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Author: Naomi Wolf
Publisher: Chelsea Green Publishing
Category: Book
List Price: $13.95
Buy New: $6.96
You Save: $6.99 (50%)
New (46) Used (29) from $6.96
Avg. Customer Rating:  173 reviews
Sales Rank: 1234
Media: Paperback
Edition: 1st
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 192
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.5
Dimensions (in): 8.2 x 5.4 x 0.5
ISBN: 1933392797
Dewey Decimal Number: 323.490973
EAN: 9781933392790
ASIN: 1933392797
Publication Date: September 5, 2007
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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| Customer Reviews:
 demise of the Republic July 10, 2008
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
The Empire has won. The rebels were asleep. This primer is too little too late. The war-mongering engines of industrial capitalism will sweep away democracy any time any place. Oligarchy is the natural political system for primates; just look at the apes and baboons. The last vestiges of the American Republic were trodden down when the Supreme Court appointed GWB as our president at the turn of this millenium. Naomi's petition for patriots to act, alas, at this stage can be nothing more than a call for another bloody revolution. If there is an election (dont hold your breath), and if the Obama ticket wins, it will never take the oath of office and be inaugurated.
Spend your money if you have any and dont cry over spilt milk.
 Sloppy Writing July 9, 2008
1 out of 4 found this review helpful
I picked up this book, overall, with neutral expectations. I hadn't read anything by Wolf before but had read her reviews and general background information and was interested in her feminist points and strong left wing opinions.
While reading the book I was intrigued by the topic of the possibility of a "Soviet America" but was disappointed at it's execution. Put bluntly, I thought this paper could have been written by a college freshman. I felt like I was reading a long research paper where the author knew her material but lacked a professional edge. It was strongly biased though it was written as if she wanted to portray herself on neutral grounds. She pushed her "levelness" way too far.
I would read this book if you are looking for an easy way to gain hard facts on a wildly interesting topic, but good luck getting through it, it's almost unbearable.
Saving America from Fascist shifts July 7, 2008
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
"Most important book of my lifetime," say some who have joined in reading and discussing Naomi Wolf's "letter of warning." We've followed through by joining American Freedom Campaign http://www.americanfreedomcampaign.org/ now supporting H.R.3835 to repeal the Military Commissions Act of 2006 and make clear the checks and balances our US Constitution provides to stop the ten fascist shifts that Wolf documents are now underway in US government.
100% Satisfied July 2, 2008
0 out of 2 found this review helpful
The books purchased are gifts so it is important that the buyer be accurate and honest about his product. Amazon sellers achieve this high quality 99 times out of a 100. Thank you, Amazon DB
BRILLIANT...but narrow... June 30, 2008
4 out of 6 found this review helpful
Naomi Wolf has written a brilliant "primer" to warn all Americans that the Constitutional freedoms they've enjoyed throughout their American lives are coming to an end. Ms. Wolf endured a vigorous study of the fascist regimes of WWII and noted the striking similarities, sometimes identical, to current US politics. Indeed, the proof is in the pudding. Ms. Wolf identifies ten steps of closing down an open society. Her theme is that as the US ascends to the top of this ten-step ladder, it is undergoing a process she terms a "fascist shift". Her patriotism, scholarship, attention to the most subtle similarities to classic fascism(which must have sent tingling chills down her spine at times), and most of all her courage, should be applauded by all who at the very minimum can at least say they give a damn about this incredibly great country known as the USA (though not for much longer).
But I'm afraid the scope of Ms. Wolf's critical analysis just might be a little too narrow for practical use. What I mean by this is that in reality her "fascist shift" is in fact not a shift from democracy toward fascism as she beleives, but rather a shift from "cold" fascism toward "warm" fascism. "Cold" in the same sense as the "Cold" war. Attention must be directed to the Bible of American fascism, published in 1980, by Bertram Gross, a Distinguished Professor of Public Policy and Planning in the Urban Affairs Department of Hunter College and a Professor of Political Science in the Graduate Program of City University of New York. Gross entitled his book "Friendly Fascism" to distinguish it from the vicious and brutal classic fascism of WWII Germany, Italy and Japan. "Friendly Fascism" is about the trends in America (at the time of its writing nearly 30 years ago) that are known causes of fascism. In a nutshell, those trends center around the convergence of Big Business with Big Government, militarism (read Chomsky) and the establishment's management of information, i.e. propaganda-see my review of Propaganda and U.S. Television News and Cold War Propaganda, 1947-1960 (Cambridge Studies in the History of Mass Communication).
Noteworthy, among the vast treasure between its covers, is Gross's comment that "Tactical conflicts arise [in the partnership of Big Business and Big Government] about...the shape of empire; the pace of oligarchic integration; the timing of constitutional subversion; the degree of informational management; the delicate balance between positive reinforcements and the use of violence...".
In Gross's day there was still some semblance of a functioning US Constitution, but most of the Bill of Rights were intact. With the new administration of 2000, this has all changed dramatically. As Ms. Wolf points out, the Bill of Rights have been gutted. Hence, we've reached the point of "timing of constitutional subversion". Cold fascism has become warm fascism. It moves on to "Hot" fascism when the use of violence intensifies.
But this is to be expected. Afterall, isn't democracy just a disguised form of fascism? Isn't capitalism the kindred soul of democracy? And finally, isn't war simply the art of capitalism? (Without war, capitalism would be finished because markets become saturated and there is no room for expansion). So therefore fascism and democracy (the marriage of captialism and war) are two sides of the same coin-the one absolute, the other emerging.
Ms. Wolf has simply warned us that we have entered stage two fascism (warm fascism).
Unfortunately, the gutted Bill of Rights are not the cause, but rather the symptom of our dysfunctional democracy. The separation of powers, the checks and balances no longer apply. Congress is in alliance with the Executive Branch (they allow and even support Bush's policies). Remember, the idea was that the President would be unable to increase his powers because of a legislative power to "check" his/her ambition. Folks, this "check" is long gone. Otherwise, the Democrats who took control of Congress in 2006 would have moved to impeach the criminals in the White House. Same for the "Judiciary" Branch. We have Scalia duck hunting with an Executive Branch member, whose case Scalia has under consideration.
No more separation of powers, no more checks and balances. American fascism will steamroll to "Hot" by January, 2009. Why? It's a new century. The North American Union is under way, and Eurasia must be conquered. Like Zbig Bzrezinski says, "whoever controls Eurasia, controls the world". And every new century brings radical change in America's territory policy:
1800-plus 3 years; purchased Louisianna Territory from Napoleon.
1900-minus 2 years; First move of imperialism, US was agressor in the Spanish-American war and then invaded the Philippines in a 10-year war that has all but been expunged from US history books.
2000-plus 1 year; 9/11 and the race for control of Eurasia, coupled with the melting of Canada, the US, and Mexico into the North American Union, a precursor to Zbig Bzrezinski's Trilateral mission, to combine North America, Japan and Europe into one entity.
It's called the New World Order, America.
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