A Reader's Guide to the Best Conservative Books

Human Events, May 17, 2004 by Rubin, Jeff

Conservative Book Club Editor Previews New Conservative Books for Human Events Readers

Wondering what to read this summer? Perhaps I, as editor of Conservative Book Club, may be of service. The following list of books-most recently published, some about to be-are organized according to a few rough categories. Each book is available at attractive discounts from the Club, and also from the HUMAN EVENTS Book Service (www.HEBookService.com).

Foreign Policy

Democrats believe that America's national security and foreign policy should be made subservient to the United Nations and Old Europe. That means that if John Kerry and Hillary Clinton have their way, Kofi Annan and Jacques Chirac will gain veto power over American foreign policy. But in Inside the Asylum: Why the UN and Old Europe are Worse Than You Think, Jed Babbin reminds us that we've been down this road before, during the presidency of Bill Clinton - and it leads to failure. In this book, he shows why.

Babbin takes you deep inside the UN, showing you the inner workings of this out-of-control organization that richly deserves the nickname "the Asylum." He details how the UN has eagerly adopted the role of handmaiden to international terrorism, and explores the outrageous oil-for-food program that shows that it is the UN, not the U.S., that has sold its soul for oil. And that's just the beginning. The UN, Babbin explains, is riddled with mismanagement and incompetence: His tour of the UN bureaucracy is positively hair-raising. Babbin also takes Kofi Annan to the woodshed in a richly documented exploration of how the universally lionized UN secretary general is in reality just a symptom of the UN's disease: a perversely anti-American moral relativist who misses no opportunity to arrogate power to the UN.

"America has never been an empire," declares President George W. Bush. "We may be the only great power in history that had the chance, and refused-preferring greatness to power, and justice to glory." Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld echoes this view: "We don't seek empires. . . . We're not imperialistic."

Nonsense, says Niall Ferguson. In Colossus: The Price of America's Empire he argues that in both military and economic terms America is nothing less than the most powerful empire the world has ever seen. But unlike others who have remarked on this, Ferguson believes it is, on balance, a good thing-that many parts of the world would benefit from a period of American rule. The question is: are we up to the task?

Possibly not. Ours, Ferguson explains, is an empire with an attention deficit disorder, imposing ever more unrealistic timescales on its overseas interventions. Worse, it's an "empire in denial"-a hyperpower that simply refuses to admit the scale of its global responsibilities. Ferguson shows how, on the rare occasions when American occupations have been sustained-as in Germany and Japan after World War II-the results have been spectacular. But more often America meddles in haste, on the cheap, and through proxies. And the negative consequences will be felt at home as well as abroad.

"Part of my intention," writes Ferguson, "is simply to interpret American history as in many ways unexceptional-as the history of just another empire, rather than (as many Americans still like to regard it) as something quite unique. However, I also want to delineate the peculiarities of American imperialism: both its awesome strengths and its debilitating weaknesses. The book sets recent events-in particular, the terrorist attacks of September 11 and the invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq-in their long-run historical context, suggesting that they represent less of a break with the past than is commonly believed."

Presidents, Good and Bad

The Left is convinced that President Bush is an idiot-yet again and again, he has come out on top when they took him on. Now Bill Sammon in Misunderestimated: How Bush is Beating Terrorism, Democrats, and the Press reveals why Democrats never can seem to get the better of this man for whom they have so little respect.

Sammon, the senior White House correspondent for the Beltway's plucky conservative daily newspaper, the Washington Times, has had numerous opportunities to witness the President's considerable political skills up close. He proves here that, just as with Ronald Reagan, the liberals have misjudged their foe-and that the George W. Bush who liberated Afghanistan and Iraq and resuscitated the American economy is far more intelligent and focused than his detractors will admit, even to themselves.

The author of two other bestsellers about Bush and his presidency, At Any Cost and Fighting Back, Sammon in Misunderestimated gives you a gripping insider's view of the second 18 months of the President's term, as the Bush Administration turned its attention from Afghanistan to Iraq and began preparing for the 2004 election. He recounts in thrilling detail the whole story of the astonishing 2002 congressional elections, when the GOP confounded both the pundits and precedent to register historic gains.