Political Doctrines Books - Page 8

The Closing of the American Mind

Allan Bloom

Amazon Price: $76.95 List Price: $76.95 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Blackstone Audiobooks Amazon Marketplace: 2 new & used starting at $42.00

Buy at Amazon.com

Browse similar items by category:
Subjects -> Nonfiction -> Politics
Subjects -> Nonfiction -> Social Sciences -> Political Science -> Political Doctrines -> General
Subjects -> Nonfiction -> Social Sciences -> Sociology -> General

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 123 Average rating: 3.5 of 5

Makes his points well, but exposes some serious intellectual blind spots 4 out of 5 stars.
2 of 7 people found this review helpful.

Bloom makes a compelling case for embracing, through study, Western Civilization in general, and the Great Books in particular. He also does a good job of showing how today's universities exalt the natural sciences - which address only the material aspect of existence - while neglecting, to man's and society's peril, the social sciences and humanities, which speak to the immaterial aspects of existence.

In the course of making his case Bloom refers to Moses as a myth, or if not the man Moses, then certainly the story of him securing the 10 commandments from Mt. Sinai. At the same time Bloom acknowledges the great contribution of Moses, likening it to those contributions made my Aristotle, Socrates, or Shakespere.

Now, this is interesting logic for such an exalted intellectual as Bloom. He liken Moses to Aristotle, Socrates, and Shakespere but seems untroubled by the fact that one of them - Moses - claimed to receive what he passed down to humanity directly from God, even in face to face interaction. Neither Aristotle, Socrates or Shakespere made any such claim. If they had, wouldn't that change Bloom's opinion of those men - probably for the worse? Truth and deception have nothing in common. How would it be possible for a pathological liar to also provide man with some of the greatest moral truths ever known: "Thou shalt not steal"; "Thou shalt not murder"; "Thou shalt not bear false testimony"? How could a man who could speak this last mentioned commandment, at the same time be so out of touch with reality that he would state that he got the commandments from God? Even if it were possible that such a blend of truth and lies could reside with a man, why would Bloom venerate him?

Furthermore, Bloom convieniently shies away from calling the person, Jesus of Nazareth, a myth (a much harder case to make, even for natural sciences), and Bloom makes no attempt to account for the new paradigm erected by Jesus, especially at the Sermon-on-the-Mount. If Moses' apparently invented moral laws seem noble, if not mythically quaint, to Bloom, if Bloom were alive today would he be prepared to say the same things about Jesus's utterances in the Sermon-on-the-Mount?

Which of the following are quaint mythical statements, as likely fabricated by the mind of man as by God?

"Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called sons of God."

"Blessed are the merciful, for they will be shown mercy. "

"Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven."

Here again, we have the problem? If Jesus did say those things, so full of truth, how could he also tell the Samaritan women at the well:

"I who speak to you am he." (John 4:26)

after she made mention of the Messiah, if it were not true?

It is sad to see how intransigence toward the God of the Bible can make a muddle out of intellectual acumen.

Editorial Review:

A professor of social thought at the University of Chicago argues that the social and political crisis of 20th-century America is really an intellectual crisis. 11 cassettes.

Capital: Volume 1: A Critique of Political Economy (Penguin Classics)

Karl Marx

Amazon Price: $12.24 List Price: $18.00 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Penguin Classics Amazon Marketplace: 69 new & used starting at $7.93

Buy at Amazon.com

Browse similar items by category:
Subjects -> Business & Investing -> Economics -> Free Enterprise
Subjects -> Business & Investing -> Economics -> Theory
Subjects -> Business & Investing -> Popular Economics -> Policy & Current Events

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 38 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

please read the book before reviewing it! 5 out of 5 stars.
41 of 44 people found this review helpful.

