Liberalism or How to Turn Good Men into Whiners, Weenies and Wimps

Great present for the libral minds

I FINALLY get to review this book! So I started reading this book about 9 or 10 months ago but it took me so long to finish reading it because I have it in paperback and once I got my kindle in December of last year, I find myself reading kindle books constantly and neglecting my paperbacks because its easier to take my kindle with me to work than a paperback and bounce back and forth between several books on my kindle. Also, because this isn't a novel and rather a book that is a commentary on history, current social issues and politics, its easy to put it down for a while and pick it back up whereas when you do that with a novel, you may completely forget what's going on in the story.Anywhoo.......This is an excellent read. Burgess gives a VERY detailed history backed up with tons of data and sources on the history of the black family in America and how it was once the strongest and most thriving family unit in America even during the Jim Crow era but since the late sixties has since crumbled to almost complete ruin. He gives the reasons why this is and gives detailed examples of just how well the black family did in the first half of the 20th century as well as the late 19th century. He also goes over the many prominent individual african americans who thrived during this time period (such as going through the life of Booker T. Washington) and became highly successful DESPITE the deeply ingrained institutional racism at the time.Many of the facts and points he goes over in this book I already knew but many I didn't. For instance, I had no idea that W.E.B DuBois was NOT actually a hero of the African American community but in fact was a racist against most of his own people; who believed in eugenics for the "90%" of African Americans that he deemed to be of low class, low intelligence and less than desirable humans. He was the ORIGINAL race hustler of the black elitist class. The Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton of his day. He thought that only 10% of black people were worthy to reproduce and pass on their genetic makeup and he was good friends with many of the prominent white eugenicists of the day such as Margaret Sanger who in case you already don't know.....Sanger had deep ties with the KKK and started Planned Parenthood as a means of extermination of the black race. As a person who earned my degree in Sociology back in 2000, I was taught in my sociology courses that W.E.B Dubois was a champion of the black people and a great thinker, sociologist, an innovator, and someone to be highly admired. I was never taught that he was a communist and a eugenicist.Also the history of the NAACP is combed through in great detail in this book and that was eye opening as well. The NAACP was started by white people and had all white men and women in their highest positions and on their board of directors for the first few decades of their existence. The NAACP is not nor ever has been the civil rights organization we are told that it is. The history of the ACLU is also discussed.A riveting and important read for everyone no matter where you are on the political spectrum.

This book might have been a Pulitzer contender if only the author (Mr. Owens) had been provided access to a good editor (such as the editor used by Jason Riley – see, for example, “False Black Power?”, 2017). I will first comment on the editorial lapses since (at least for me) they obscured the legitimate points of the author, and almost made the book unreadable. Once that is out of the way, I will comment on the good content.Editorial lapses: (i) very repetitive (could have probably been easily condensed from 350 pages to 200); (ii) an obvious lack of any true editing – e.g., sloppy use of quotation marks, missing words, instances of immediate repetition of text, etc., etc.; and (iii) the author never really builds a case, point-by-point (using a “chapter-by-chapter” approach), but rather seems to skip around from topic to topic (even within a chapter), thus leaving the reader with the job of distilling the text in order to derive any revelations. Had the author been provided with a decent editor, I believe that the following “good content” would really shine, and potentially to the level of being a Pulitzer-Prize-winning book.Good content (and not in any order of relevance): (i) “self-help” (vs. “government help”) is the better way for American Blacks to advance economically (and thus, as being contributing members to the overall American society); (ii) “White Liberals” are in fact the true racists (as compared to White Conservatives); (iii) Booker T. Washington had it right (i.e., teach skills and knowledge to the lowly masses, and they will rise to their deserved positions in society as equals (or betters) than their “intellectual” counterparts); (iv) W.E.B. DuBois had it wrong (i.e., it’s not about raising up an upper-class, as DuBois advocated, but rather about raising up the lower class, as per B. T. Washington); and (v) the history of the NAACP is not one of Blacks championing Black achievement, but rather a group of White Socialists ostensibly acting to re-enslave Blacks in the early 20th century.This book is perhaps equal parts history and argument, but without actually achieving any specific objective to either end. At most it is a history of how one Black American (i.e., the author) came to the following realizations: (i) that the “White Liberal Racists”, and their willing “Royalty Black Class” associates (both terms derived by the author), have acted in-concert over the last 100 years for their own betterment, and not to any real advancement of Black Americans at large; and (ii) that the best hope for American Blacks to get ahead is to take matters in their own hands and learn how to work, and then work – and not as a “community organizer” or a social worker, but as a real worker – i.e., a welder, a surgeon, or anything else.I commend Mr. Owens for not making this a book about his own personal experiences – he only uses his own experiences anecdotally in order to advance his arguments.As a final comment, the author expounds to some degree on the obligations of men to “man-up” in defense of women, and further expounds on the virtues of faith in God (and in particular, a Christian faith) in order to advance all persons (regardless of race). To be frank, I’m not sure that either argument is sufficiently well developed by the author in order to win-the-day in light of current populist feminist and religious positions. Mr. Owens might be best advised to prepare and simultaneously release two subsequent books (both properly edited) along the following lines: (i) a first book addressing the “self-help” issue and other historical matters raised in “Liberalism …”, and; (ii) a second book addressing the moral issues of Christianity and the man-woman relationship. I think that each book could stand alone as justification for a way-forward to advance the position of Black Americans within America. Both positions are legitimate positions, but I think that presenting both positions together is problematic. If presented separately, the author can isolate opposition and win the day in both camps.I invite the author to respond to any of my above observations by way of providing a "comment" to this review. And to the author I only add this following remark: I am on your side, and I only wish to assist you in presenting your case in the best possible manner (hence, my recommendations for two follow-up books, as described above).

Great book