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 enlarge | Author: Naomi Wolf
Publisher: Chelsea Green Publishing
Category: Book
List Price: $13.95
Buy New: $6.96
You Save: $6.99 (50%)
New (41) Used (29) from $6.96
Avg. Customer Rating:  174 reviews
Sales Rank: 2428
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:
 Very interesting, though a tad unconvincing July 15, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
By identifying ten steps in The End of America that all dictators and would-be dictators take in order to close down an open society, Naomi Wolf is able to argue convincingly that all ten of these steps are underway in the United States today. She argues convincingly that citizens need to rise up and challenge the powers that be to insure that our country as we know it isn't lost to us.
Is easily digestible chapters, Wolf compares the current political climate in the US with the conditions in other free states before or as they turned totalitarian. Most often the analogy is drawn with Hitler and the National Socialist Party and Mussolini's Italy. This resonates especially in chapters on the development of a paramilitary force answerable only to the ruler and restriction of the free press. What struck this reader was how easily the current climate towards the press has shifted to intimidation factors that make outright control unnecessary.
But her presentation is not without its flaws. Wolf never adequately demonstrates that these ten steps are used by all dictators as they attempt to achieve power. Her examples are selected so as to be relevant to her arguments about the US, and while the book is meant to be a short cri de coeur, I believe a firmer grounding in history might have served her better. At times Wolf also fails to show a causal link making her examples relevant. For example, in a chapter arguing the point of surveillance of citizens, she drops in that Condoleeza Rice is `an expert on a least one surveillance society, which she analyzed in a book she coauthored, Germany Unified and Europe Transformed.' The fact that a political science professor seeking tenure published such a book should surprise no one, and Wolf fails to make this one sentence relevant to the rest of the passage. Though almost all statements are sourced, more than one slipped through without providing a reference.
The brevity of the piece often makes one wish that she had gone into more detail, even if only to mention texts for further reading. One of Foucault's most recognizable societal criticisms involved the Panopticon, a prison in which one guard could monitor hundreds of prisoners and maintain order because none would ever know when he or she was being watched. Yet Wolf never mentions this in her arguments on the surveillance of citizens. Perhaps such a connection is unnecessary, but Discipline and Punish is the type of text that would support her argument, giving her a solid appeal to authority.
Despite these criticisms, The End of America should serve as a jarring call to arms for people who believe that it can't happen here. The parallels are eerie and prescient. And while America is unlikely to be subject to a violent closing down of our open society; we are vulnerable erosions in democracy that will look very American on the surface yet leave us less free.
 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
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