Reading the "reviews" of Capital here on Amazon.com, a person who has read the book can see that most "reviewers" have not even troubled themselves read the book! Instead of taking the time and energy to plow through this work, many would rather get on a soap box and ramble on about their own views thereby "reviewing" the work.
I read the entire book from cover to cover. Not an easy task. It took me more than a year with persistence! But I did it.
Socialism is not mentioned once the the actual work itself. (Of course it is mentioned in the 87 page Introduction which some of the "reviewers" might have bothered to skim through!)
What is the name of the book? Capital! Not Communism or Socialism! One who has bothered to read this long book knows that the book has nothing to do with Communism. The book was supposed to form a scientific explanation of what the Capitalist mode of production was and how it formed and its' inner workings. Marx felt that after writing the pamphlet Manifesto of 1848, he owed it to the world tho explain what Capitalism was. It is a microscopic examination of the capitalist mode of production in mid-nineteenth century England. Granted that things have changed since 1850 England, the basic core of Capitalism hasn't changed.
The man was brilliant, he obviously spent a lot of time formulating an understanding of what Capitalism is. It was an eye opener for me into what Capitalism really is. It was stimulating to see how Marx in the work slowly but surely synthesizes his successive points one by one thereby building a model of the Capitalist mode of production for one to examine.
My only complaint was that it was too long. He could have said what he had to say in 200 pages rather than 800.

Editorial Review:

One of the most notorious works of modern times, as well as one of the most influential, "Capital" is an incisive critique of private property and the social relations it generates. Living in exile in England, where this work was largely written, Marx drew on a wide-ranging knowledge of its society to support his analysis and generate fresh insights. Arguing that capitalism would create an ever-increasing division in wealth and welfare, he predicted its abolition and replacement by a system with common ownership of the means of production. "Capital" rapidly acquired readership among the leaders of social democratic parties, particularly in Russia and Germany, and ultimately throughout the world, to become a work described by Marx's friend and collaborator Friedrich Engels as 'the Bible of the Working Class'.

The Communist Manifesto: Complete With Seven Rarely Published Prefaces

Karl Marx

Amazon Price: $3.99 List Price: $3.99 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Filiquarian Amazon Marketplace: 25 new & used starting at $3.71

Buy at Amazon.com

Browse similar items by category:
Subjects -> Nonfiction -> Philosophy -> Political
Subjects -> Nonfiction -> Politics -> History & Theory
Subjects -> Nonfiction -> Politics -> Ideologies -> Communism & Socialism

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 3 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Enlightening 4 out of 5 stars.
3 of 3 people found this review helpful.

Short, conscise, easy to read, and thought provoking. This manifesto sums up the communist credo in just a few short pages. It gave me a better understanding of where the communist philosophy orginated--necessity.

Never have so many extrapolated so much out of so little. 4 out of 5 stars.
3 of 4 people found this review helpful.

A concept born in a simpler time used as an excuse for many things from Socialism to controlled capitalism. As with any pivotal work one should read it for his/her self. There is always the chance of misinterpretation by an individual, but if you do not read this then you are just accepting someone's word anyway.
This is more than an economics book it is a way of life. It sounds good on paper but makes a lot of assumptions. Instead of worrying about workability, look at the logic that is built on assumptions of that time (written, in 1848). Add this to your library.

You can pick a side (pro or con) and make a stand if you like; but look at the size of this book and realize that many people will just use the title and build their own case. You will have read the real thing. And be sure to balance it with. "The Capitalist Manifesto" by Louis O. Kelso

The Capitalist Manifesto ~ by Louis O. Kelso

Editorial Review:

This title is the classic communist party manifesto which started this one and a half decade political movement. The seven rarely published prefaces, mostly written by Frederick Engels after the death of Karl Marx, are included making this publication the complete communist manifesto. Although this title is known as one of the most famous left-wing propagandist publications, it serves as a lesson for thos of all political philosophys. The Communist Manifesto should be required reading when studying political science, radicalism and radical political thought.

