilized society. It represents the very worst and most destructive elements of human nature. If we are to succeed as a society, we must grow up and get beyond it. We must. David Horowitz has done a tremendous service in stripping this ugly and dangerous socio-cultural cancer of its pseudo-academic and deceptive trappings. He has laid bare the utter hypocrisy of the self-acclaimed black leadership today and insightfully revealed the extent to which their so-called "leadership" sociologically and economically cripples the black community, turning the focus on hatred, violence and destruction rather than getting on with the task of taking personal responsibility for life, success and progress. He has performed a tremendous service in stripping away the illusion of "righteousness" on the part of the sanctimonious left in perpetrating a "politically correct" doctrine of universal destruction underwritten by the rubber check of victimization. This book is a "must read" for all high-school students, and all Americans.

David Horowitz is the Noam Chomsky of Conservatism -- yet Horowitz actually knows what he's talking about. A former 60's radical, Horowitz knows firsthand the motivations and mentality of the Left and exposes the hypocrisy and underlying Socialist/Marxist philosophy that drives the Democratic Party and Liberals in power today.

The book is mostly an expose of the failures of the Democratic Party that have caused more harm than good to the nation, but mostly to the very people Democrats claim to fight for: the poor and minorities. Horowitz goes a step further, though, and documents the ways that Republicans have and are trying to level the playing field between rich and poor and eliminate discrimination in matters of education, jobs, Social Security, etc.

Horowitz's call to arms for Republicans is simply the acknowledgement that Republicans have a tendancy to use gentleman's tactics when it comes to political warfare; something Democrats have never restrained themselves to. Horowitz challenges Republicans to fight back with the issues, arguing that confronting accusations with solid facts is key.

It's unfortunate that this book is titled "How to Beat the Democrats", because it will most likely turn a lot politically-moderate readers away before they even crack the cover. This is a book that every voter should read, whether Republican or Democrat, and draw one's own conclusions from the facts Horowitz provides to support his claims.

How To Beat The Democrats: And Other Subversive Ideas by political strategist and commentator David Horowitz is a biting, determined, severe, and unquestionably partisan political manifesto. Sharply blaming Democrats and the political left for "undermining America's security" and contributing to a climate that allowed the September 11 attacks, How To Beat The Democrats pulls neither punches nor opinions. The majority of this politically conservative book consists of harsh attacks upon the left for being "unrepentant" in its too-light treatment of accused and convicted criminals, too-lax defense policy, too-much spending, and worse. While How To Beat The Democrats presents numerous strongly worded arguments, with plenty of anecdotal illustration, it is emphatically not a "how-to" book that teaches the reader tips and techniques for winning elections against Democratic opponents. Rather, How To Beat The Democrats is a book of ideas, powerful and unrestrained. Though Horowitz's specific political assertions may be challenged and countered by opposing political views, his emotional honesty in speaking so unambiguously is beyond dispute and really quite refreshing.

In How to Beat the Democrats and Other Subversive Ideas, Horowitz uses ruthless intellect to demolish the foundations upon which the new Left has tried to rebuild itself following the collapse of communism across the world.

After reading this book you have to ask how Bill Clinton and Tony Blair can sleep at night.

Used as a campaign blueprint, How to Beat the Democrats offers conservatives the tools to take on the Left in electoral combat which have been sadly lacking over the last decade.

This is the book to read if you are unclear on the facts concerning guns, the relationship between guns and crime, or the status of gun-ownership (whether it is a privilege, for instance, or a right). In this book, the seven myths about gun control are covered in detail, statistics are given from the most thoroughgoing analysis conducted on the relationship between guns and crime to date, and the conclusions are drawn in a well-written, memorable fashion.

It is not, however, a book for everyone. If you are already familiar with the arguments against gun control, you won't find anything that new in the pages of this book aside from a few witty observations, a metaphor or two, and the structure of the argument. Readers such as this, would get far more out of their money if they buy John R Lott, Jr.'s book MORE GUNS, LESS CRIME -- a book that contains bulletproof statistics and a lot of them (it's the analysis mentioned above in this review and referred to countless times in the book itself).

