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Paved With Good Intentions: The Failure of Race Relations in Contemporary America by Jared Taylor. Paperback: 416 pages. (New York, NY: Carroll & Graf Pub., 1993.)

Review by Ryan Setliff

Paved With Good Intentions

Arguing rather persuasively that alleged white racism is more an excuse for black failure and social pathologies than an accurate explanation, Taylor challenges political correctness on issues concerning race relations and ethnicity in America. He brings a plethora of evidence, statistics and hard facts to the table which bear some uncomfortable truths for many Americans — black and white — and especially that nebulous group we affectionately know as liberals. As Jonathan West laments, “Liberals are not concerned with outcomes our even with how policies work. They are only concerned with how policies FEEL.” That Trotskyite-Marxist ideological appellation ‘racist’ is reflexively thrown at every sensible piece of social dialogue on the matter, and Taylor’s book has not been immune from such charges. But as black economist Walter Williams said, “Paved With Good Intentions should be on everybody’s bookshelf.” See for yourself, what the establishment doesn’t want you to see.

The Myth of Institutional Racism Holding Down Minorities

In his introduction, Taylor notes, “For many people, both black and white, the notion that white racism explains black failure is the key to understanding American society. They are so convinced of the prevalence of white racism that they refuse even to consider the possibility that it may not be the sole obstacle to success for black Americans. For them, white racism is a brutal fact that seldom need be questioned—to question it may be immoral” (p. 16.) Taylor points out with much validity, “if whites in America are inveterately bigoted, other nonwhite races should face obstacles similar to those faced by blacks. Yet Chinese, Japanese, Koreans, and even black West Indians have overcome America’s storied racism,” and “instead of complaining about oppression and prejudice—of which there used to be plenty—they have taken responsibility for themselves and seized opportunities for a better life.”

The Politically Incorrect Guide to Islam (and The Crusades), (Washington, DC: Regnery Publishing, 2008.)

Book Review by Ryan Setliff.

This is some truth-telling for those clear-headed enough to fathom the proposition that a devout Muslim is in fact a terrorist.

The Politically Incorrect Guide to Islam by Robert Spencer is an eye-opening look into the Islamic world, and the militant creed of Mohammed. The teachings of Islam espoused by the Prophet Mohammed some seven hundred years after the time of Christ's earthly ministry are explored in depth and more notably without the politically correct predilections of establishment academics that are Islamophiles. Too often, political correctness has dethroned an objective inquiry into the teachings of the Qur'an in the name of tolerance. An unusual alliance between secular liberals and Islamic revisionist academics in the West casts a fog over Islam for outsiders—heralding it as an enlightened "religion of peace." The cover up remains detrimental to Western nations that will not accept the bleak reality of a embedded culture conflict rooted in Islamic theology. To borrow a cliche from Richard Weaver: Ideas have consequences. What are the consequences of the teachings of the Koran? Violence.

It will be exacerbated in the coming century as Western nations accept swarms of Muslim immigrants. Europe is overrun by North African and Turk Muslims, and terrorism will undoubtedly rear its ugly head as it has in London. Spencer confronts these myths with devastating clarity and peels away the polished veneer for the non-Islamic world to see. He paints a bleak picture and simply lets Islam speak for itself in word and deed. It's no wonder he has received such harsh criticism, as one fanatical Muslim on RevingIslam.com proclaimed: "May Allah rip out his spine from his back and split his brains in two, and then put them both back, and then do it over and over again. Amen."

Suicide of the West: An Essay on the Meaning and Destiny of Liberalism by James Burnham. Hardcover: 320 pages.

Suicide of the West: An Essay on the Meaning and Destiny of Liberalism by James Burnham is a trenchant critique of modern secular liberalism, which Burnham characterizes as the ideology of Western suicide. "Liberalism," observes Burnham, "is the ideology of Western suicide." Why? Liberalism presents a false anthropology of human nature, seeing mankind as essentially good, but in need of liberation from social problems rooted in tradition, prejudice and ignorance. Liberalism appealed to the politics of guilt. Its ideological nostrums of egalitarianism and social justice meant the suicide of the West, he postulated, and the inevitable contraction of Western culture, power and social stability.

Robert Nisbet: Communitarian Traditionalist (Library of Modern Thinkers by Brad Lowell Stone. (Wilmington, DE: ISI Books, 2000.) Hardcover: 170 pages. $24.95.