The Years of Extermination: Nazi Germany and the Jews, 1939-1945 (Nazi Germany and the Jews)

Saul Friedlander

Amazon Price: $26.37 List Price: $39.95 Usually ships in 24 hours By: HarperCollins Amazon Marketplace: 63 new & used starting at $9.95

Buy at Amazon.com

Browse similar items by category:
Subjects -> History -> Europe -> Germany -> Third Reich
Subjects -> History -> Europe -> Germany -> General
Subjects -> History -> Europe -> Germany -> General AAS

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 23 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

With The Years of Extermination, Saul Friedländer completes his major historical work on Nazi Germany and the Jews. The book describes and interprets the persecution and murder of the Jews throughout occupied Europe. The enactment of German extermination policies and measures depended on the cooperation of local authorities, the assistance of police forces, and the passivity of the populations, primarily of their political and spiritual elites. This implementation depended as well on the victims’ readiness to submit to orders, often with the hope of attenuating them or of surviving long enough to escape the German vise.

This multifaceted study—at all levels and in different places—enhances the perception of the magnitude, complexity, and interrelatedness of the many components of this history. Based on a vast array of documents and an overwhelming choir of voices—mainly from diaries, letters, and memoirs—Saul Friedländer avoids domesticating the memory of these unprecedented and horrific events. The convergence of these various aspects gives a unique quality to The Years of Extermination. In this work, the history of the Holocaust has found its definitive representation.

La audacia de la esperanza: Reflexiones sobre cómo restaurar el sueño americano (Vintage Espanol)

Barack Obama

Amazon Price: $11.53 List Price: $16.95 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Vintage Amazon Marketplace: 41 new & used starting at $9.71

Buy at Amazon.com

Browse similar items by category:
Subjects -> Biographies & Memoirs -> Leaders & Notable People -> Political
Subjects -> Nonfiction -> Foreign Language Nonfiction -> Spanish
Subjects -> Nonfiction -> Government -> Congresses, Senates, & Legislative Bodies

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 4 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

En La audacia de la esperanza, el senador demócrata Barack Obama reclama una política diferente —una política para quienes están cansados del agrio partidismo, una política que se basa en la fe, la participación de todos y la nobleza de espíritu que es parte esencial de “nuestro improbable proyecto de democracia”.

En el corazón de este libro está la visión del senador Obama de cómo podemos superar nuestras divisiones para enfrentar los problemas concretos. Él examina la creciente inseguridad económica de las familias estadounidenses, las tensiones raciales y religiosas dentro del cuerpo político y las amenazas transnacionales —desde el terrorismo hasta las pandemias— que se congregan más allá de nuestras costas. En sus anécdotas acerca de su familia, amigos, miembros del Senado y hasta del presidente, existe un poderoso deseo de establecer conexiones: la plataforma de un consenso político radicalmente optimista.

Como senador y abogado, profesor y padre, cristiano y escéptico, y sobre todo como estudioso de la historia y de la naturaleza humana, el senador Obama ha escrito un libro de un poder transformador.

Godless: The Church of Liberalism

Ann Coulter

Amazon Price: $10.17 List Price: $14.95 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Three Rivers Press Amazon Marketplace: 63 new & used starting at $4.32

Buy at Amazon.com

Browse similar items by category:
Subjects -> Nonfiction -> Politics -> Political Parties
Subjects -> Nonfiction -> Politics -> U.S.
Subjects -> Nonfiction -> Politics -> General

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 946 Average rating: 3.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

"If a martian landed in America and set out to determine the nation's official state religion, he would have to conclude it is liberalism, while Christianity and Judaism are prohibited by law.

Many Americans are outraged by liberal hostility to traditional religion. But as Ann Coulter reveals in this, her most explosive book yet, to focus solely on the Left's attacks on our Judeo-Christian tradition is to miss a larger point: liberalism is a religion—a godless one.

And it is now entrenched as the state religion of this county.

