Product Description: In a stunning indictment of the Bush administration and Congress, best-selling author Naomi Wolf lays out her case for saving American democracy. In authoritative research and documentation Wolf explains how events of the last six years parallel steps taken in the early years of the 20th centurys worst dictatorships such as Germany, Russia, China, and Chile.
The book cuts across political parties and ideologies and speaks directly to those among us who are concerned about the ever-tightening noose being placed around our liberties.
In this timely call to arms, Naomi Wolf compels us to face the way our free America is under assault. She warns uswith the straight-to-fellow-citizens urgency of one of Thomas Paines revolutionary pamphletsthat we have little time to lose if our children are to live in real freedom.
Recent history has profound lessons for us in the U.S. today about how fascist, totalitarian, and other repressive leaders seize and maintain power, especially in what were once democracies. The secret is that these leaders all tend to take very similar, parallel steps. The Founders of this nation were so deeply familiar with tyranny and the habits and practices of tyrants that they set up our checks and balances precisely out of fear of what is unfolding today. We are seeing these same kinds of tactics now closing down freedoms in America, turning our nation into something that in the near future could be quite other than the open society in which we grew up and learned to love liberty, states Wolf.
Wolf is taking her message directly to the American people in the most accessible form and as part of a large national campaign to reach out to ordinary Americans about the dangers we face today. This includes a lecture and speaking tour, and being part of the nascent American Freedom Campaign, a grassroots efforts to ensure that presidential candidates pledge to uphold the constitution and protect our liberties from further erosion.
The End of America will shock, enrage, and motivatespurring us to act, as the Founders would have counted on us to do in a time such as this, as rebels and patriotsto save our liberty and defend our nation.
The thing that bothers me... In her UW lecture-she correctly read off the 10 signs the we may be in trouble-and then she all but advocates -"when it gets tough-GIVE UP!" Let it take over-be a wimp-dont stand up! INCREDIBLE! Why should she HAVE to throw her copy of a book in the trash can on the way to a plane? There are so many more of us than those inept fascist bumbling fools; Has she no courage? They can take us one by one-but they cant take us in numbers. And besides-I think their days are numbered by recent developments-but dont let down your guard just yet.
STAND UP EN MASS-and they BACK DOWN! What kind of book would argue that fascism is coming to this country-and then state that its best not to argue-best not to get involved-best not to create a fuss/best to do as they say , best to GIVE UP and let it happen-and hope that THE LONE RANGER will come to the rescue? You would almost wonder if she were a CIA mole. When freedom becomes 'inconvenient'- "I might miss my flight to Denver" We are in trouble. We deserve whatever we get. Why there havent been a million people surrounding the White House bringing its business to a dead halt regularly for the past few years is beyond me. People in the Soviet block countries used to fight back at police/army squads, hold their ground or even push the b*stards back! Here we become weak because we cant miss AMERICAN IDOL, or being first in line to see DARK KNIGHT... THE END OF AMERICA IS NOT INEVITABLE UNLESS YOU ALLOW IT TO BE!
She is almost saying-FASCISM IS HERE-ACCEPT IT- LET IT HAPPEN-DONT CREATE A FUSS! ACCEPT IT When its all done and accounted for-the most she wants out of life seems to be having a daughter on her knee- telling her about "the good old days"-unless there are bugs every where-or she hasnt already been hauled off to a camp for SEDITION (ie: SAYING NAUGHTY THINGS ABOUT THE STATE. While everyone stood watching-not raising a hand- a voice.
and should any one be monitoring this site for (haha!) subversion-as they say on BATTLESTAR GALLACTICA "FRIK YOU!" The 'The Ministry of Fatherland Sekurity' took AMAZON to court, demanding they give up monthly lists past, present and future of books sold and to WHOM-it appears at least that Amazon has won that case...but dont count on it. They tried this on all of Americas libraries-and they fought back and won.
