- Paperback: 480 pages
- Publisher: Touchstone; Touchstone ed edition (April 21 1998)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 0684840057
- ISBN-13: 978-0684840055
- Product Dimensions: 22.5 x 13.3 x 3 cm
- Shipping Weight: 204 g
- Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars See all reviews (63 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: #201,778 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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Product Details |
Product Description
From Amazon
Raised to be a committed Marxist by communist intellectual parents, Horowitz was in on the ground floor of Berkeley activism, and through his work as an editor at Ramparts magazine, he emerged as a key player in the New Left. He went on to become an active supporter of the Black Panthers and something of an intimate of their founder, Huey P. Newton. Yet today he is an outspoken political conservative who has supported many right-wing causes (such as the contras in Nicaragua) and been critical of '60s radicalism in general. It would be easy to conclude that Horowitz went from A to Z this way because he's superficial and unstable. Instead, as this moving, intellectual autobiography shows, his second thoughts about leftism emerged gradually as he experienced various aspects of the "Movement." The catalytic episode came when he discovered that the Panthers had murdered a friend of his, but even then Horowitz was slow to convert, primarily because he was heavily enmeshed in what he now views as the quintessential leftist habit of judging politics by its intentions, not its acts.
--This text refers to the
Hardcover
edition.
From Publishers Weekly
Horowitz (The Rockefellers) has prominently charted his turn from leftism in Destructive Generation (both books co-written with Peter Collier), but here, he digs deeper to recount his intertwined personal and political odysseys. Because he has witnessed some elemental political battles, and because he tells his often painful story with candor and passion, his lengthy book remains absorbing. His teacher parents were New York City Jewish Communists full of angst and false conviction; young David emerged convinced at least that ideas were important. Married, Horowitz moved to Berkeley for graduate school, the New Left and Ramparts, the hot radical magazine. However, family man Horowitz was made uneasy by figures such as Michael Lerner and Robert Scheer, who rejected community; worse, though Horowitz found Huey Newton's courting of his advice seductive, he fell into "internal free-fall" when he realized that the Panthers were criminal thugs. His Jewish identity?at a time when blacks and the Third World were not allies?helped move Horowitz rightward, as did his disgust with dogmatic leftists. And in 1985, Horowitz and Collier publicly supported Ronald Reagan; the author considers himself a classical liberal. Particularly interesting is his score-settling with authors Todd Gitlin, Tom Hayden and Paul Berman, who, he argues, either sanitize '60s history or misrepresent his own views; now, with the help of foundations, he runs the magazine Heterodoxy and monitors what he views as liberal excess.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.
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First Sentence
WHAT MY FATHER LEFT ME, REALLY, WAS A FEW STORIES. Read the first page
Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Index | Back Cover
WHAT MY FATHER LEFT ME, REALLY, WAS A FEW STORIES. Read the first page
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Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Index | Back Cover
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Most helpful customer reviews
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
A genuinely profound autobiography,
By
This review is from: Radical Son: A Generational Oddysey (Paperback)
Of a rare odyssey: Someone who rethinks their political beliefs from the ground up. For Horowitz, it was seeing friends murdered by 'brothers in arms' in the political Left (ie Black Panthers), that woke him up and turned him away from radical leftism.This is the most interesting political odyssey stories since Whittaker Chambers' "Witness", and there are echoes of that era in today's era, and in the two man's lives. Chambers and Horowitz both are now toasted on the right and vilified by the left, even though neither were/are cookie cutter conservatives. Their main threat to the left is they are on to the game of the Leftists. Hence the venom against Horowitz. The previous review is nonsense. Horowitz calls people Communists and Socialists because that is what they called *themselves*. Including Horowitz, who was raised as a 'red diaper' baby. "Neo-McCarthyite" hmmm. Well, KGB files now reveal that many of the 'innocents' protected by the Left were in fact certainly Soviet spies: Rosenbergs, Hiss. And that 100s of Communist spies were in the US Government. McCarthy was right more than wrong! Whatever your political leanings, this books is highly recommended. It will make you think!
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
Enlightening, revealing and utterly important.,
By "wileykentucky" (Lexington, KY) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Radical Son: A Generational Oddysey (Paperback)
This is one of the most important books I have ever read. Coming from a country where 'socialism' is honored and desired; this book opened my eyes to flaws of socialism and the people who champion it.This book is inspiring. It is an adventure in David Horowitz's soul. A must read.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
For those who want to know the truth.,
This review is from: Radical Son: A Generational Oddysey (Paperback)
I urge everyone, esp people my age to read this book. There are so many misconseptions about socialism - you must read this book to find the truth. He has lived through it and used to believe it and has shared his experiences for everyone to know the truth.
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