As a firearm owner and supporter of the right of self-protection, I thought that I was familiar with most of the information on liberty and guns. Thankfully, this book proved me wrong.

Mr. Poe includes so much new and astounding information, I had to stop reading on several occasions and ask myself if the stories were true. Of course, statistics and news items were supported with references that the interested reader could use as a starting point for further research. Even if you are familiar with the history of the Swiss militia or with comments made by prominent anti-self-defense hypocrites, this book explores stories and angles untouched by the mainstream media.

Additionally, the epilogue ("The End of Manhood") provides the author's insight on the left's attempt to eradicate masculinity from American culture.

I am going to buy additional copies of this book and send them to my misguided, gun control supporting friends. I know that if I still believed as they do, this book would force me to question my life philosophy.

This book is a fast read, and it serves a useful niche taking the research done by others and presenting the work in such a way that it is easily understood by a wide audience. While the book addresses second amendment issues, the biggest emphasis is on how gun control increases crime. It is on this last point that the book relies very, very heavily on John Lott's More Guns, Less Crime and his op-ed pieces. Even though I had read Lott's book, I hadn't read some of his op-ed pieces, so I still got something out of even this discussion. I also think that Poe does a good job of simplifying some of Lott's discussions. My bottom line: is that Poe's book is still a valuable addition to Lott's book.

I really enjoyed the beginning of the book, where Horowitz covers the ways and means of political war. In the chapters that followed he showed examples of the principles in action, but then began to drift.

By the end of the book he'd returned to a recurring theme: his involvement with, and separation from, the Black Panther Party. By then it was far from obvious how any of this might fit in with political war. On top of which, if you've read his other books and his Salon columns you've already seen this material a number of times.

So, three stars. Don't get me wrong. I think DH is a great man. This is just not one of his greatest works.

The latest addition to his awe-inspiring list of insightful political books, The Art of Political War, is pure Horowitz and is true to his anti left bias. Like The Art of War by Sun Tzu and Machiavelli's, The Prince, The Art of Political War is an intense primer on dealing with one's enemy. Unlike, Tzu's book of strategies, which is not specific to a particular cause, or Machiavelli's strategies for rulers, Horowitz begins this essay with strategies addressed specifically to Republicans. He identifies six "principles of war", beginning with "Politics is war conducted by other means" which he suggests, "the left understands, but conservatives do not". After defining the six principles he very effectively demonstrates how they can be put into practice. He proposes, that Republicans can, if they, among other things "stop complaining that life is unfair", in respect to the media having a liberal bias, and "address the American People directly." He suggests, not at all tongue-in-cheek, the "Democrats cannot be trusted with the nation's security" and with a very sharp tongue, advocates "The bottom line is that Democrats are responsible for everything that has gone wrong with the public schools that can be caused or fixed by public policies."

These, and many others frequently inflammatory assertions throughout the book, are vintage Horowitz. They ring true because Horowitz has a long history of being an insider on the left and the right. Friend and foe alike, if they are honest, admit Horowitz has a profound understanding of many sides of the political landscape. They may, and more than many do, disagree on his motives. Some people argue he has seen the light while others say he, in fact, saw a better way to make a living. Either way, his writing, specifically in The Art of Political War, is a modern day espousal of Sun Tzu and Machiavelli.

Many of you, who like me, are old enough to remember Congresswoman Barbara Jordan, will be moved with his sensitive use of her declaration that the nation must have "a single standard for every American when judging what is just and unjust." In just a few pages he draws stark contrasts between Congresswoman Jordan's 1980's human rights and civil rights pronouncements with the "demonstration of striking insensitivity and bad taste" of the current civil rights leaders. It's not something you will read in the Times and the Post or hear on the evening news.

Probably the best demonstration of his terse writing skill, attention to detail, and his clear memory of past events is his letter to fellow radical Art Goldberg. Goldberg and Horowitz, no longer comrades-in-arms, go toe-to-toe on what each knew and when they knew it, relating to the Black Panthers. Horowitz, a heavyweight, who far outclasses him, easily counters Goldberg's lackluster offense. More important than who won, is how Horowitz, consistent with what he wrote in the Radical Son, works Goldberg, and symbolically the 60's radical left, into a box, indicting them of, at a minimum, ignorance or at worse complexity in murders committed by the Black Panthers.

Political ideologues and novices alike will find The Art of Political War helpful; many will see it as a blueprint, analogous to The Contract With America. The Art of Political War is an easy, thought provoking read.

Speaking as a former leftist, I have to say that David Horowitz here lays out a pretty hard but in many ways honest map of the "progressive" mindset and how it leads them to certain political strategies. He then goes on to make some pretty interesting recommendations for conservatives and Republicans in order to combat that in politics.

It's certainly a pretty good picture of what one side of the political fight looks like today. Leftists especially will find interesting how conservatives view them--there's more here than they might expect. This document has been very popular in Republcan circles and formed at least part of the Bush election strategy in 2000.

One question Horowitz fails to ask himself and thus his audience is whether or not the strategies used by the political left are as effective as he thinks. Horowitz mostly seems to advise conservatives to take up the most negative methods used by the left to win elections. The question is: will doing so alienate the "silent majority" types who resent and react negatively to the types of tactics he advocates?

Insightful and thought-provoking, this book played a big part in the American political campaigns of 2000, and might well play as big or bigger a role in 2002 and 2004. As such, it's very interesting reading, no matter whether you agree with Horowitz or not.

This book is exceptional and unique, in that it does honestly look back at the furthest fringe of the '60s left wing, even at the writers' own expense. "Destructive Generation" is strongest when it sticks with the facts: The Black Panthers, The Weather Underground, Berkeley. It gets a little shaky when it veers into sweeping statements for an entire movement (yes, I'm sure that there were many agents for Moscow in the hierarchy, but many at the base of the pyramid truly believed in what they were doing ... particularly if it was stopping an illegal war in Indochina). The information on 1980s Central America is chilling and worth the price of admission. No matter what your political beliefs may be, though, it is well worth reading, and will definitely not leave you quickly.

How does it feeeelll... To be on your own... no direction known... like a rollin' stone...

This Dylan lyric depicts the disarray in which the intellectual Left finds itself in the aftermath of voluminous setbacks over the past century. David Horowitz and Peter Collier recount their personal intellectual metamorphoses' as they wend their way through the chapters of "Destructive Generation."

They begin with a particularly heartfelt portrayal of a Leftist attorney, Fay Stender, trying to do good for poor black victims of a racist society. What Stender fails to comprehend, which leads to one of the purported victims shooting her in a bizarre ritual of hatred for all white people, is that these victims are thugs who prey on the very people she presumes she represents. Her actions are borne of a fatal miscalculation of murderers like Jonathan Jackson and his friends. This story, skillfully related by H&C, shows that the law of unintended consequences always seems to prevail, and often fatally, when put to the test by Left-Liberal nostrums. They next visit the rise and fall of the Weather underground, Huey Newton, and the Black Panthers, all grisly stories with a less than savory end.

The Second section of the book deals with how the Left-liberal press poses as a 5th column for America's Marxist intellectuals. It shows how their intellectual allegiance to the social policy concepts of Marxist regimes leads them to conspire to deceive the American public. Their goal is shown to be undeniably subversive to America's national interest. Prominent public figures of the Left mentioned here include man of the cloth William Sloane Coffin, former Democratic congressman from Oakland Calif. Ron Dellums and his aide Carlottia Scott, NYT journalist Anthony Lewis, and former Dem. Cong. woman from Denver, Patricia Schroeder, with a host of lesser light attorneys and enablers achieving minor notoriety.

They next romp through the Left's portrayal of Joe McCarthy. History has absolved McCarthy even though his method for outing U.S. government Communists was reprehensible. This chapter is followed by a marvelous piece on the Left's takeover of the city council in Berkeley California. All the familiar antics of Leftist rule are on display here and the chapter provided me with many belly laughs. In another way it's just plain sad that these people seem to learn nothing from history. They act like an intellectual version of the mindless Kudzu weed that if left untended continues to grow and expand over any and all obstacles until it consumes the landscape. All Communist-Socialist governments end up creating shortages and a vastly reduced standard of living for all people, but these idealists never seem to get the message. H&C hope to help them. Perhaps a 12-step program will be forthcoming.

