Posted on 08/04/2008 9:51:25 AM PDT by mojito
I hear that a lot. Even my wife said that, and she didn’t care for my last one. You never know. Obviously every major press in American though a book called “The Hunt for Red October” wouldn’t be worth publishing :)
***Yes, the new book is particularly suited to high school, as each of the “lies” is about 2-5 pp long. Moreover, I lead off each one with at least one-—and often 3-4-—statements taken directly from college U.S. history textbooks. it’s not written in as difficult a vocabulary as “Patriot’s History.”***
Oh, FABULOUS. I won’t wait until Christmas to send him one.
I was reading this thread (homeschooling mom with a 15 yr old) with interest and saw your post about your new book coming out in September.
I was wondering, do the 48 lies cover each period of US history? I would assume that it would. Thanks!
Ah, I see...thanks!
Ed
We mixed them up, though, to keep them more interesting. You would certainly benefit from our 2004 book, "A Patriot's History of the United States." It is very popular with homeschoolers.
If you want, you can order from Amazon and send to me, enclosing or mailing me his address. I’ll autograph it, then send it on. I did that with dozens of copies of “America’s Victories.”
It tends to be a vicious circle - what they say will sell, sells, and what they don't want to sell never even gets a chance or is choked as the article illustrates. Some of this is ideology; most of it is sheer bullheaded stupidity. And the stupid lose out to the clever, which explains how Regnery turned into the huge success that it has.
It bleeds over into fiction as well. Overtly political fiction is routinely dismissed as another incarnation of The Turner Diaries or somesuch, admittedly successful books that carry an indelible taint with their message. In a content-neutral business environment those would be on the shelves; in a business constrained by some perception of social responsibility they won't, and they aren't. That perception tends to be particularly intoxicating and self-aggrandizing mix - the merchant becomes gatekeeper and then guardian.
It leads ineluctably to a sort of self-imposed exile from the rough-and-tumble of a wider world, and eventually a self-imposed exile into ignorance.
After the 2004 election, notes Bellow, “it became an anthropological question for them: ‘Who are these people?’ There followed a whole cottage industry of books and articles trying to prove that conservatives are a product of bad parenting, psychological syndromes, or genetic defects—as well as generally stupid and evil.
This is, ironically, an anthropological approach its employers would stoutly object to being used on Hottentots or Ainu as impossibly judgmental. Would that conservatives would be accorded a similar courtesy. But in any case there is a blithe and terrible innocence there that admits only of its own premises. In a child it is charming, in adults, frightening.
I didn't exactly hear a roar of hilarity from the assembled staff, the sour old liberals, but that was a very funny line. Brad was unappreciated there, of course, as he says.
Thanks for replying. My problem with Friedman is not his intelligence (he had more than enough) or his political stance in general. It is the relentlessness that you mention. Following a basic premise logically to its end is not always the best route to take in human affairs (is my personal take on things). But we may disagree here, of course.
Let's not forget that he also spent much of his career at the Committee on Social Thought at the University of Chicago (greatest University in the world, BTW. Go Maroons!).
Thanks C. -
yup, it really is one of the great pieces of conservative thought. Way back in 1988 or so it was controversial... what he wrote on divorce, or the positive discrimination of black students did not go down well with a lot of people. Because it was soooo against the grain.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.