Dont get complacent
They wont
could have been a lot better Not much more to say than what has already been said. Wolfe could have painted a more accurate picture by being a bit more objective and she put too much emphasis on Bush. Additionally the book (at least my copy) was poorly edited. I found numerous blatant typos and poor sentence structure. Unless the book was reprinted with these on purpose to discredit the ability of the author (conspiracy?) I would find a new editor for your next work. If you want to be scared then this book is a short easy read designed to get the fire going quickly. I do believe that there are better books on the subject that are slightly less biased.
Very interesting, though a tad unconvincing By identifying ten steps in The End of America that all dictators and would-be dictators take in order to close down an open society, Naomi Wolf is able to argue convincingly that all ten of these steps are underway in the United States today. She argues convincingly that citizens need to rise up and challenge the powers that be to insure that our country as we know it isn't lost to us.
Is easily digestible chapters, Wolf compares the current political climate in the US with the conditions in other free states before or as they turned totalitarian. Most often the analogy is drawn with Hitler and the National Socialist Party and Mussolini's Italy. This resonates especially in chapters on the development of a paramilitary force answerable only to the ruler and restriction of the free press. What struck this reader was how easily the current climate towards the press has shifted to intimidation factors that make outright control unnecessary.
But her presentation is not without its flaws. Wolf never adequately demonstrates that these ten steps are used by all dictators as they attempt to achieve power. Her examples are selected so as to be relevant to her arguments about the US, and while the book is meant to be a short cri de coeur, I believe a firmer grounding in history might have served her better. At times Wolf also fails to show a causal link making her examples relevant. For example, in a chapter arguing the point of surveillance of citizens, she drops in that Condoleeza Rice is `an expert on a least one surveillance society, which she analyzed in a book she coauthored, Germany Unified and Europe Transformed.' The fact that a political science professor seeking tenure published such a book should surprise no one, and Wolf fails to make this one sentence relevant to the rest of the passage. Though almost all statements are sourced, more than one slipped through without providing a reference.
The brevity of the piece often makes one wish that she had gone into more detail, even if only to mention texts for further reading. One of Foucault's most recognizable societal criticisms involved the Panopticon, a prison in which one guard could monitor hundreds of prisoners and maintain order because none would ever know when he or she was being watched. Yet Wolf never mentions this in her arguments on the surveillance of citizens. Perhaps such a connection is unnecessary, but Discipline and Punish is the type of text that would support her argument, giving her a solid appeal to authority.
Despite these criticisms, The End of America should serve as a jarring call to arms for people who believe that it can't happen here. The parallels are eerie and prescient. And while America is unlikely to be subject to a violent closing down of our open society; we are vulnerable erosions in democracy that will look very American on the surface yet leave us less free.
demise of the Republic The Empire has won. The rebels were asleep. This primer is too little too late. The war-mongering engines of industrial capitalism will sweep away democracy any time any place. Oligarchy is the natural political system for primates; just look at the apes and baboons. The last vestiges of the American Republic were trodden down when the Supreme Court appointed GWB as our president at the turn of this millenium. Naomi's petition for patriots to act, alas, at this stage can be nothing more than a call for another bloody revolution. If there is an election (dont hold your breath), and if the Obama ticket wins, it will never take the oath of office and be inaugurated.
Spend your money if you have any and dont cry over spilt milk.
Sloppy Writing I picked up this book, overall, with neutral expectations. I hadn't read anything by Wolf before but had read her reviews and general background information and was interested in her feminist points and strong left wing opinions. While reading the book I was intrigued by the topic of the possibility of a "Soviet America" but was disappointed at it's execution. Put bluntly, I thought this paper could have been written by a college freshman. I felt like I was reading a long research paper where the author knew her material but lacked a professional edge. It was strongly biased though it was written as if she wanted to portray herself on neutral grounds. She pushed her "levelness" way too far. I would read this book if you are looking for an easy way to gain hard facts on a wildly interesting topic, but good luck getting through it, it's almost unbearable.
Anything Goes Trivia
Trevor
Megaton Man