Though liberalism rejects the idea of God and reviles people of faith, it bears all the attributes of a religion. In Godless, Coulter throws open the doors of the Church of Liberalism, showing us its sacraments (abortion), its holy writ (Roe v. Wade), its martyrs (from Soviet spy Alger Hiss to cop-killer Mumia Abu-Jamal), its clergy (public school teachers), its churches (government schools, where prayer is prohibited but condoms are free), its doctrine of infallibility (as manifest in the "absolute moral authority" of spokesmen from Cindy Sheehan to Max Cleland), and its cosmology (in which mankind is an inconsequential accident).

Then, of course, there's the liberal creation myth: Charles Darwin's theory of evolution.

For liberals, evolution is the touchstone that separates the enlightened from the benighted. But Coulter neatly reverses the pretense that liberals are rationalists guided by the ideals of free inquiry and the scientific method. She exposes the essential truth about Darwinian evolution that liberals refuse to confront: it is bogus science.

Writing with a keen appreciation for genuine science, Coulter reveals that the so-called gaps in the theory of evolution are all there is—Darwinism is nothing but a gap. After 150 years of dedicated searching into the fossil record, evolution's proponents have failed utterly to substantiate its claims. And a long line of supposed evidence, from the infamous Piltdown Man to the "evolving" peppered moths of England, has been exposed as hoaxes. Still, liberals treat those who question evolution as religious heretics and prohibit students from hearing about real science when it contradicts Darwinism. And these are the people who say they want to keep faith out of the classroom?

Liberals' absolute devotion to Darwinism, Coulter shows, has nothing to do with evolution's scientific validity and everything to do with its refusal to admit the possibility of God as a guiding force. They will brook no challenges to the official religion.

Fearlessly confronting the high priests of the Church of Liberalism and ringing with Coulter's razor-sharp wit, Godless is the most important and riveting book yet from one of today's most lively and impassioned conservative voices.


"Liberals love to boast that they are not 'religious,' which is what one would expect to hear from the state-sanctioned religion. Of course liberalism is a religion. It has its own cosmology, its own miracles, its own beliefs in the supernatural, its own churches, its own high priests, its own saints, its own total worldview, and its own explanation of the existence of the universe. In other words, liberalism contains all the attributes of what is generally known as 'religion.'" —From Godless


From the Hardcover edition.

How to Ruin the United States of America

Ben Stein, Phil DeMuth

Amazon Price: $10.17 List Price: $14.95 Usually ships in 24 hours By: New Beginnings Press Amazon Marketplace: 31 new & used starting at $7.42

Buy at Amazon.com

Browse similar items by category:
Subjects -> Entertainment -> Humor -> Political
Subjects -> Nonfiction -> Politics -> International -> Relations
Subjects -> Nonfiction -> Politics -> General

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 12 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

On the heels of his very successful books, How to Ruin Your Life, How to Ruin Your Love Life, and How to Ruin Your Financial Life, Ben Stein, in collaboration with his pal Phil DeMuth, has tongue firmly in cheek once again as he comes up with surefire ways to ruin the greatest nation in the history of the human race.

Try a few of these on for size:

·       Trust the United Nations to protect us and our security.

·       Make it unlawful to worship God or even to show images of the Ten Commandments.

·       Convert our universities into fortresses of anti-Americanism, hatred of freedom, and centers of confusion and ignorance.

·       Encourage contempt for the family and for the community.

·       Allow Hollywood to brainwash us into believing that only suckers and criminals fight for their country.

·       Treat the military, the police, firefighters, and teachers as losers and pay them starvation wages.

Hey, does any of this sound familiar? Maybe that’s because it’s already happening! Ben and Phil give you all the information you’ll ever need in order to successfully ruin the USA even further! Sardonic, humorous, but also angrily emphatic, this is a book every old-fashioned patriot really needs to read!

The Conservative Soul: Fundamentalism, Freedom, and the Future of the Right

Andrew Sullivan

Amazon Price: $10.17 List Price: $14.95 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Harper Perennial Amazon Marketplace: 49 new & used starting at $4.00

Buy at Amazon.com

Browse similar items by category:
Subjects -> Nonfiction -> Politics -> General
Subjects -> Nonfiction -> Politics -> General AAS
Subjects -> Nonfiction -> Social Sciences -> Political Science -> Political Doctrines -> Conservatism

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 32 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Disappointed 2 out of 5 stars.
5 of 11 people found this review helpful.

Without question, Andrew Sullivan is one of my favorite writers. Even when I do not agree with his analysis of a situation, be it political or philosophical, I find him to be interesting, thoughtful, and passionate. And when it comes to the Bush Administration and the handling of Iraq and other facets of the conflict with Islamic terrorists, I have to say that a good deal of his attitude (though not, I think, development of ideas) has mirrored my own over the course of the past several years. So I was very much looking forward to reading his most recent book, The Conservative Soul. I am also disheartened to say that I was tremendously disappointed. Although there are some interesting nuggets of good ideas buried in the book, I find that on the whole it was sloppy, muddled, disorganized and -- I'm sorry to say -- not very well written. Although I would highly recommend that everyone read Sullivan's blog and essays, I would not recommend this book.

Editorial Review:

Today's conservatives support the idea of limited government, but they have increased government's size and power to new heights. They believe in balanced budgets, but they have boosted government spending, debt, and pork to record levels. They believe in national security but launched a reckless, ideological occupation in Iraq that has made us tangibly less safe. They have substituted religion for politics and damaged both.

In The Conservative Soul, one of the nation's leading political commentators makes an impassioned call to rescue conservatism from the excesses of the Republican far right, which has tried to make the GOP the first fundamentally religious party in American history. In this bold and powerful book, Andrew Sullivan makes a provocative, prescient, and heartfelt case for a revived conservatism at peace with the modern world, and dedicated to restraining government and empowering individuals to live rich and fulfilling lives.

The Conservative Soul: Fundamentalism, Freedom, and the Future of the Right

Andrew Sullivan

Amazon Price: $10.17 List Price: $14.95 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Harper Perennial Amazon Marketplace: 49 new & used starting at $4.00

Buy at Amazon.com

Browse similar items by category:
Subjects -> Nonfiction -> Politics -> General
Subjects -> Nonfiction -> Politics -> General AAS
Subjects -> Nonfiction -> Social Sciences -> Political Science -> Political Doctrines -> Conservatism

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 32 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Disappointed 2 out of 5 stars.
5 of 11 people found this review helpful.

Without question, Andrew Sullivan is one of my favorite writers. Even when I do not agree with his analysis of a situation, be it political or philosophical, I find him to be interesting, thoughtful, and passionate. And when it comes to the Bush Administration and the handling of Iraq and other facets of the conflict with Islamic terrorists, I have to say that a good deal of his attitude (though not, I think, development of ideas) has mirrored my own over the course of the past several years. So I was very much looking forward to reading his most recent book, The Conservative Soul. I am also disheartened to say that I was tremendously disappointed. Although there are some interesting nuggets of good ideas buried in the book, I find that on the whole it was sloppy, muddled, disorganized and -- I'm sorry to say -- not very well written. Although I would highly recommend that everyone read Sullivan's blog and essays, I would not recommend this book.

Editorial Review:

Today's conservatives support the idea of limited government, but they have increased government's size and power to new heights. They believe in balanced budgets, but they have boosted government spending, debt, and pork to record levels. They believe in national security but launched a reckless, ideological occupation in Iraq that has made us tangibly less safe. They have substituted religion for politics and damaged both.

In The Conservative Soul, one of the nation's leading political commentators makes an impassioned call to rescue conservatism from the excesses of the Republican far right, which has tried to make the GOP the first fundamentally religious party in American history. In this bold and powerful book, Andrew Sullivan makes a provocative, prescient, and heartfelt case for a revived conservatism at peace with the modern world, and dedicated to restraining government and empowering individuals to live rich and fulfilling lives.