Central to the discrediting of socialism has been the mounting of a coherent rigorous assault on its intellectual foundations. Here are ten modem classics which have been at the forefront of the challenge to the left.
In 1948, the American conservative thinker, Richard Weaver, wrote a book entitled Ideas Have Consequences. It may well be that the major battle of this age is the war of ideas. While such ideological warfare has been waged for centuries, its effects today are much more immediate and far-reaching. Unfortunately, it often appears that this conflict is a lopsided affair.
Many of the radical counter-culturalists of the '60s are now in important positions in the mass media, or have received tenured professorships. While the events of the '60s have passed, the mind-set of the '60s has to a large extent remained, at least amongst Western intellectuals. Thus, we still find the "blame America first" mentality; the myth of moral equivalence; naivety concerning socialism; the anti-capitalist mentality; and the muddled thinking of the radical feminists, the greenies, the no-nukers, and the homosexual lobby. It is on these and many other battle fronts that intellectual and ideological warfare is being waged.
A key means of winning this war of ideas is to be equipped with the appropriate arms and ammunition. The level of munitions in the arsenal of the left is vast and widely available. However, there does exist a good selection of effective and powerful weaponry available to the forces of conservatism. It is essential for those who align themselves with conservatism to become familiar with these resources.
It is with this in mind that I present here what I consider to be 10 of the best books recently written which directly rebut many of the premises and fallacies of leftism. This is not a list of the ten best conservative titles ever written. If it were, such classics as Reflections on the Revolution in France, On Liberty, The Wealth of Nations, The Federalist Papers, and Democracy in America would, of course, be included. It is instead a collection of books especially pertinent to the ideological climate of today.
While half of the 10 books deal with economics (since the economic realm is a key area of difference between conservatives and the left) other books deal with important issues, such as Marxism/communism, 20th century history, democracy and its prospects, and the history and philosophy of conservatism.
Many more topics could have been covered, and many other books mentioned. But if conservatives were to read only these 10 books,.they would have more than ample ammunition to take on their intellectual antagonists of the left in most of the major areas of debate in contemporary thought.
Political Pilgrims: Travels of Western Intellectuals to the Soviet Union, China and Cuba 1928-1978
by Paul Hollander
(New York, Harper Colophon Books, 1981.)
In the 1930s it was people like George Bernard Shaw, H.G. Wells, and Thomas Mann who travelled to the Soviet Union and came back with glowing reports of communist society. Today the fellow-travellers are off to Nicaragua and other socialist utopias. Their praise of these socialist states is usually coupled with denunciation of the West. Why is it that so many Western intellectuals have demonstrated such credulity and naivety concerning some of the world's most barbaric tyrannies, while condemning their own democratic societies? In this well-documented and well-written book, Hollander studies just such questions. He explores in detail the journeys and testimonies of these intellectuals, and examines their estrangement and alienation from their own countries. The double standards of left-liberalism -- denigrating pluralism and democracy, while lauding tyranny and dictatorship -- are clearly laid bare in this important work. A fascinating study of what Muggeridge termed the "liberal death wish." Hollander, a native of Hungary, is currently a Fellow at the Russian Research Centre of Harvard.
The Capitalist Revolution: Fifty Propositions About Prosperity, Equality and Liberty
by Peter L. Berger
(New York Basic Books, 1986.)
Berger is a professor at Boston University, a leading neo-conservative (radical turned conservative), and a world-renowned sociologist. In this volume, he analyses the "economic culture" capitalism creates, and shows how capitalism relates to fundamental human values. He demonstrates how capitalism is the best economic system thus far devised for raising the standard of living of the masses. He also shows the close connection which links capitalism and political democracy and individual freedom. Many of today's maladies -- alienation, inequalities, etc. -- are the products, not of capitalism per se, but of modernisation and industrialisation in general. At once a vindication of capitalism, and an indictment of socialism, this volume is one of the best treatments of capitalism and culture ever to have been written.
The Gulag Archipelago, 1918-1956
by Alexander Solzhenitsyn
(Three volumes. New York, Harper and Row, 1973-1978.)
Marx once stated that religion is the opiate of the masses. It can be stated with more truthfulness that Marxism is the opiate of the intellectuals. And perhaps no other book has done so much to shatter the intoxicating spell of Marxism than this. The number of individuals who have forsaken their love-affair with Marxism and communism as a result of reading this book must number well into the thousands. Solzhenitsyn, clearly the most well-known and influential of the Soviet dissidents, has written in these 1,500 pages a majestic picture of life under Soviet communism. The horror, repression, cruelty and barbarism which Solzhenitsyn, and millions like him, endured are vividly and forcefully portrayed. But this is not just a story of suffering and misery; it is also the story of hope and moral strength which fills the human spirit even during the most difficult of times. An epic undertaking in literature, history and autobiography. Solzhenitsyn was expelled from the Soviet Union in 1974, and now lives in Connecticut where he is involved in writing a multi-volume history of the Russian Revolution.
Equality, the Third World, and Economic Delusion
by P.T. Bauer
(Cambridge Massachusetts, Harvard University Press, 1981.)
The Western World is responsible for Third World poverty; under-developed nations are exploited bv Western multinationals: America and the West are wealthy only at the expense of the Third World. These and related theories, by and large traceable to Marxism/Leninism, continue to be accepted by most Western intellectuals today. In this fine volume the Professor Emeritus of Economics at the London School of Economics admirably lays them all to rest. Bauer's argumentation -- scholarly, lucid, incisive, and devastating -- dispels most of the foolish ideas circulating concerning the Third World, development and global economics. These essays are among the best writings available criticising dependency theories, Marxist economics, foreign aid, and Western guilt manipulators. One simply cannot be conversant today in development economics without reading P.T. Bauer.
