"Bennett excels at simplifying issues to the point where black and white appear out of gray....[W]hen he condemns self-criticism as a national pathology, his words lose their value. For what is this book, if not a product of self-criticism? Bennett rarely ventures beyond his personal convictions. Stirring it may be, but edifying regarding the complexities of America's present situation it is not." Publishers Weekly

"Bennett has a knack for trivializing even the most legitimate exercises in national self-criticism....[I]t takes courage to be Bill Bennett. To castigate Americans for questioning and Muslims for not questioning. To classify Islam as a warrior religion and then speak wistfully of 'the martial spirit that was once routinely associated with American Christianity.' To denounce the 'triumphalist habits of thought' that abound in Islamic schools and then laud the United States as 'the marvel and envy of the ages.' To lionize the heterosexual heroes of Flight 93 and leave out the gay one. To call for moral clarity when all he really wants is moral unanimity....We know why America is fighting, Mr. Bennett. Many of us, indeed, support that fight. But why, apart from theological directive, is the other side fighting? That is the question that some of the liberals and academics you deride have been trying, however awkwardly, to answer. They recognize that answering it has not just intellectual but strategic value, and so they call on the very disciplines you despise — value-neutral analysis, relativist casts of mind. Isn't America strong enough to handle that? Isn't the questioning of received wisdom — even your wisdom — as much a part of the war effort as waving a flag or blowing a horn? Or writing a book? Or calling for moral clarity?" Louis Bayard, Salon.com

"[A]n excellent defense of patriotism....[Why We Fight] is dynamic, knowledgeable and charismatic....There's always comfort in seeing things in black and white....[Bennett] is eloquent and persuasive. If the unmitigated nature of his invective sometimes makes the reader recoil, it's worth the weight of his tutelage." Nora Seton, The Houston Chronicle

"By far the most effective sections in Bennett's book detail such absurdities as the moral equivalence suggested by the historian Eric Foner late last September....Still, readers don't need Bennett's...overblown rhetoric to grasp the abysmal shortcomings of the left's reaction to the September attacks. Christopher Hitchens and Andrew Sullivan have already trenchantly exposed the nonsense promulgated by the 'peace party'...while effectively deploying tools of argument conspicuously absent from Bennett's...writing: verve, style and wit." Benjamin Schwarz, The Washington Post

WILLIAM J. BENNETT is co-director of Empower America and founder and chairman of K12, an Internet-based elementary and secondary school. He is the editor of The Book of Virtues and The Moral Compass and the author of several books, including the bestsellers The Death of Outrage and, most recently, The Educated Child: A Parent’s Guide. He lives in Chevy Chase, Maryland, with his wife, Elayne, and their two sons.