What's Left?: How Liberals Lost Their Way (Paperback)

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Review
'A roaring polemic of outrage against the moral and political crisis of the liberal tradition. It is already one of the most discussed current affairs books of the new year!At the very least it forces anyone on the left to think carefully about where their movement has ended up in the modern world.' The Guardian '!exceptional and necessary!Do not feel you have to be a leftist or liberal to read it, because it engages with an argument that it crucial for all of us, and for our time.' Christopher Hitchens, Sunday Times '(He writes with) a genuine passion and human sympathy about people who have experienced appalling suffering.' Michael Burleigh, The Evening Standard 'Undoubtedly controversial and provocative "What's Left?" is, as its title suggests, a bleakly witty but perhaps dimly hopeful examination of what it means to be liberal in an age where the lines that have been drawn in the sand are in danger of being washed away.' Waterstones Books Quarterly 'One of the most powerful denunciations of the manner in which the Left has lost its way!Cohen's is a brave voice.' Michael Gove, The Spectator 'Nick Cohen explains how contemporary liberals have lost their way with his usual polemical brio.' The Observer 'An essay of wide reference and great brilliance.' John Lloyd, Financial Times 'Cohen skilfully shows how the left perversely set its moral compass by the United States!Cohen is at his best as a painstakingly forensic officer and he marshals his evidence with flair and rigour!He is at his very best when he exposes the dishonesty of the liberal press!Cohen's book has made me look with greater respect at the motives behind those who led the journey to war in Iraq in 2003, and view many of the anti-war campaigners with a new scepticism!This book is much more than a mere denunciation of old left-wing friends and colleagues. It is also a moving account of a long personal journey carried off with wit, verve, considerable literary skill and compassion.' The Observer 'It is an essay of wide reference and great brilliance, which flays every kind of foot-shuffling excuse for not facing up to the nature of the regime which that evil (and now, mercifully dead) tyrant, Saddam Hussein, inflicted on his country and planned for his region. Cohen surveys a gamut of liberal-left Western opinion that, in part under the pressure of the Iraqi war, has forgotten its best tradition and instead lapsed into its worst, that regards nothing as more important than the failures of its own societies, and that lacks the imagination or the will to comprehend the agonies of those living under tyranny.' Financial Times 'Nick Cohen smells out the cesspits of corruption and injustice with the keenest of noses. He tells it as it is, without fear or favour. He's one of the few independent voices left in an increasingly closed society.' Harold Pinter

Financial Times
'An essay of wide reference and great brilliance.'


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32 Reviews 5 star:  (19) 4 star:  (3) 3 star:  (6) 2 star:  (1) 1 star:  (3)           Average Customer Review 4.1 out of 5 stars (32 customer reviews)		Share your thoughts with other customers: Create your own review
Most Helpful Customer Reviews   64 of 75 people found the following review helpful: 3.0 out of 5 stars I'm Left wondering, 31 Jan 2007 By  tomsk77 "tomsk77" (Brixton) - See all my reviews I suspect how people react to this book will depend quite a bit on where they stand politically. I have noticed on blogs and messageboards that it has enraged the Trots and Trot-lite fellow travellers in the anti-war movement. It's also had enthusisatic approval from those you might expect it from - Christoper Hitchens, John Lloyd etc. Whereas I imagine some on the Right will (wilfuly?) misread the book as "all Lefties are soft on terrorists". (Although having said that Peter Oborne wrote a very fair-minded review) Speaking personally as a fairly moderate but anti-war Labour supporter I found myself nodding in agreement with much of his analysis of elements of the Left but a bit annoyed by some of the extrapolations he makes. It is definitely true that much of the Left these days seems to watch what America does and then look for the reason why US policy is wrong. The same could be said about their view of Blair. It is also true that there is often an undue focus on the "causes" of terrorism, rather than simply facing up to the fact that this is an extremist movement that has no problem with killing opponents. (No-one on the Left was bothered about the "causes" of the far-Right bomber who set off bombds in Brick Lane, Soho etc). It is also true that the tendency to side with the underdog leads many lefties to turn a blind eye to some rabid anti-semitism on the part of those they support. And the treatment of some Iraqi trade unionists who opposed pulling the US & UK troops out of their country by members of the anti-war movement is simply shameful. However these are often failings of subgroups within the Left (often those trying to fit the current maelstrom in Iraq into a crude imperialist/anti-imperialist framework) rather than the Left as a whole. And the book seems to veer between awareness of these subdivisions and lumping everyone in together. In addition he does often read like a recent convert to his position, advocating it without nuance, and failing to spot the nuances in others' arguments. A good example of this is where he misreads (in my view) a quote from Amnesty's secretary general (p324-325). I think the context to this quote is Amnesty's interest in economic human rights, and as such I don't think it means what Nick Cohen thinks its means (that human rights don't matter to poor people). Overall I think it is worth anyone on the Left reading this book with an open mind. It is well-written, even if it does feel a bit like a pamphlet that's been strung out for a couple of hundred pages. And it should at least make those who can be a bit objective question some of their on views and ways of thinking (so that probably leaves out the membership of Respect, SWP etc). He's no George Orwell though! Comment Comment | Permalink | Was this review helpful to you? Yes No (Report this)   14 of 16 people found the following review helpful: 5.0 out of 5 stars High Time, 2 May 2008 By  Jonathan Posner (LONDON, England United Kingdom) - See all my reviews This review is from: What's Left?: How Liberals Lost Their Way (Paperback) At last, a writer who isn't afraid to challenge the posturing of a now ridiculous 'liberal left', a loose political grouping who really should have the collective intelligence to know better. Until recently I've counted myself as one of them but now I just feel ashamed. This fine writer will tell you why. But one of his chapter titles, 'Kill us, we deserve it', pretty well sums it all up. Cohen's analysis is as sober as it is disturbing and I read this book well into the night, as gripped as by any thriller. He also writes lucidly, an especial advantage and in direct contrast to the disappointing traditions of inpenetrable prose by many leftist thinkers. Nick Cohen, given his fine liberal background, is a brave man to have written this book. He has had the courage to stand up and be counted and should be applauded for it. Comment Comment | Permalink | Was this review helpful to you? Yes No (Report this)   51 of 61 people found the following review helpful: 5.0 out of 5 stars A brave examination at what has gone wrong with the left, 24 Feb 2007 By  Mike J. Wheeler (Kingswinford, England) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)    Before I start, let's make it clear where I stand. I consider myself reasonably left-wing, I am and always will be a republican (small "r"!), I consider myself a socialist and always will be, but I also consider myself a democrat (small "d"!). It has irked me over the last few years to find myself reading comment from leftist writers whom I used to respect and finding myself vehemently disagreeing with what they say. Perhaps, I thought, like the old adage goes - "I'm just getting more right wing with age". Here, in this excellent book lies the explanation and my own salvation. The fault isn't mine or that of other decent socialists who seem to be increasingly alienated by voices from the left, its the left itself that seems to have changed. Nowhere has this divergence of my own opinions and the liberal left seem to have grown than on the challenges facing the post 9-11 world. I just cannot understand how people who supposedly believe in the rights of man and enlightenment and reason can be supportive of movements that are completely fascistic. That's what we are fighting here, whether in its form of Baathist fascism or Islamofascism. I see little to choose between them. To all the commentators in the press and amongst the chattering classes who daily slag off Tony Blair and others with the guts to stand up to fascism this should be an essential read and if they are at all self-reflective maybe it might change their outlook, though I doubt it. The book itself is a very well written critique of the drift of the left for whom the disappointment of the lack of a proletarian revolution has made them look elsewhere for succour and support. That they have chosen to align themselves with anti-Americanism in whatever form it comes is proof of their political idiocy. Cohen writes well on the parallels between the appeasers of the 30's and the modern day appeasers of Saddam and Bin Laden. The lessons are clear, appeasement failed in the 30s and it will fail again now. The enemy have parallels as well, in the 30s it was a Germany led by an obsessive anti-semitic death cult, today it is a terrorist organisation/idea that inspires madmen. Islamofascism is as patently anti-modern, misogynistic (whatever they say), homophobic and racist as the Nazis ever were. That those on the left who apologise for them cannot see this is to all of our detriment. This is a brave book. Cohen will undoubtedly lost friends of long-standing in publishing this. Like David Aaronovitch he will no doubt be vilified in the liberal parts of the press. However, this is a necessary book and I thank Nick Cohen for writing it, at least i know I'm not alone! Comment Comment | Permalink | Was this review helpful to you? Yes No (Report this) Share your thoughts with other customers: Create your own review › See all 32 customer reviews...		Ad feedback   Most Recent Customer Reviews 5.0 out of 5 stars Very relevant and timely This is a polemical work and as such, the tone is a little shrill in places. Its central argument however is very sound and well made. Read more Published 2 months ago by John Hopper 5.0 out of 5 stars Between Iraq and a hard place It could fairly be argued that what has always united the myriad groups, factions and parties comprised under the term "left-wing" is not so much their ideology as their... Read more Published 2 months ago by HuddsOn 5.0 out of 5 stars A witty and personal polemic Many reviewers of this book - whether writing in newspapers or here on Amazon - seem to distort its arguments. Read more Published 6 months ago by Dr. Sarah A. Brown 1.0 out of 5 stars What's Left? Not Nick Cohen I can't help but get annoyed at nearly every book, article or other piece of work this man does. What person to the left spends more time criticising the left than the right? Read more Published 6 months ago by Mr. B. Singleton 3.0 out of 5 stars Serious political writing An uncompromising take on the state of the left wing today. Cohen does not shirk from calling the left wing lily livered where he feels appropriate. Read more Published 7 months ago by G. L. Haggett 4.0 out of 5 stars Late You Come But Still You Come Like many who start out on the left, Nick Cohen was an idealist. He'd like to have stayed that way; it's just that that pesky old human nature, and the immutable laws of... Read more Published 9 months ago by Dalrymplist 2.0 out of 5 stars I was a bit disappointed by the writing, not the politics I found this book a little disappointing, given the positive reviews and significant publicity it had. Perhaps that says more about me than the book; I don't know. Read more Published 18 months ago by U Budgerigar 1.0 out of 5 stars An apology for mediocrity... Nick Cohen's book reads like a sad apologia for his own sorry political mediocrity. You only have to hear the man speak on Question time to realise he is a populist toady,... Read more Published 19 months ago by G. Henry-Stogdon 5.0 out of 5 stars What's left indeed! Stuart Reader (previous reviewer) have you actually read the book? I don't recall "What's left" praising George Bush at all. Read more Published 20 months ago by M. Aston 1.0 out of 5 stars Worse than reading a Richard Littlejohn article This book is absolute rubbish. It is written By Nick Cohen who tells us he is on the left but who I've only ever seen attacking the left and praising George Bush. Read more Published 21 months ago by Stuart Search Customer Reviews Only search this product's reviews › See all 32 customer reviews...

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