A History of the Modern World
by Paul Johnson
(New York, Harper and Row, 1988.)
This is a monumental history of the past six decades, full of details, insight, erudition and brilliance. The overriding theme of the book is the spirit of the modern era, characterised by its abandonment of any kind of absolutes, replaced by relativism, especially moral relativism. A moral and religious vacuum has ensued. "The history of modern times is in great part the history of how that vacuum has been filled." The horrors of Hitler and Stalin are but two examples of attempts to fill this vacuum. Johnson expertly covers these topics, and numerous others: the depression, decolonisation and the emergence of the Third World, experiments in social engineering, the radical '6Os, Vietnam, South Africa, the Space Age, etc. A remarkable volume by a leading English journalist and historian.
Wealth and Poverty
by George Gilder
(New York, Basic Books, 1981.)
This was one of the most important and influential books published in 1981. While dealing specifically with the American economic scene, the principles and insights presented here have universal application. In Wealth and Poverty, Gilder effectively and comprehensively demolishes welfare state and zero-sum thinking. He demonstrates how the free market, not government intervention, can best reduce poverty while creating wealth. Not only is capitalism the best practical answer to the problems of poverty, but it is the most compelling moral solution as well. Giving, not greed, is the major ingredient of capitalism, argues Gilder, as the true capitalist invests time, talents and money today for returns which may or may not be reccived in the future. This book is one of the finest expositions and defences of "supply side" economics. Gilder is Program Director of the International Centre for Economic Policy Studies.
The Conservative Mind: From Burke to Eliot
by Russell Kirk
(New York, Avon Books, 1953,1973.)
Probably no other individual has so well served as a spokesman for what may be termed "traditional conservatism" as Russell Kirk. The author of numerous volumes, this is clearly his most important. A blend of philosophy, political science and intellectual history, this volume, as the subtitle indicates, traces the development of conservative thought from Burke onwards. All the major figures of British and American conservatism are competently discussed: Burke, John Adams, Alexander Hamilton, Coleridge, Randolph, Calhoun, Macaulay, Hawthorne, Disraeli, Newman, Babbitt, Santayana and others. (Except for de Tocqueville, Continental thinkers are not covered here). A fine analysis and exposition of the evolution of the conservative mind. Many books have been written on conservatism, but this is one of the best in laying out what conservatism is, how it developed, and what its influence has been.
How Democracies Perish
by Jean-Francois Revel
(Garden City, New York, Doubleday, 1984.)
"Democracy may, after all, turn out to have been a historical accident, a brief parenthesis that is closing before our eyes." Thus Revel begins this masterful and eloquent volume. Democracy, that great experiment in human freedom, is by its very nature fragile and delicate. Its very strengths can easily be turned into weaknesses. Internal weaknesses, coupled with external threats, make democracies very vulnerable indeed. Revel demonstrates and documents the naivety democracies show toward external enemies sworn to their destruction, and the guilt-tripping perfectionism they tend to fall into. He ably shows how democracies, which are hard to produce but easy to destroy, need to be maintained and sustained from within, while being defended from without. A rousing call for democracies to awaken from their slumber and alert themselves to the nearness of their possible demise. A superb book. Revel, a French commentator, has written a number of books, including The Totalitarian Temptation and Without Marx or Jesus.
The Spirit of Democratic Capitalism
by Michael Novak
(New York, Simon and Schuster, 1982.)
What moral and pragmatic justification can be made for capitalism, and for socialism? Why are so many intellectuals anti-capitalist? Does the capitalist West exploit the Third World? Why did North America and South America, both rich in natural resources, develop so differently? What is liberation theology? Is it theology and does it liberate? What have the churches said about capitalism? These and many other questions are superbly covered in this fine book. Perhaps no other intellectual of today has written so widely and profoundly on the moral defence of capitalism as Michael Novak. A former socialist, and now a leading neo-conservative, Novak has produced a steady stream of books vindicating democratic capitalism. Here he expounds and defends the three-part concept of democratic capitalism: a democratic political system; a free market economic system; and a moral/spiritual cultural system. Capitalism, argues Novak, can be justified empirically, philosophically and theologically. And that is what Novak does so convincingly and trenchantly in this valuable book. Novak is a resident scholar at the American Enterprise Institute in Washington, DC.
Witness
by Whittaker Chambers
(New York, Random House, 1952.)
This outstanding book reads like a finely crafted novel; full of intrigue, melodrama and pathos. But it is in fact the thrilling autobiography of Whittaker Chambers. The life of one of America's most famous communists turned anti-communist is here powerfully set forth. In riveting detail Witness describes how Chambers and the communist Fifth Column operated in America; his long-time relationship with Alger Hiss; his eventual break with communism; his decision to expose communist infiltration in government; the infamous Hiss/Chambers espionage case; his lonely struggle against tyranny and materialism. The introduction to the book alone -- in which he describes his conversion to Christianity and turn against communism -- is worth the price of the book. Chambers' life reflects in microcosm the monumental struggle of the 20th century: freedom versus tyranny, Christianity versus atheism, democracy versus communism. A remarkable testament of a remarkable man. Chambers, who joined the Communist Party in 1924, and repudiated it in 1937, died in 1961. This book, long out of print, has recently been republished by Regnery Gateway.
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