Letters to a Young Conservative (The Art of Mentoring) | 
 enlarge | Author: Dinesh D'souza
Publisher: Basic Books
Category: Book
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Rating:  86 reviews
Sales Rank: 106594
Media: Paperback
Pages: 240
Number Of Items: 1
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Dimensions (in): 7.8 x 5 x 0.7
ISBN: 0465017347
Dewey Decimal Number: 320
EAN: 9780465017348
ASIN: 0465017347
Publication Date: April 12, 2005
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Condition: Good Condition, Dispatched from UK, delivery time 10 to 12 Working days
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Product Description
divDinesh 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 expose 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 iLetters to a Young Conservative/i. 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 iLetters to a Young Conservative/i: 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 /div
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| Customer Reviews: Read 81 more reviews...
 The Conservative Manifesto July 8, 2008
EphelDuath
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
Dinesh D'Souza is an Indian immigrant who served as an author of the Dartmouth Review during his days at the college, and subsequently became a policy analyst for President Ronald Reagan. He is one of the leaders of modern intellectual conservatism, much to the ire of old Dartmouth alumni. br / br /When I picked up "Letters to a Young Conservative", I described myself as a "skeptical conservative". I supported private industry, but also liked minimum wage; I supported tax cuts, but also wanted more welfare spending; I opposed affirmative action, but only because it was being mismanaged. In short, I liked both liberal ideals and conservative ideals, and wanted to take both sides. br / br /D'Souza destroyed my addiction to fence-hopping. He's an excellent, witty writer; even the sections of the book which themes I took no interest in prior, such as feminism, held my attention the whole time. I agreed with every sentence, and only put the book down to get a drink. br / br /Let me give you an example. Before, I was skeptical about President Abraham Lincoln. I admired that he freed the slaves, but did not fancy the fact that he was racist himself; or that his war efforts were so destructive; or that he imprisoned so many people during wartime. In but maybe 20 pages, D'Souza turned me into an adamant fan of Lincoln. br / br /Many conservatives are afraid to make the jump to the right-wing, because they still have doubts in the back of their mind that maybe welfare is better for society; that maybe affirmative action is necessary to end racial disparity; that maybe gun control protects our freedoms. If you are one of those, I strongly recommend you read this book to cross the chasm.
A good introduction to conservatism June 20, 2008
Tyler Owen
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
The format of this book is a series of letter to a young college Republican student, Chris. Mired in campus politics and having just graduated from 13 years of public school, this young student is probably somewhat ambivalent about politics--he probably feels a tug to conservatism from his family and religion, but is being dragged in the opposite direction by, well... everything else--or at least that's how I felt. br / br /Dinesh D'souza gives a strong and entertaining expose to Conservatism in this book. He covers issues ranging from self-esteem and Old Abe to Post-modernism. And at the end of the book, he gives a short reading-list, for people like to me to further pursue their interests in Conservative thought. br / br /He was persuasive and as William F Buckley Jr says on the back, it is "Perfect for every undergraduate. And for every graduate who has forgotten, or never, knew, the amplitude of arguments for American conservatism." br / br /Highly recommended.
 "Chris"? Why not Adam, Bob, Lisa, Beth? June 15, 2008
Truisms From The Beltway (Virginia, USA)
0 out of 6 found this review helpful
This book transformed me into a "former admirer" of D'Souza. D'Souza could have addressed his letters to Bob, Gregg, Lisa, Beth, Adam or any of the hundreds of names that are less divisive and more helpful to the cause that he is attempting to advance in this book. His choice to address the letters to "Chris," make a stronger point than the letters themselved do. This undermines the book, the author and the cause itself and has certainly turned me off. I am sympathetic to the cause he is promoting, but much less so after this book.
