Anti -Totalitarianism: The Left-wing Case for a Neoconservative Foreign Policy [Hardcover]

Kamm guides the reader swiftly through the principled opposition of the Left to the Third Reich and the initial post WWII opposition to Communism in favour of more liberal and democratic government. As the decades passed, Kamm argues, the alertness of the mainstream Left to totalitarianism gave way "to a reflexive anti-Americanism" culminating in a morally indefensible and spectacularly unsucessful period for the Labour Party under Michael Foot.

While Labour struggled to form a coherent and worthwhile foreign policy until Tony Blair, the Conservative goverment under John Major shrugged its shoulders as Serbian aggression threatened Bosnia. It is such "practical", disintested foreign policy that Kamm believes was largely ended by New Labour and Blair.

This leads to the role played by Tony Blair in the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq and how the philosophy for his actions is both vital for global anti-totalitarianism and perfectly consistent with the best of the history of the Left. In fighting against theocratic totalitarianism (the Taleban) and Arab totalitarianism (the Baath Party of Saddam Hussein) Blair (and Bush and the rest of the coalition) is ultimately refusing to compromise on fundamental values that other leftists (specifically Respect/SWP) have abandoned as they have formed close and natural ties with Muslim and non-Muslim fascists alike.

The analysis of the modern struggle against totalitarianism represents the finest part of this well-argued book and on substance I would have given this book 5/5. But on style ....

Perhaps because he is so familiar with his material, when writing about less recent events, particularly in Europe, Kamm has a small tendency to assume too much of his readership. (For example, I have never heard about "the Swedish Social Democrats transition from Erlander to Palme" and don't really know how that specifically fits into the Labour Party contortions of the 1980s.) I accept that this may simply be my own failing or perhaps Kamm had in mind a different target audience for his book who would automatically know what happened but I would have preferred him taking a moment to explain. Simply put, perhaps this book would be better if it were longer; it just feels like there is too much information for 120-odd pages.

Also, on two occasions Kamm closes chapters with "To sum up..." as if he isn't sure he has made himself clear to the reader even though he has.

Still, these are minor quibbles and while this book does not match the fluency and passion of Paul Berman's outstanding Terror and Liberalism it is still a decent companion piece to it.

As a leftist, I applaud Kamm’s desire to rescue the left from laziness and ignorance. Without a doubt, he accomplishes much in this direction and, together with others such as Geras, Cohen and Hitchens, provides the anti-totalitarian left with a rich intellectual foundation in order to move forward and create a left that does not embarrass itself by it’s alliances.

The book itself stands apart from the desires imputed by me above and distinguishes itself as a clear, thoughful and unique contribution to the literature of the left and to politics as a discipline. So much of the intellectual debate over the moral and political case for going to war in Iraq has taken place in the necessarily ephemeral space of the blog, that it is to be applauded that the real heart of the debate has been so lucidly summarised here where it can serve as one of the founding documents of any “new left” that will have to arise from the ashes of the current situation.

I cannot say that I agreed with everything that the book said, but I am glad that the author is there to issue such tomes, and I know that the left as a progressive movement for change will be indebted to Mr Kamm and his like for generations to come.