In chapter eight H&C reveal their assumptions which have led to their transition from Radical innocence to Radical guilt. They do a wonderful job of dissecting the American-hating propagandist from MIT, Noam Chomsky. They also take apart Tom Hayden and his ilk, showing them for what they are and what they stand for; it's not a pretty picture.

The final section of the book deals with their growing up and beyond the Leftist mythology that held them in its thrall in their early years. They also explain the reason that former comrades must treat them with such disdain as they recount the smearing administered at the hands of these old friends, who remain continuing Communist sympathizers to a man/woman. Their views are recapped in a series of letters and other correspondence.

They conclude the book by citing how the Cold War caused comrades, from their legions of the Left, to leave the faith in the face of mountains of lies and policy failures resulting from the Fatal Conceit of Communist-Socialist Utopians.

This is a great book for anyone, especially disillusioned post-graduates who sense that something is awry in their worldview. They should read it two or three times just to make sure they retain some of its wisdom.

Must read for anyone who overslept and missed the riots at the Democratic Convention in Chicago. If you always wanted to know what it was like to hang with the Panthers, but couldn't find the Ramparts office, get a peek inside those romantic days of yore. Of course Horowitz and Collier may not remember quite the way you heard it on the street back then, but, hell, what do they know? huh? If you figure the millions massacred after the US left Nam got what they deserved, this book is not for you. But if you're willing to take an honest look at the consequences of the 60's and more, plug in the coffee pot, unplug the phone, and dive in. Very, very thought provoking

In 15 Tips, not only has Jamie Glazov achieved an important success in the art of satire, but he has also successfully penetrated into the psychology of our political and social times and revealed what appears as a sickness within the contemporary political mentality. His use of humour in this pursuit makes the book delightful in its accessibility, but it is also profoundly disturbing in the reader's ability to recognize the characteristics which Glazov sarcastically encourages not only among radical leftists but among all kinds of people. Glazov's booklet is a successful artistic enterprise as well as an important socio-political commentary.

As a person who prided herself on her progressive and liberal beliefs for most of her life, I must say that it hurt me to read this book. It is funny and completely true what the author is satirizing. Funny, I guess, at the expense of people like me who actually entertained beliefs for a long period of my life that I never really examined or thought through. The book hurt in that the author shows that, when you really think about it, the socialist idea is absolutely ludicrous and, worse still, part of a profound sickness. It is a sickness of the soul. Now that I really think about it, I can't think of one of my former Leftist friends that was actually well-adjusted in society. Every single one of them had some kind of a really serious problem. But we never talked about our problems. It was always about something larger. Something larger had to be fixed and then we would be okay. 15 Tips cuts to this main point in a very painful manner -- for me and for my memories. And apart from all the humour in the book, I was left not laughing but squirming, at the realization that the people he was ridiculing was actually people like me, who literally spent years of their life believing and saying all of the things that he ridicules. Sitting here now, I think of all my friends, all of the people that I associated with in this calling. I remember, with tremendous discomfort, all of our conversations, all of our certainty about how wrong things were, and about how right they could be if only this and only that. 15 Tips slices with no mercy. How much mercy, I guess, can there be? I abandoned "the cause" years back, as I gradually began to see some of the irrationality in the whole enterprise. To be truthful, I ended up with almost no friends in the real world. The joke about me was that I was the "lecturer", the one that was always teaching other people. One day I realized I didn't want to be that anymore. When I really thought about it, that's a pretty sad way to go out in life, always teaching other people, and in an unsolicated situation. But I became more apathetic and indifferent, rather than anti-Left. To become anti-Left would have forced me to re-question things that are better left unquestioned. Great. So here's 15 Tips. How great to be the target of ridicule that makes total sense, and to know that you were that. I hope something good will come from my experience. But it takes awhile to reinvent yourself, after having committed years of conversations to useless ventures and ideas. More seriously, these were ideas that actually hurt people. Perhaps that is why the Marxist idea works to erase the idea of conscience and ethics, which I at one time thought was a great thing. How many nights of my life I remember sitting somewhere, drinking some kind of politically correct wine, and saying, arrogantly, that there was no such thing as right or wrong. How proud I was at that time of that view. And yet, almost everything I talked about was based on the asumption that so much was right, and so much was wrong. But yes, erasing ethics was my goal. Perhaps that makes it easier when it comes time to do what the idea demands. Perhaps it made it easier for me to live with myself. Because now I know that I was ashamed. I was ashamed about a lot in my own life. I didn't know it at the time. I just knew that without conscience, there would be no shame, and Marxism offered to erase conscience. Now I know why I was against conscience. Now I know why I was attracted to the Marxist idea. If you don't like seeing the darkness in yourself, then emerge yourself into complete and utter darkness. At least then you do not need to contrast darkness with light, because there will be no light. Make your crime your culture, and then erase the meaning of crime. I don't really know what more to say. 15 Tips is important. For me, it's just a really sad and painful experience to have read this thing. I wish I could rationalize it, but at this stage it's hard. Five years ago I would have just called this guy every name in the book, convincing myself that that would somehow delegitimize what he was saying. But things don't work like that. Sometimes I think not too much works. I never thought I would actually say this, but the only thing that really works is maybe to humble yourself. How unfamiliar to me. And yet, it brings so much peace, and more wisdom than I ever received from all of those courses I took in Women's studies, anthropology, gender studies, etc etc. Those memories make me want to cleanse myself. I feel something dirty. I touched something profoundly dark and foul. I have left it behind me. Silence, I think, will be refuge, atleast for awhile......

