This book sheds light on the use and abuse of unsuspecting foreign human rights activists by US officials, agencies, and conservative groups as they seek to forward US foreign policy objectives through human rights complaints.

Anelauskas's revelations punch holes through the public policy platitudes surrounding the Republican Contract With America, and reveal in shocking terms the impact recent public policy has had upon the American body politic. Even more significant than present effects are the projections that are drawn from these "facts on the ground."

How does American capitalism treat its citizens, compared to capitalism in other countries in Europe and elsewhere? Anelauskas provides copious amounts of up-to-the-minute comparative documentation on indicators of social well being in health, education, housing, the environment, etc., not only concerning the U.S., but also concerning a range of European and other capitalist countries. His sources range from government statistics, mainstream newspapers and business publications, to studies by international organizations, highly reputed non-governmental organizations (NGOs), and institutes.

"This is an extraordinary book, especially startling not because it is a diligently researched and scathing critique of contemporary America, but because it is written by a Soviet dissident who arrived here with great expectations and discovered a sobering reality. The scope of the book is breathtaking, a sweeping survey, factually precise and philosophically provocative, which deserves to be compared to de Tocqueville's 19th century classic. I hope it will be widely read." Howard Zinn, Professor Emeritus, Boston University, and author of A People's History of the United States

"Anelauskas's examination of many dimensions of current and past realities of the United States is a veritable tour de force. He avoided the usual approach to deal with these dimensions as separate fragments, each with supposedly separate solutions, but traced them to their underlying common roots in the dynamics of the capitalist institutions and ideology of this society and its culture. Teachers and students of social sciences, history, and philosophy will find in this book a rich source for understanding the forces which shape the quality of our lives and human relations, at home and abroad." David G. Gil, Professor of Social Policy and Director, Center for Social Change, Heller Graduate School, Brandeis University

"Valdas Anelauskas's Discovering America As It Is illuminates the dark corners of U.S. history and current events, and draws all the right conclusions. If just one-in-ten lifelong Americans had ever bothered themselves to learn as much about their country as has this recent Lithuanian immigrant, the horrors he writes about would never have existed. This is must reading for the entire population." Ward Churchill, activist and author of A Little Matter of Genocide: Holocaust and Denial in the Americas, 1492 to the Present

Includes bibliographical references (p. 467-553) and index.

VALDAS ANELAUSKAS was born into a wealthy landowning family in Lithuania. His father fought in the Lithuanian resistance and spent 10 years — longer than Soltsenitsyn --- in the Russian Gulag. As a Lithuanian nationalist, Valdas Anelauskas was involved in the resistance movement for Lithuanian independence almost from birth. He was first arrested by the KGB at the age of 14, and later joined the broader dissident movement for human rights as an independent journalist in the anti-Soviet samizdat. He wrote for Radio Liberty/Radio Free Europe; some of his articles were also used by The London Times, Associated Press, and others.

In 1988, on the anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, he renounced his Soviet citizenship and was ejected from the Soviet Union soon after. Upon his arrival in the U.S. as a high profile political dissident, Anelauskas initially cooperated with several right wing organizations seeking the collapse of the Soviet Union, among them the notorious Anti-Bolshevik Bloc of Nations, the World Anti-Communist League, and others. He addressed the 17th annual Conservative Political Action Conference as a featured speaker, alongside Newt Gingrich, Jesse Helms, Eliot Abrams, Robert Bork, and other leading conservative spokespersons. When he discovered the elitist nature and goals of American conservative organizations, his association with them terminated.

Recalling his earlier activities with shame and chagrin, Anelauskas now regards himself as the naive victim of American propaganda, and of officials of its various agencies and institutions, who sought to achieve, not human rights, but power, by the Soviet demise. As in his days as an anti-Soviet dissident, Valdas Anelauskas remains, to this day, a fearless seeker of truth and a staunch defender of all human rights — not simply the civil and political rights which he sought for his native Lithuania, but the full gamut of international human rights, including socio-economic and cultural rights as well. He speaks and writes in four languages. He lives in Eugene, Oregon, and travels frequently in Europe.