[29.8.05][Andrew Stevens] 1968 ON TRIAL Richard Nash writes to tell me about Soft Skull's hottest release this autumn/fall. Paul Berman's Power and the Idealists takes on much of the conventional wisdom that abounds on the liberal left concerning the use of power and applies the experience of 1968 radicals to explain the complex circumstances of the post-9/11 world. He argues that liberals willing to use power to protect human rights are the true heirs of the radical direct action principles of the 1968 generation and that the that the Islamic totalitarian impulse he identified in his Terror and Liberalism must be opposed with vigour. Dismissed by some as a liberal hawk in the mould of Christopher Hitchens and Michael Ignatieff, Berman's analysis is both prescient and persuasive. [permalink]
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