The Atlantic

October 26, 2006

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POLITICS

Spectrum: From Right to Left in the World of Ideas, by Perry Anderson
Reviewed by Christopher Hitchens ( "What's Left," March 2006)

"[Anderson] has succeeded in extending his critique of radical and conservative ideas alike, to the point where he must be accounted the most polymathic, and at the same time the most profound, essayist currently wielding a pen. His handling of the relationship between history and philosophy, and historians and philosophers, would—if the world did not possess a connotation of the meretricious— deserve to be called 'dazzling.'"

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Imposter, by Bruce Bartlett (Doubleday)
Reviewed by Benjamin Healy and Benjamin Schwarz ("Cover to Cover", May 2006)

"A prominent Reaganite denounces George W. Bush as a faux-conservative in the Nixon mold."

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The Good Fight: Why Liberals—and only Liberals—Can Win the War on Terror and Make America Great Again , by by Peter Beinart (HarperCollins)
Reviewed by Christopher Hitchens("No Blood For Oil!", May 2006)

"Beinart's aim is to refashion this tradition for the war against jihadism, and to reposition American liberals as the friends of democracy and equality at home and abroad."

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Building Red America, by Thomas B. Edsall (Basic)
Reviewed by Benjamin Healy and Benjamin Schwarz ("Cover to Cover", September 2006)

"A longtime Washington Post reporter assesses the distinctive qualities of the current GOP ascendancy. The recent trend toward realignment is unique, he argues, in that it has arisen more as a result of deliberate strategy than through organic historical contingency."

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The Way to Win , by Mark Halperin and John F. Harris (Random House)
Reviewed by Benjamin Healy and Benjamin Schwarz ("Cover to Cover", December 2006)

"Two ultra-insider political journalists sketch a road map for prospective 2008 presidential hopefuls."

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Welcome to the Homeland, by Brian Mann (Steerforth)
Reviewed by Benjamin Healey and Benjamin Schwarz ("Cover to Cover", October 2006)

"Mann...produces one of the best books to date on the putative red-blue divide."

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American Theocracy, by Kevin Phillips (Viking)
Reviewed by Benjamin Healy and Benjamin Schwarz ("Cover-to-Cover", April 2006)

"The oracle of the emerging Republican majority examines the fruits of his prophecy and further predicts that an over reliance on oil, excessive debt, and the politicization of religion will lead America to certain doom."

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The Conservative Soul, by Andrew Sullivan (HarperCollins)
Reviewed by Benjamin Healey and Benjamin Schwarz ("Cover to Cover", November 2006)

"An abstract creed, oddly self-congratulatory in its self-effacement."

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Does American Democracy Still Work?, by Alan Wolfe (Yale)
Reviewed by Benjamin Healey and Benjamin Schwarz ("Cover to Cover", October 2006)

"Wolfe answers his title question with a qualified yes, although he notes with alarm that incuriosity, partisanship, and cynicism imperil the whole enterprise. Familiar complaints, all, but Wolfe's urgency is compelling."

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