They Knew They Were Right : The Rise of the Neocons

From its origins in 1930s Marxism to its unprecedented influence on George W. Bush's administration, neoconservatism has become one of the most powerful, reviled, and misunderstood intellectual movements in American history. But who are the neocons, and how did this obscure group of government officials, pundits, and think-tank denizens rise to revolutionize American foreign policy? Political journalist Jacob Heilbrunn uses his intimate knowledge of the movement and its members to write the definitive history of the neoconservatives. He sets their ideas in the larger context of the decades-long battle between liberals and conservatives, first over communism, and now over the war on terrorism. And he explains why, in spite of their misguided policy on Iraq, they will remain a permanent force in American politics. The Washington Post - Ted Widmer They Knew They Were Right will fit nicely on the rapidly expanding shelf explaining Iraq. Heilbrunn candidly admits that he is not the first writer to probe the neocons (James Mann, Francis Fukuyama and Sidney Blumenthal, among others, preceded him), but he spends more time than most on the group's deep history. It is a wise choice, for the formative period remains poorly understood…his research is thorough and his judgments fair. "Neoconservatism grew out of a split in the 1930s between Stalinists and followers of Trotsky. These obscure ideological battles between warring Marxist factions were transported to the larger canvas of the Cold War, as over time the neocons moved steadily to the right, abandoning the Democratic Party after 1972, when it shunned intervention abroad, and completing their journey in 1980, when they embraced Ronald Reagan and the Republican Party. There they largely supplied the ideological glue that held the Reagan coalition together, combining the agenda of "family values" with a crusading foreign policy." "Out of favor with the first President Bush and reduced to gadflies in the Clinton years, they suddenly found themselves in George W. Bush's administration in a position of unprecedented influence. For the first time in their long history they had their hands on the levers of power. Prompted by 9/11, they used that power to advance what they believed to be America's strategic interest in spreading democracy throughout the Arab world." "Their critics charge that the neoconservatives were doing the bidding of the Israeli government - a charge neoconservatives rightly reject. But author Jacob Heilbrunn shows that the story of the neocons is nonetheless inseparable from the great historical drama of Jewish assimilation. Decisively shaped by the immigrant experience and the trauma of the Holocaust, they rose from the margins of political life to become an insurgent counterestablishment that challenged the old WASP foreign policy elite." "Far from being chastened by the Iraq debacle, the neocons continue to guide foreign policy. They are advisers to each of the major GOP presidential candidates. Repeatedly declared dead in the past, like Old Testament prophets they thrive on adversity. This book shows where they came from - and why they remain a potent and permanent force in American politics."--BOOK JACKET From its origins in 1930s Marxism to its unprecedented influence on George W. Bush's administration, neoconservatism has become one of the most powerful, reviled, and misunderstood intellectual movements in American history. But who are the neocons, and how did this obscure group of government officials, pundits, and think-tank denizens rise to revolutionize American foreign policy? Political journalist Jacob Heilbrunn uses his intimate knowledge of the movement and its members to write the definitive history of the neoconservatives. He sets their ideas in the larger context of the decades-long battle between liberals and conservatives, first over communism, and now over the war on terrorism. And he explains why, in spite of their misguided policy on Iraq, they will remain a permanent force in American politics. Itzy,Kickass.so