Synopses & Reviews
Political vicissitudes aside, with or without a conservative administration, whether or not America is engaged in war, or regardless of who next holds the majority either in Congress or the Court, the United States as a whole (as the infamous red and blue map made unforgettably clear) has boldly, unabashedly moved Right. But the question remains:
Why? How did a movement that appeared so sidelined and embattled only a generation ago emerge as such a strong, influential, and enduring united front?
In Why I Turned Right, eminent and rising conservatives -- at odds themselves on a number of issues from religion, family, sex, to stem cell research, abortion, and war -- answer the question. And they answer it not through polemic, reactionary preaching, or rage, but in the most practical and sensible way possible: via the sharp, critical, and unfiltered voices and canny observations of uniquely positioned authors, editors, humorists, and political refugees inadvertently born of the sexual revolution and the PC movement, who ultimately landed on the conservative side of America's red-blue divide -- in some cases, much to their own surprise.
A fascinating intellectual journey, this "family of opinions," as contributor Peter Berkowitz terms it, represents the extraordinarily varied paths that have led these authors from the championed liberalism of their youth to eventually fuel the world of conservative think tanks, magazines, blogs, and book publishing.
Whether you are for the Right or against, guarded supporter or puzzled progressive, Why I Turned Right proves an entertaining, enlightening, and edifying read for anyone with an open mind -- both the red and the blue, and everyone in between.
Review
"A thoroughly engaging, witty, and instructive series of essays by the best and rightest of our generation."
-- Christopher Buckley
About the Author
Editor Mary Eberstadt is a research fellow at the Hoover Institution, Contributing Editor to Policy Review, and author of Home-Alone America: The Hidden Toll of Day Care, Behavioral Drugs, and Other Parent Substitutes. She is former managing editor of the Public Interest and former executive editor of the National Interest.
Table of Contents
Contents Introduction by Mary Eberstadt
P. J. O'Rourke: The Unthinking Man's Guide to Conservatism
Richard Starr: Killer Rabbits and the Continuing Crisis
David Brooks: Confessions of a Greenwich Village Conservative
Dinesh D'Souza: Recollections of a Campus Renegade
Heather Mac Donald: Down and Out with Paul De Man
Stanley Kurtz: Pig Heads
Joseph Bottum: The Events Leading Up to My Execution
Danielle Crittenden: Pacifists, Pacifiers, and Snakeskin Miniskirts
Tod Lindberg: Choices and Consequences
Sally Satel: The Most Dangerous Psychiatrist in America
Peter Berkowitz: The Longer Way
Rich Lowry: I Was a Teenage Conservative
Bibliography
Acknowledgments