I wasn't really going to comment on 15 Tips until I checked out the reviews. Sarah Fredrickson from Detroit wrote a negative review on April 15, 1999. As a person who was once on the Left and now considers himself on the center, I would say that it is the mentality of people like Fredrickson that made me abandon the Leftist cause. I was very embarassed reading Fredrickson's review. This is obviously a very troubled individual. She says Glazov should be "silenced" because he is an "enemy" and a "danger". Her main argument is that she was very "offended". I mean, for God's sakes, if this is the only argument the Left can come up with against Glazov's piece than it is really a sad statement for the position socialism is in. I personally do not agree with everything in the 15 Tips, and I sense the author is some kind of a Reaganite. At the same time, I am not sure I have an answer to Glazov and I will wait till I do. Meanwhile, I strongly suggest to Ms. Fredrickson that she abandon her cause for awhile and take a look in the mirror. She's got "loser" written all over her forehead. Her "review" is an embarassment to the Left. I am begging anyone on the Left, if you have any hope left, answer a book like 15 Tips with something profound, not with ignorant statements, insults, and complaints about your emotional pain after reading the book. If you want me to come back to the Left, state your case, not the biography of your emotional instability, intellectual bankruptcy, and political intolerance.

This book reads a lot like watching a soap opera, or a Lifetime movie. In fact that might be a good way to characterize it: the made for TV movie of Kennedy books. That does not mean, however, that it is not enjoyable. It is an easy and entertaining read, and a great introduction to this famous, or infamous family. The best that it has to offer is the parts about the third generation, which cooperated with the authors and granted them interviews. However, in the rush to seek an explanation for why the young ones turned out bad, the authors blame everything on Senator Ted Kennedy, which is not quite fair to a loving father and uncle, and a legislative giant, who is passed off in this book as a moron who rides his family's coattails. This book is a good read, but not a one-stop place for information.

This book is by far one of the most telling stories about the Kennedy dynasty I have ever read. Having read Thomas Reeves profile of Jack Kennedy in "A Question of Character" I found that "The Kennedy's" gives much more information on the inner workings of the Kennedy family. I especially enjoy the stories of old Joe Kennedy, how he made his fortunes, and his political power. The book is very well done, and I recommend everyone interested in politics, real politics, to read.

An excellent account of the Kennedys from the beginnings up to 1984, when the book was written. This book gives you a blow-by-blow history of the family and the kids. I found it most interesting learning about the little known real story of Camelot. There has been so much written about the Kennedys but the authors did some serious research and told some never before written stories, such as the JFK's back problems and Rosemary's retardation, also stories about the Kennedy kids and their drug problems. Quite informative and thorough, this book is excellent history.