Book Review by Ryan Setliff

Robert Nisbet : Communitarian Traditionalist is a biographical sketch about the life and essentially the ideas of this influential twentieth-century sociologist and social thinker. Sociology has long been the mainstay of statist liberals and radical collectivists, and Nisbet is definitely out of touch with the quixotic or authoritarian mindset of most sociologists. Brad Lowell Stone's research is highly recommended and an excellent overview of Nisbet's social thinking. It is prudent to read Nisbet's books in tandem with Stone's biography. Stone points out some of Nisbet's influences, which are rather fascinating. Nisbet was weaned on the writings of Southern Agrarians like Crowe, Ransom and Tate who penned I'll Take My Stand in the 1930s. Nisbet also gain insight from the late conservative luminary Russell Kirk, having read his book The Conservative Mind: From Burke to Eliot in 1953 the same year he wrote The Quest for Community. Since his assent in the 1950s, the late Robert Nisbet has gained recognition from both the Left and Right. Contemporaneously, his appeal is primarily with those on the Right whether traditionalist or libertarians. Nisbet's sociological thinking is aloof from the statist sociologists who often fail to distinguish between state and community. Essentially Nisbet made a dichotomy between monism and pluralism. The thought of Plato, Hobbes, Compte, Rousseau and Marx embodied monism, while Aristotle, Burke, and De Tocqueville represented the pluralist camp.

Look Homeward, America: Reactionary Radicals and Traditionalist Rebels by Bill Kauffman. (Wilmington, DE: Intercollegiate Studies Institute, 2006.) Amazon Price: $16.50

Review by Ryan Setliff

An Outsider’s Look at Bill Kauffman’s Bombastic New Book

Novelist and writer Bill Kauffman is starting to stir a fuss with his powerful little tome, Look Homeward, America: In Search of Reactionary Radicals and Front-Porch Anarchists. Herein, Kauffman introduces us to “the reactionary radicals, front-porch anarchists, and traditionalist rebels who give American culture and politics its pith, vim, and life.”

I write this review as a southern conservative — one that reveres Edmund Burke, John Taylor of Caroline and Russell Kirk as my political sages. I prefer reading The American Conservative and Chronicles to the Beltway Right establishment magazines of the National Review and the Weekly Standard. I stake my flagpole squarely in the camp of the Old Right — and hoist the flag of my native commonwealth up on high as I whistle Dixie. I love the provincial countryside, not the blighted urban sprawl. I love the Shenandoah Valley of my native commonwealth. I share Kauffman's parochialism! To be sure, I wouldn’t dare prefix my political philosophy with the appellation anarcho-. I find anarchy distasteful. I consider government requisite for the reason of flawed human nature and likewise strict limits upon that government is necessary for the exact same reason. Abusus non tollit usum (Wrong use does not preclude proper use.) Still, the author of this book tries to salvage anarchy on behalf of his cadre of traditionalist “front-porch anarchists.” With all this in mind, one may wonder, why did I bother reading, much less positively critiquing Kauffman’s book?

Love and Economics: Why the Laissez-Faire Family Doesn't Work by Jennifer Roback Morse. Hardback: 300 pages. (Spence Publishing, 2001), Retail $27.95, Amazon.com: $19.84.

Review by Ryan Setliff

As the subtitle reveals, this book’s thesis is relatively straightforward: classical liberalism or libertarianism in its manifestation as a philosophy of individualism and rational autonomy simply does not work when applied to the family. The political Left tacitly endorses a hands-off philosophy at the family level, which emphasizes “freedom of choice” for the individual, while ironically favoring interventionist solutions for broader societal issues. Regrettably, in recent years, the political Right too, makes the lamentable mistake of applying their laissez-faire philosophy to the family, instead of just the marketplace and civil society in general.

Essentially, what author Jennifer Roback Morse attempts to illustrate with her book is that the advancement of libertarian philosophy might be useful and redeeming for broader economic and social freedom, but it cannot be applied to society’s most basic institution—the family. Moreover, the underlying materialism in liberal-libertarian circles has to be rejected in favor of an acknowledgement of a transcendent reality and the supernatural. This religious foundation is requisite in order to sustain the values necessary for the preservation of strong, stable traditional families. The laissez-faire family philosophy gained ascendancy following World War II and reached an ugly fruition in the post-1960s era that was host to the so called Sexual Revolution and the Feminist movement. It was reflected in the works of acclaimed pediatrician Dr. Benjamin Spock whose notoriety emanated from his permissive child-rearing and parenting books. As Norman Vincent Peale affirmed, “the United States was paying the price of two generations that followed the Dr. Spock baby plan of instant gratification of needs.” The narcissistic “Me Generation” of the 1960s has practically despoiled every subsequent generation of their inheritance—both cultural and spiritual.

The Death of the West: How Dying Populations and Immigrant Invasions Imperil Our Country and Civilization by Patrick J. Buchanan. Paperback: 320 pages. (New York, NY: St. Martin's, 2002).

Review by Ryan Setliff

The European Dream by Jeremy Rifkin. Hardcover: 448 pages. (New York, NY: Tarcher, 2004.) Amazon Price: $17.13.