Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #221046 in Books
• Published on: 2008-09-04
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 256 pages

Review
'a bracing read ... as a defence of core Enlightenment values, his book is not only timely but vital'

Review
`Anthony certainly succeeds at his stated intention, which is to lead the way towards more open debate. Precise and ruthless, he smokes out left-wing hypocrisy on all sides'.

Review
`a brave, insightful and superbly argued book'

Customer Reviews

A 21st Century 'Common Sense'
September 11th was a defining moment for many people, reinforcing or shattering their long held beliefs and this is the premise for Anthony's important book. Autobiographical in nature, the author brilliantly exposes the hypocrisy and morally questionable ideas professed by those who see themselves as 'liberal' and tolerant in nature. Liberals have lost their way. Reason and freedom of speech are in danger and the biggest threat is not from the religious fundamentalists but us, who seem to have painted ourselves into a corner with a self contempt for our own secular and democratic values.

Anthony never preaches and every page makes you wish you had a photographic memory so you could argue this clearly at that next dinner party debate. If after reading a chapter, you don't sit and think about what you believe in, best check your pulse.

Politics through the prism of real life
Don't imagine that this book is a political rant ticking off all the subjects of the day. Andrew Anthony has taken the hard road - exposing how his mind was changed about the hot topics of the modern-day "liberal left": multi-culturalism, racism, terrorism, America .... It's the kind of book that will have you saying - "I thought that too, but was afraid to admit it" - but it will also have you laughing at its good humour, and surprisingly touched by its sensitivities, especially about Anthony's working class upbringing. I don't read much of what you'd call "politics" - but I totally recommend this book if you are interested in the way we live today.

Standard reading
I have read numerous critiques of today's left (Marxist liberals) mainly by authors - with the exception of e.g. David Horowitz and Christopher Hitchens - organically detached from their subject. Be this as it may, I agreed with one writer who described today's left not so much as a political viewpoint but rather a pathology, a distorted frame of mind fuelled and characterised by hatred, absurdity and anger. Andrew Anthony's constructive and thoughtful critique re-affirms this viewpoint. His politics stem from an internalised, experiential liberal conviction that has its roots in pre - 1989 international solidarity, a standard tenet that is lost on much of today's left. In the light of the left's - particularly the SWP and its ilk - descent into blind hatred of anything Western since 9/11, Mr Anthony has held up his liberal views for personal scrutiny. Set starkly against the present dominant strand of liberalism's mystifying solidarity with terrorists, dictatorships and total disregard for the socially obvious, he has exposed and disossiated from the politically disfigured beast it has become. I have just completed a BSc in Social Science that was tiresomely infested with elements of this disfigurement at a sociological level. Mr Anthony's excellent book would have been a refreshing antedote to the know-nothing postmodernist drivel I was obliged to read. In other words, The Fallout should be standard reading in any social science department worth its salt. Sadly, the hatred and disfigurement referred to above also blinds judgement. Therefore the likelihood of an even minded course author ever placing this book on a university library bookshelf is nil. This said, it's a book that should not sit idle on a bookshelf anyway nor should it be at the mercy of a univerisity lecturer's prejudice. Once read it should be passed on to other open minded, reflective liberals as a means to spreading much needed enlightenment in these days of postmodernist darkness.