This is a guest post by Ron Radosh
Today, I have written a 14 page (if you print it out) review of Diana West’s new book, American Betrayal: The Secret Assault on Our Nation’s Character.
You can find it here:
http://frontpagemag.com/2013/ronald-radosh/mccarthy-on-steroids/
I consider writing this one of the most important articles I have written. As many of you know, I have criticized the pseudo-history of Howard Zinn and Oliver Stone and Peter Kuznick many times in PJ Media, The Wall Street Journal, The Weekly Standard, National Review and other publications.
I believe that it is the responsibility of historians particularly to try and get as close to the truth as possible, and while we all have different interpretations of the past, we respect evidence and know how to assess it. This widely praised book, by people who should know better, is a national best-seller, and has conned many people who believe they are reading true history. If you doubt that, take a look at the reader’s reviews on Amazon.com. To my mind, West’s book is the “conservative” equivalent of what the writer Michael Moynihan calls “junk history.”
I published this in a solidly conservative website, that of the David Horowitz Freedom Center. I did not want to have it appear in a liberal publication such as TNR or the The New York Review of Books. It would have been written off by conservatives, some of whom think West’s book is a blow for truth and real history, and would immediately have dismissed my review as a political hatchet job, without taking out the time to read it.
Please take out the time to read this review, and consider passing it out to other writers, historians and editors. I want this to get around.