A pleasant introduction to the conservative worldview April 4, 2008
Randy A. Stadt (Edmonton, Canada)
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
In 30 short chapters (the book is 220 pages) D'Souza takes us on a whirlwind tour of the worldview of the conservative. Because of the brief treatment each subject receives, he cannot approach a thorough defense of any of them. Nevertheless, by the end a coherent picture emerges and he concludes by offering a reading list that should more fully satisfy the appetite he was only able to whet. br / br / In an historical overview we learn that both conservatism and modern liberalism have their roots in classical liberalism with its emphasis on freedom for the individual. But with the changes brought about in the 1930's under FDR and in the 1960's "liberation" movement, the two have diverged to the point that they really stand opposed to one another. They have a fundamental difference in their understanding of human nature. br / br / Liberals, following Rousseau, believe we are basically good, that human nature is malleable if only we apply the right social engineering. Conflicts in the world are not seen in terms of good versus evil, but as misunderstandings. Society at large, and not individuals themselves, are to blame for bad situations such as crime and poverty. Absolute autonomy and personal subjective relativism are the twin dogmas of modern liberalism. br / br / Conservatives, on the other hand, believe in an external, objective moral order. Terms such as good and evil refer to this moral order and thus are not inventions of the human mind. A less sunny diagnosis of human nature leads to a greater emphasis on individual responsibility since conservatives are more realistic about what we are capable of and therefore cannot deflect the blame like liberals do. It also allows for a recognition that some regimes in the world are actually evil, so force, not dialogue, may be necessary in dealing with them. While personal autonomy is important to some degree for the conservative, he finds he must balance this autonomy with duty and virtue which he recognizes from the objective moral order. br / br / D'Souza's discussion of multiculturalism was a particularly interesting example of the clash of worldviews. He distinguishes between authentic and "bogus" multiculturalism, the former referring to a proper recognition of living in a multiracial society, but the latter referring to a leftist political ideology. A case can be made for attempting to balance university curricula to include more great books from the non-Western world. However, "it is impossible to understand multiculturalism in America without realizing that it arises from the powerful conviction that bigotry and oppression define Western civilization in general and American in particular." Consequently representative literary works from other cultures are rejected because they reflect the same bigotry and discrimination that the West is accused of. Instead marginal works are selected, ones which do not reflect their culture but do speak of victimization and oppression. So it is called bogus multiculturalism because "it views non-Western cultures through the ideological lens of Western leftist politics." True multiculturalism, in contrast, would teach the greatest works of Western and non-Western cultures. Its goal would be to study, in the words of Matthew Arnold, "the best that has been thought and said." br / br / Liberal judicial activism also comes under fire for undermining the democratic process by imposing the left wing ideology of the judiciary on the American people. Conservatives, on the other hand, insist that in a democratic society, the people make the laws and the judges apply them. Liberals generally feel that "judges should have the power to make a ruling that specifically contravenes the Constitution and also goes against the wishes of the American people." One egregious example of liberal judicial activism is the so-called "right to privacy" that the Supreme Court found in the Constitution on which to base the legalization of abortion: this right was not found but fabricated. br / br / Conservatives are generally pro-life while liberals are almost certainly pro-choice. In fact, being pro-choice is a litmus test for liberals hoping to have any success in politics, because it is here that personal autonomy, one of the two dogmas of liberalism, is most put to the test. Conservatives are pro-life because their less radical insistence on personal autonomy can be tempered by the overriding concern for another human being's right to life. Initially I disagreed with D'Souza's pro-life strategy. He calls hard line pro-lifers "fools" because their insistence on preventing all abortions will, in his opinion, have the result of preventing none. The reason is that the prolife movement does not enjoy the support of the American people that it would need to achieve this. Instead, he says we should focus on reducing the number of abortions as a step toward the ultimate goal of ending it. He reminds us of the strategy employed by Abraham Lincoln with the slavery issue. Although antislavery, Lincoln was not an abolitionist but instead worked toward curtailing the spread of slavery to the territories. During the Civil War, the outcome of the war was very much in question and Lincoln did not want the border states, which did have slaves, to also secede from the Union. So he carefully framed his case against the Confederacy not as one of slavery but as one of saving the Union. In this way his coalition was maintained, "a coalition whose victory was essential to the cause of antislavery." I find D'Souza's reasoning intriquing, and wonder if the pro-life movement might have more success by thinking along those lines. br / br / Of all the chapters in the book, the one I am wary of is the one dealing with the environment. The title of the chapter, "Who cares about the snail darter?" raised a red flag from the start. His cavalier playing down of global warming concerns me. I am also not convinced by his dismissal of organic farming as inefficient, in favour of high-yield farming, assisted by bio-engineering and pesticides. He does claim that conservatives are concerned with the environment, admitting that "the stewardship of nature is now a human responsibility." He would, however, distinguish this reasonable concern with the liberal environmentalists, who "tend to operate in perpetual alarmist mode." He believes that they are opposing the solutions that have the greatest chance to work, solutions arising from growth, affluence, and technology. br / br / D'Souza has given us an easy to read, informative overview of the terrain on which the conservative/liberal ideological battles are fought. Even a conservative doesn't have to agree with all his points to gain much from this valuable contribution.
Wonderful book, wonderful author! January 18, 2008
O. Nestell
I read this book. It is very interesting and very educational, no matter what side of the political isle your views lie on. Mr. D'Souza has the credentials to back up his claims, and he does so in a non-threatning, intelligent, engaging way. br / br /And the best part? I actually sent him an email asking for a clarification on one of the chapters of the book (regarding same-sex marriage), and though I will leave you in suspense by not telling you what he told me (it would take too long here), I will tell you that he and I actually had a bit of an email conversation ... something I never would have expected from a best-selling author and former White House staffer like himself. Who knew he would actually take time out of his busy day to answer random emails from a nobody like myself? br / br /Totally impressed.
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