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Letters to a Young Conservative (The Art of Mentoring) |
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You Are Here: Home > History Books > Gerald Ford > Item 392
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Letters to a Young Conservative (The Art of Mentoring)
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by Dinesh D'Souza
Sales Rank: 98108
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List Price: $12.95
$10.36
At Amazon
on 8-4-2008.
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Features
Cover Type: Paperback with 240 pages
Published by: Basic Books April 12, 2005
Written in: English
ISBN 10 Number: 0465017347
ISBN 13 Number: 978-0465017348
Book Dimensions:
7.8 x 5 x 0.7 inches
Weighs: 9.1 ounces
From Publishers Weekly
A young foot soldier of the "Reagan Revolution," bestselling author D'Souza (What's So Great About America, etc.) came to prominence during his years at Dartmouth, as one of the founders of the controversial Dartmouth Review. In his latest book, the newest installment in the Art of Mentoring series, D'Souza provides students of the next generation with a basic understanding of modern conservatism and its fundamental precepts. Addressing a fictional student by the name of "Chris," D'Souza outlines the major distinctions between the three main political positions in the U.S.: liberalism, conservatism and libertarianism. He goes on to explain how conservatism debunks an array of issues, such as affirmative action (it strengthens the "widespread suspicion that [blacks] might be intellectually inferior"), feminism ("the feminist error was to embrace the value of the workplace as greater than the value of the home"), postmodernism ("pompous, verbose, and incoherent") and some lesser known sins such as the "self-esteem hoax" (self-esteem doesn't promote better performance). In these chapters, the author is witty, even irreverent at times. He punctures the stereotype of conservatism as the dry and stodgy movement that liberals love to hate. Rather he says, conservatives are "radicals," resisting the morally deficient tide of modern liberalism, fighting for a common code of virtues. D'Souza will no doubt succeed in inspiring young conservatives to go out into the world and fight for what they believe in.
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc.
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Product Description
Dinesh D'Souza rose to national prominence as one of the founders of the Dartmouth Review, a leading voice in the rebirth of conservative politics on college campuses in the 1980s.He fired the first popular shot against political correctness with his best-selling exposé Illiberal Education. Now, after serving as a Reagan White House staffer, the managing editor of Policy Review, and a scholar at the American Enterprise Institute and the Hoover Institution, he addresses the next generation in Letters to a Young Conservative. Drawing on his own colorful experiences, both within the conservative world and while skirmishing with the left, D'Souza aims to enlighten and inspire young conservatives and give them weapons for the intellectual battles that they face in high school, college, and everyday life. Letters to a Young Conservative also illuminates the enduring themes that for D'Souza anchor the conservative position: not "family values" or patriotism, but a philosophy based on natural rights and a belief in universal moral truths.With a light touch, D'Souza shows that conservatism needn't be stodgy or defensive, even though it is based on preserving the status quo. To the contrary, when a conservative has to expose basic liberal assumptions to scrutiny, he or she must become a kind of imaginative, fun-loving, forward-looking guerrilla--philosophically conservative but temperamentally radical.Among the topics Dinesh D'Souza covers in Letters to a Young Conservative: Fighting Political CorrectnessAuthentic vs. Bogus MulticulturalismWhy Government Is the ProblemWhen the Rich Get RicherHow Affirmative Action Hurts BlacksThe Feminist MistakeAll the News That FitsHow to Harpoon a LiberalThe Self-Esteem HoaxA Republican Realignment?Why Conservatives Should Be Cheerful
Reader Reviews
This review is from: Letters to a Young Conservative (Hardcover)
Occasionally a book comes along that validates the old cliché about being so good that you can't put it down. Dinesh D'Souza's Letters to a Young Conservative is absolutely one such book. In it he writes a series of letters, thirty-one in all, to a fictional young undergraduate conservative named Chris. The premise is that Chris has written D'Souza after seeing him speak at his university. Chris is overwhelmed by the leftist politically correct atmosphere at his college and D'Souza comforts him by giving counsel on every imaginable topic in the realm of ideas. His arguments draw on nearly twenty-five years of street fighting within the conservative movement. This work is part of a series by Basic Books of established older masters offering advice to the young, and includes Christopher Hitchens' outstanding Letters to a Young Contrarian. D'Souza's book is a moving, exquisite pep-talk for all right-minded thinkers regardless of age. It is not an explosive tirade and instead is a series of quiet, rational arguments designed to illustrate that anything is possible if one is reflective and patient. The work is truly deceiving due to its accessibility and style. D'Souza is not verbose and writes highly comprehensible sentences. The clarity of the text is problematic as you may plow through a few pages before realizing that D'Souza has just written something quite profound. As a warning, you should not begin reading this hardback if you have vocational or personal interests that cannot be immediately neglected because the enlightenment the book issues is highly addictive. The material is serious for the most part but there are a few occasions where the reader may find his or her self laughing out loud after ingesting the exploits of D'Souza and his college peers who worked at the samizdat, The Dartmouth Review. They were one of the first, if not the very first, alternative conservative college publications in the country and the militancy of the left at Dartmouth propelled D'Souza to their ranks even though he initially entered college as a liberal. He and his friends bait the existing power hierarchy repeatedly but on no occasion so humorously as when they protest the university's expenditures on the Gay Students' Association. The Dartmouth Review viewed this as being inappropriate and discriminatory as it was awarding funds to individuals based on sexual orientation only. Their way of dealing with the quandary was quite novel to say the least. D'Souza and peers, to illustrate the ridiculousness of such organizations, formed The Dartmouth Bestiality Society and even appointed a president and zookeeper. They then went to the dean to ask for support but the dean responded that no support was necessary as there was no interest in such activities at Dartmouth. The President of the Bestiality Society responded with, "That may be true, Dean Hanson, but it is because of centuries of discrimination! Those of us who are inclined toward animals have been systematically excluded and ostracized. Our organization will provide a supportive atmosphere in which people of our particular sexual orientation are treated with respect. At Dartmouth...let us put an end to beast phobia." [p.28] Their method may be extreme but it teaches the moral that ridicule is a potent force when dealing with the absurdity that is multi-cultural theory and diversity in America. They may not have won the battle but nearly everyone held the Gay Students' Association in a different light after their proposal. D'Souza has some very original arguments in the book that should help the reader in dealing with the ever present emotional tirades thrown by liberals. This reviewer's favorite chapter was the one on the temperament of conservatives versus that of liberals. The most important point in the book, and certainly the argument that the author most needed to make, is that conservatives are a far happier lot than liberals. This is due to the fact that we have already embraced the realities of our world and the inherent flaws within human nature. As we view ourselves as being part of a historical continuum, we do not attempt to wrestle with forces that cannot change so we accept our limited place in the scheme of things and never experience emotional meltdown when we discover that legislation cannot alter the flaws of humanity. This book is a recording of quintessential songs to be learned and sung by any who are a David beneath the boot of the leftist Goliath. This Goliath has the media as a sword and the universities and the public schools as his spear, but with the help of D'Souza, independent media outlets, and patriotic fervor, we may be able to stone this unruly Goliath back into the bronze age.
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Letters to a Young Conservative (The Art of Mentoring)
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