Defending Identity: Its Indispensable Role in Protecting Democracy
by Natan Sharansky
List Price:
Our Price: $8.95
You Save: $18.00 (67%)
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Buy Used: from $1.83 (click here)
Category: Book
See more book details and other editions
Book Summary Information
Author: Natan SharanskyEdition: Hardcover
Audio: English (Original Language); English (Unknown); English (Published)
Published: 2008-03-24
ISBN: 158648513X
Number of pages: 304
Publisher: PublicAffairs
Book Reviews of Defending Identity: Its Indispensable Role in Protecting Democracy
Book Review: If the bad guys fight for their identity, shouldn't we fight for ours?
Summary: 5 Stars
"Identity without democracy can become fundamentalist and totalitarian. Democracy without identiyt can become superficial and meaningless." Spain is one of those countries that has lost both. We're practically inviting our islamist north-african neibors to come take over. A balcanized peninsula in the making.
But this essay by a former political prisoner of the Soviet gulag, and reborn Jewish Israeli is an eye opener to all the world who has not lost its senses yet, in common-sense, plain language.
A good advice on how to break the cycle of relativism and cultural decadence in the West: the fear of God. Sharansky describes this fear in a way I had never been able to describe myself, and beautifully. You don't have to be a believer to understand it at all. He explains how he became aware of this fear (which, as you should know from the bible, is the beginning of knowledge).
Countries with strong identities (supposing they are also strong democracies) are good "not because of their particular identities but because of their strrong identities, because they each had things that were more important to them than their physical existence." Just as a Christian man can find in another Christian from across the world a brother.
The author's experience in political prison camps in Russia taught him that "those with the strongest identities were the least likely to succumb to tyranny, those who retained a sense of the value of history, of tradition, of community, those who saw a purpose in life beyond life itself proved the ultimate bulwark against Soviet evil." Then comes a description of what Lenin himself called those "useful idiots" in the West, like H.G.Wells or G.B.Shaw, who played into the hands of totalitarian comunism. The story I didn't know and that really terrified me was that of American singer Paul Robeson, whom I don't expect to see in Heaven.
Why isn't multiculturalism both ways? "Multiculturalists call on European societies to weaken their own national uniqueness ... in the name of peace, equality and justice; groups without democratic experience or traditions have flooded into Europe. And these groups do not have the slightest qualms about the supremacy of their identities."
Sharansky's book is not only a description of the decayed state of European societies, to the point of social suicide, it also brings in hope, a spirit of challenge and encouragement: we are still in time to change the tide.
"The hypocrisy of double standards of the international human rights organizations ... its refusal to distinguish democratic from nondemocratic regimes ... becomes a tool of undemocratic powers."
"In such a world the enemies of democracy have a great advantage. They are prepared to fight and die for their twisted beliefs. Identity is the only force that will give us the strength to resist and ultimately to defeat them." This book tells you basically why Israel and the USA -as long as it stands up for Israel- are to be strongly supported by freedom loving democratic countries all over the globe.
After all, Israel still is God's apple of His eye. God save America, and the US Forces.
History Books
Book Subjects
- Arts & Photography
- Audiobooks on Cassette
- Audiobooks on CD
- Biographies & Memoirs
- Business & Investing
- Children's Books
- Comics & Graphic Novels
- Computers & Internet
- Cooking, Food & Wine
- e-Books
- Engineering
- Entertainment
- Gay & Lesbian
- Health, Mind & Body
- History
- Home & Garden
- Horror
- Law
- Literature & Fiction
- Medicine
- Mystery & Thrillers
- Nonfiction
- Outdoors & Nature
- Parenting & Families
- Professional & Technical
- Reference
- Religion & Spirituality
- Romance
- Science
- Science Fiction & Fantasy
- Sports
- Teens
- Travel
Most talked about in Contemporary non-fiction authors I want to keep reading
Vindicating the Founders: Race, Sex, Class, and Justice in the Origins of Americaby Thomas G. West
Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc.; Published: 2001-02-25; Paperback; Book
Best price: $10.79
Price in other shops:
The Quest for Cosmic Justiceby Thomas Sowell
Free Press; Published: 2002-02-05; Paperback; Book
Best price: $4.00
Price in other shops:
The Jewish State: The Struggle for Israel's Soulby Yoram Hazony
Basic Books; Published: 2001-05; Paperback; Book
Best price: $4.87
Price in other shops:
Pericles Of Athens And The Birth Of Democracyby Donald Kagan
Free Press; Published: 1998-10-01; Paperback; Book
Best price: $15.97
Price in other shops:
The Vietnam War 1956-1975 (Essential Histories)by Andrew Wiest
Routledge; Published: 2003-07-24; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $56.78
Price in other shops:
Christianity for Modern Pagans: Pascal's Penseesby Blaise Pascal
Ignatius Press; Published: 1993-10; Paperback; Book
Best price: $9.80
Price in other shops:
Killing Pablo: The Hunt for the World's Greatest Outlawby Mark Bowden
Penguin (Non-Classics); Published: 2002-04-02; Paperback; Book
Best price: $6.93
Price in other shops:
Joseph McCarthy: Reexamining the Life and Legacy of America's Most Hated Senatorby Arthur Herman
Free Press; Published: 1999-12-02; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $18.00
Price in other shops:
A People's Tragedy: The Russian Revolution: 1891-1924by Professor Orlando Figes
Penguin (Non-Classics); Published: 1998-03-01; Paperback; Book
Best price: $14.05
Price in other shops:
Born Fighting: How the Scots-Irish Shaped Americaby James Webb
Broadway; Published: 2005-10-11; Paperback; Book
Best price: $8.93
Price in other shops:
Similar books summaries and other product reviews
Fleeced: How Barack Obama, Media Mockery of Terrorist Threats, Liberals Who Want to Kill Talk Radio, the Do-Nothing Congress, Companies That Help Iran, and Washington Lobbyists for Foreign Governments Are Scamming Us ... and What to Do About Itby Dick Morris, Eileen Mcgann
Harper; Published: 2008-07-01; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $14.09
Price in other shops:
Willful Blindness: Memoir of the Jihadby Andrew C. McCarthy
Encounter Books; Published: 2008-04-14; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $8.00
Price in other shops:
The Post-American Worldby Fareed Zakaria
W. W. Norton; Published: 2008-05-05; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $14.63
Price in other shops:
War and Decision: Inside the Pentagon at the Dawn of the War on Terrorismby Douglas J. Feith
Harper; Published: 2008-03-01; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $17.01
Price in other shops:
Economic Facts and Fallaciesby Thomas Sowell
Basic Books; Published: 2007-12-31; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $14.08
Price in other shops:
The Obama Nation: Leftist Politics and the Cult of Personalityby Jerome R. Corsi
Threshold Editions; Published: 2008-08-01; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $13.70
Price in other shops:
The Case For Democracy: The Power of Freedom to Overcome Tyranny and Terrorby Natan Sharansky, Ron Dermer, Anatoly Shcharansky
Published: 2004-09-30; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $5.98
Price in other shops:
Liberal Fascism: The Secret History of the American Left, From Mussolini to the Politics of Meaningby Jonah Goldberg
Doubleday; Published: 2008-01-08; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $16.15
Price in other shops:
The Return of History and the End of Dreamsby Robert Kagan
Knopf; Published: 2008-04-29; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $11.07
Price in other shops:
Fear No Evilby Natan Sharansky
PublicAffairs; Published: 1998-11-26; Paperback; Book
Best price: $8.95
Price in other shops: