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What's Left?: How the Left Lost its Way Paperback – 1 Oct. 2007

by Nick Cohen (Author)

4.5 398 ratings

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From the much-loved, witty and excoriating voice of journalist Nick Cohen, a powerful and irreverent dissection of the agonies, idiocies and compromises of mainstream liberal thought.

Nick Cohen comes from the Left. While growing up, his mother would search the supermarket shelves for politically reputable citrus fruit and despair. When, at the age of 13, he found out that his kind and thoughtful English teacher voted Conservative, he nearly fell off his chair: 'To be good, you had to be on the Left.'

Today he's no less confused. When he looks around him, in the aftermath of the invasion of Iraq, he sees a community of Left-leaning liberals standing on their heads. Why is it that apologies for a militant Islam that stands for everything the liberal-Left is against come from a section of the Left? After the American and British wars in Bosnia and Kosovo against Slobodan Milosevic's ethnic cleansers, why were men and women of the Left denying the existence of Serb concentration camps? Why is Palestine a cause for the liberal-Left, but not, for instance, China, the Sudan, Zimbabwe or North Korea? Why can't those who say they support the Palestinian cause tell you what type of Palestine they would like to see? After the 9/11 attacks on New York and Washington why were you as likely to read that a sinister conspiracy of Jews controlled American or British foreign policy in a liberal literary journal as in a neo-Nazi rag? It's easy to know what the Left is fighting against the evils of Bush and corporations but what and, more to the point, who are they fighting for?

As he tours the follies of the Left, Nick Cohen asks us to reconsider what it means to be liberal in this confused and topsy-turvy time. With the angry satire of Swift, he reclaims the values of democracy and solidarity that united the movement against fascism, and asks: What's Left?

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Print length

434 pages
Language

English
Publisher

Harper Perennial
Publication date

1 Oct. 2007
Dimensions

12.9 x 2.8 x 19.8 cm
ISBN-10

9780007229703
ISBN-13

978-0007229703
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'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

The book is a superbly sustained polemic.' Sunday Times

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

This is a brave, honest and brilliant book. Every page has a provocative insight that makes you want to shake the author's hand or collar him for an argument. Who could ask for more? The Observer

'(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

--Financial Times

About the Author

Nick Cohen is a columnist for the Observer, The New Statesman and The Evening Standard. In his Channel Four documentaries and general media appearances, he has proved himself to be the witty and excoriating voice of the left. He commands a loyal readership, as his groaning weekly postbag attests. He is the author of two books. Cruel Britannia: Reports on the Sinister and the Preposterous , a collection of his journalism, was published by Verso in 1999 and Pretty Straight Guys , a dissection of the Blair leadership.

Product details

ASIN ‏ : ‎ 0007229704
Publisher ‏ : ‎ Harper Perennial; Updated ed. edition (1 Oct. 2007)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Paperback ‏ : ‎ 434 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 9780007229703
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0007229703
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 12.9 x 2.8 x 19.8 cm

Best Sellers Rank: 148,955 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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4.5 398 ratings

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Customers say

Customers find the book engaging and thought-provoking, with an eloquent writing style. They describe it as a good read for both left- and right-wingers, providing a great insight into public politics. Readers praise the writing style as witty, engaging, and polemical. The pacing is described as engaging, fun, and brave. Overall, customers consider the book to be timely and prescient.

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Readability Thought provoking Writing style Pacing Prescient

24 customers mention ‘Readability’24 positive0 negative

Customers find the book readable and important for left-wingers. They say it's a good read for both left- and right-wingers, highlighting the inadequacies of the left's response to events of its time.

"...A valuable document, too, because Cohen still has left-wing credibility (but for how much longer, it remains to be seen) and so is sparking much..." Read more

"...swine, and I think Nick Cohen puts this across very well in his excellent book." Read more

"...writes regularly for the Guardian and the Spectator and is always worth reading...." Read more

"...If you've also found this puzzling, at least this remarkable book gives you the background and political analysis with which to understand it...." Read more

21 customers mention ‘Thought provoking’21 positive0 negative

Customers find the book insightful and relevant. They describe it as a compelling account of modern politics, with excellent analysis and a holistic view of political affairs.

"Nick Cohen presents a cogent and incisive commentary on how at critical times in recent history many on the left and particularly what he terms the..." Read more

"...that I really enjoyed this book, and found it challenging and thought provoking...." Read more

"...His strength lies in more holistic view of political affairs and will give credit or critique wherever he feels it is deserved rather than tailoring..." Read more

"This book is an angry polemic, an attack on the left from the left. Nick Cohen eviscerates those leftists of whom he disapproves: •..." Read more

9 customers mention ‘Writing style’9 positive0 negative

Customers find the writing style engaging and readable. They say it's witty, eloquent, and addictive. The book expresses fundamental truths in a polemical style.

"...Nick Cohen writes well - brutally - but fairly: he is still prepared, as he goes, to confront and acknowledge potential criticisms of his argument,..." Read more

"...The writing is witty, engaged and engaging and at times, genuinely angry...." Read more

"...He also writes lucidly, an especial advantage and in direct contrast to the disappointing traditions of inpenetrable prose by many leftist..." Read more

"...This is well written and entertaining and he only makes a couple of mistakes in his various attacks on the labyrinth of organisations that is the..." Read more

6 customers mention ‘Pacing’6 positive0 negative

Customers enjoy the book's pacing. They find it engaging, thought-provoking, and fun. The story is described as balanced and brave.

"...The writing is witty, engaged and engaging and at times, genuinely angry...." Read more

"...This is well written and entertaining and he only makes a couple of mistakes in his various attacks on the labyrinth of organisations that is the..." Read more

"This is a brilliant, brave, angry and depressing book on the moral vacuity of the modern left wing...." Read more

"...Great fun." Read more

6 customers mention ‘Prescient’6 positive0 negative

Customers find the book timely and relevant. They say it's more important than ever.

"...leader, theirs book - originally published in 2007 - is alarmingly prescient...." Read more

"...Reading it today it comes off as very prescient given that it was written in 2007!..." Read more

"Essential reading, and more relevant and urgent than ever. I always enjoyed reading Nick Cohen's column in The Observer...." Read more

"...Incredibly prescient given where UK politics has ended up." Read more

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GeeJayBee

Every Leftist should read this book

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 6 April 2007

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Nick Cohen presents a cogent and incisive commentary on how at critical times in recent history many on the left and particularly what he terms the totalitarian left have changed clothes with those on the totalitarian right. He documents a history of perverse non-opposition to fascism by many leftists since the end of the first world war to the present day and I'm sure that many will be astonished at much of the historical detail in this respect.

The author addresses what for many of us has been the perplexing question of how the "intellectual" likes of Chomsky, Pilger, Tariq Ali et al and even and the plebian bombasts and political opportunists like Galloway and Michael Moore have positioned themselves as apologists for theocratic fascist murderers like the Taliban and other Islamofascists who preach and practice wholesale slaughter, the subjugation of women and the execution of homosexuals. The answer is partly that it is really what that faction of the left has always done and is entirely in character.

The rest is that the intellectual left have abandoned the poor working classes in Europe as undeserving after failing to prevent the victory and ascendency of liberal democracy over communism. This has left these neo-leftists more embittered and hositile to their own societies and found them fostering and adopting new oppressed masses mostly in Islamic societies where everything that they have trumpeted for the last 50 years is held in contempt, especially the attitudes towards women and gays

However the betrayal is there from the very start. It is not the theocrats, the Mullahs and dictators perpetrating the horrors that fire the passions of these guardians of righteousness, but those in the West who would see them freed of those tyrannies.

32 people found this helpful

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Olly Buxton

Passionate and thought-provoking, but not entirely persuasive

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 24 April 2007

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"What's Left" is a crie de coeur from a man of the left who has come to believe that the principles have abandoned his position, and from that perspective it positively zings. Nick Cohen writes well - brutally - but fairly: he is still prepared, as he goes, to confront and acknowledge potential criticisms of his argument, valid alternative perspectives, and I think he realises that with this work he may have cooked his goose with a number of hitherto supportive readers. A valuable document, too, because Cohen still has left-wing credibility (but for how much longer, it remains to be seen) and so is sparking much needed debate in a way that a neo-con screed might not if it came from the pen of a traditional supporter of the moral right (pun intended).

That said, I think "What's Left" will find support in all the places, and with all the people, Nick Cohen would least like it to: for the most part, they won't be on the political left. Though he doesn't say it explicitly, this does represent something of a conversion on the road to Damascus: I think after this work Cohen will be generally considered a neo-conservative: he expresses unqualified support for Paul Wolfowitz and is far less distressed by Margaret Thatcher, Tony Blair or George Bush than one would expect from a child of the far left.

What I think it boils down to is the subjectivism/objectivism debate. Cohen is an objectivist: he is prepared to say what he thinks is morally unacceptable, and is prepared to advocate whatever action or force is required to defeat the morally unacceptable.

By contrast, many on the left are "under the evil spell" (as Cohen sees it) of cultural relativism and are not prepared to make that judgment about the regime in Iraq, but are perfectly prepared to make it about the political elite in Britain and the United States. Cohen cites Ian McEwen's recent novel, Saturday, which remarks about anti-war protesters:

"... people are hugging themselves, it seems, as well as each other. If they think - and they could be right - that continued torture and summary executions, ethnic cleansing and occasional genocide are preferable to an invasion, they should be sombre in their view." (p. 69)

While I have a great deal of respect for his book and the passion with which he argues his case, I'm (unusually for me) with the lefties on this one.

For a start I don't feel qualified, either in terms of facts at my disposal nor the necessary cultural, social or political understanding, and nor do I consider it my business, to judge the situation in Iraq. On the other hand I *do* feel qualified, as a participant in the political process, to express a view about my own government. Furthermore, the resources of my government, contributed by people like me through taxation, are limited, and I can see more productive uses to which they could be put: before we sort out Iraq's mess, there is plenty of our own we could be fixing. But more to the point - and this is a point that Cohen glosses over entirely - the government's case for war had nothing whatsoever to do with alleviating the Iraqi people from torture or summary execution: this was not a humanitarian intervention at all. It couldn't be - since to take on Iraq would provoke obvious follow on questions: if Saddam, why not Mugabe? How about Kim Jong Il? The war was sold to the electorate as a pre-emptive measure against a credible military threat to the west (either directly or through the encouragement and cultivation of terrorists). That case was not properly made at the time (hence, in large part, the anti-war demonstrations), and has transpired to have been erroneous.

Nor has the war, which was prosecuted in spite of clear opposition in the electorate, been much of a success. Again, Cohen glosses over prescient warnings issued at the time that Iraq risked becoming another Vietnam, bogging the US army down in a close-quartered conflict with no obvious means of resolution. This, it seems to me, is exactly what happened, and the threat of terrorism and level of "Muslim angst" in western communities - which is surely fertile ground for new terrorists - is no lower than it has been since 9/11.

For all that I really enjoyed this book, and found it challenging and thought provoking.

John Mueller's Overblown: How Politicians and the Terrorism Industry Inflate National Security Threats, and Why We Believe Them is an interesting counterpoint to "What's Left" - the two do not intersect on subject matter (Mueller restricts himself to terrorist threat; Cohen to the brutal governmental regime, and arguably the two are unrelated), but Mueller's skeptical view presents an interesting prism through which to consider Cohen's arguments.

Olly Buxton

13 people found this helpful

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Top reviews from other countries

Lessfatman

I should have read this ten years ago!

Reviewed in the United States on 15 January 2017

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Having read Nick Cohen's matter-of-fact and well researched columns on The Guardian, I got this book to find an answer to the question that has been bothering me for quite a while: Why does the so-called "Liberal Left" protect and promote radical Islam. Of all the religions and political systems of today, it is hard to find anything that would be further from the secular humanist credo of liberty, freedom of expression, democracy and equality of sexes and races as the political Islam of today's remote controlled islamic scholars is.

Nick Cohen takes us back to history, the times of Czars when the secret police wrote the Protocols of the Elders of Zion. He makes the point that this book, a collection of exorbitant lies is read in schools an a genuine document in Egypt, Iran and Saudi Arabia. He also makes a point that the founder of the Islamic Brotherhood, Sayyid Qutb, was an eager fan of Adolf Hitler to the point that he had Mein Kampf translated to Arabic. After decades, it still is a best seller in Arabic countries. The Baathists of Saddam's Iraq used it as their roadmap. Blackmail, torture, killings in industrial scale were everyday occurrences in Iraq. How much did we hear about it? Where were the solidarity movements, where was the support to those who wanted to get rid of Saddam? A good question.

Nick Cohen reminds us how the European Communists sided with Hitler after the Stalin-Ribbentrop pact.
After this notion, it is not a surprise that after the Coalition attacked Iraq to get rid of the dictator, all of a sudden Saddam's regime got the sympathy of the Western media and public. How could people know about the the old Baathists joining the battle hardened religious extremists pouring in from Pakistan, Afghanistan and Chechnya as the media told nothing about it. Their story was that ALL the Iraqis were upset with the occupying powers.
So the Liberal media managed to channel the disgust people had agains George Bush into support of the darkest political forces at large. Their goal was to incite sectarian war between the Sunnis and the Shiites and bring down all efforts to create a stable Chechnya and a functional infrastructure in the country.

Now, if I understood this book correctly, Nick Cohen's hypothesis is that after the fall of the Soviet block and the defeat of socialism as an economic system, the Left had nothing constructive to propose in today's politics. What was left for them was to cause as much harm as possible to the 'establishment' by joining it adversaries.

Who are the most vocal group stating their opposition to democracy today? From one side we can hear that our democracy is just a hoax as all the big decisions are made behind curtains where we cannot see. From another side we hear that democracy is against the will of Allah. The feminists are screaming about the wrongs they are suffering from the 'paternalism'. Child marriages, honor killings, genital mutilation or sex slavery get no attention because...yes...because we do not have the moral high ground to judge the 'cultural practices' of other ethnicities. The Islamists tell us that Mohammed with his 15 wives on and off was in fact a feminist. Useful idiot repeat their words in the media and call their critics 'government' and racists.
Anybody who can read can easily find out that all the countries with Muslim majority have their constitutions based on Shariah. All these countries have it written down that Chechnya has to be destroyed. Still, our 'intelligentsia' holds that the Israel 'settlements' are the root cause of the Israel-Israel conflict... Palestine again supposedly is the reason why all of the which is taking up arms to destroy the Western civilization.

Nick Cohen makes his point carefully presenting his data, showing the asininity of intelligent people playing the publicity with very little knowledge of actual facts, the way news are worth presenting or not and how self-censorship works when you find out things that you should not have. The working class let the Left down. They did not answer the calls to Revolution. Now, instead of joining the anti-Western and anti-American movement, they are getting upset about how the liberal values they fought for for a century are now sacrificed in the name of 'multiculturalism'.
Working class is looking for leadership elsewhere now, Left has lost its credibility.

I got a good part of my question answered.

Amazon Customer

What's Left should be on every Poli Sci curriculum reading list

Reviewed in Canada on 7 November 2016

Verified Purchase

This book is several years old but is enjoying some resurgence as the UK strives to understand Jeremy Corbyn and the unravelling of Britain's Labour Party. Cohen's bona fides as a socialist who woke up and deep knowledge of Britsh political history make this book the authoratative text on how the British left lost its way and ended up in bed with anti-semites and other forces that do not share the traditional values of the left.

RushFanForLife

Some caveats

Reviewed in Canada on 16 July 2009

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Well written and entertaining as hell, but as with most books it's best if you already have some knowledge on the subject matter. He covers a lot of ground and has quite a lot to say (much of it non-flattering) about many of the most notorious leftards of the day, as well as skewering quite a number of folks on the right in the process. That's fair. If you don't already know what despicable little trolls the likes of George Galloway and Noam Chomksy are, then this book is definitely worth a read. As for myself, there was not much in here that I didn't already know, but I enjoyed the way he put it. For the most part............

I suppose the fact that this book is written by an avowed lefty tells me that he is at least trying very much to be honest to the best of his ability, and that is a plus. Honesty does not necessitate knowing fully what one is talking about. He breezily alludes to a number of historical and economic 'facts' which I know quite matter-of-factly to be rubbish. Widely accepted by the left of course, but rubbish nonetheless. For all his talk of fairness and honesty, when the topic vears to Israel he reflexively alludes to the same garbage that Islamists and anti-Semites have been spouting for decades. I suppose for a lefty, it's almost a Pavlovian response, such as spitting whenever the name Bush is mentioned or swooning over Obama's glistening torso.

Cole

Great Book

Reviewed in Canada on 25 January 2018

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This is a very interesting read. It will help the reader understand what has gone wrong with the left today and the parallels this path has in history.

Pommylee

With the election of Corbyn, this book is more vital now than it was when it was written, BUY THIS BOOK!!!

Reviewed in the United States on 8 April 2017

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If like me you consider yourself Left Wing then it is vital that you read this book. In the age of Social Media where we spend so much time having our views confirmed and then slowly made more extreme by only following people who agree with us ideologically, to the point where we become somewhat radicalised this book sits as a necessary corrective.

Unlike Nick I opposed the Iraq War from the start, but as much as this book (despite the efforts of some really disingenuous reviewers to make it appear so) is anything but a pro-war book, it does help me actually, for the first time, understand how a fellow Liberal could have bought himself to support the war, but again that is not the main thrust of the book, the main argument or topic of the book is the intellectual rot at the heart of the left, especially the extreme left, since the fall of the wall.

Nick takes no prisoners in pointing out the harmful real-world consequences of an ideology that has come to define itself almost exclusively with knee-jerk anti-Americanism, whilst acknowledging the many profound errors of US Foreign Policy since WW2 (how could you not) he still points to the intellectually dishonest places the self-declared left can find itself driven too when it decides to reflexively oppose everything America does. The examples of left-wing support for Fascists like Milosevic, Hussein and the other Middle-Eastern dictators, as well as their fascist supporters in our midst who the left feels unable to criticise because they are Muslim is at the same time heartbreaking and infuriating.

Then there are the examples of left-wing intellectuals making excuses for the murderous actions of terrorists that the terrorists do not even make for themselves in their long and detailed manifesto's. The 'please kill us, we deserve it' left comes in for some much needed and long-overdue criticism and it carry's so much more weight because it comes from a Liberal not a conservative.

In an age of Corbynism this book is more vital than ever, you really must read this book

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