"Are you tired of the media's unrelenting oversimplification of American politics? Are you sick of Republican versus Democratic, with everything being painted in ruby red and bright blue? If so, then stretch your mind and read this stimulating book. Brian Mitchell creatively paints the complex portrait of American political thought, from left to right and everything in-between and outside the lines." -- Larry J. Sabato, Director, University of Virginia Center for Politics "If you prefer nuanced analysis to fatuous conventional wisdom, pick up a copy of Eight Ways to Run the Country. You'll gain more insight into the current state of American politics from Brian Mitchell's book than you would from a year's worth of punditry on the cable news shows." -- Ken Silverstein, Washington Editor, Harper's Magazine "With this book, Brian Mitchell has made the lives of us pundits easier, by helping us understand the different kinds of political animals populating Washington--neos, paleos, radicals, populists, and all the rest. But outside-the-beltway readers can 'eliminate the middleman' by reading this book, thus gaining for themselves the taxonomic tools needed to know the DC bestiary. Such widespread empowerment might be bad for the punditical priesthood, but I offer this blurb anyway, because better information is vital for the success of representative democracy." -- Jim Pinkerton, Columnist for Newsday and Senior Fellow, New America Foundation
Preface 1. Schizocracy in America 2. Beyond Left and Right 3. For Common Things: The Communitarian 4. Change Is Good: The Progressive 5. Question Authority: The Radical 6. Framework for Utopia: The Individualist 7. Breaking the Clock: The Paleolibertarian 8. For the Permanent Things: The Paleoconservative 9. God and Country: The Theoconservative 10. Mugged by Reality: The Neoconservative 11. Postmodern Populism Notes Index
Brian Patrick Mitchell is the former Washington Bureau Chief of Investor's Business Daily. As a veteran political reporter and author, Mitchell has appeared on dozens of television and radio shows, including Face the Nation, Larry King Live, Today, Crossfire, and Nightline. He also has been a guest speaker at Harvard's Kennedy School of Government, the University of Pennsylvania, the University of Connecticut, and Catholic University of America.
Whether a pro-politico, a C-Span junkie, or a political neophyte,
Brian Mitchells Eight Ways to Run the Country is the best shortcut
I have seen to really knowing what you are talking about when it
comes to the complicated 21st century political landscape. power in
these increasingly confusing political times.
*Examiner.com/Washington Examiner*
Veteran reporter Mitchell refines current conventional wisdom about
the Right and the Left in American politics. He begins by exploring
the historical context for the current political positions and
personalities, and the influence of economic and social contexts.
Mitchell identifies four main political traditions (republican
constitutionalism, libertarian individualism, progressive
democracy, and plutocratic nationalism), that have been boiled down
to the Left and the Right, in gross terms. These traditions have
actually given rise to eight distinct political perspectives, and
Mitchell devotes a chapter to each….Readers will enjoy trying to
find themselves on the various scales provided.
*Booklist*
Dissatisfied with prior schemes for categorizing political
ideologies, Mitchell proposes his own typology. He begins by
boiling down political differences down to support or opposition to
arche (the concept of rank) and kratos (the use of force by the
state and others) and then deriving from this distinction the four
political traditions of the Anglo-American experience: republican
constitutionalism, libertarian individualism, progressive
democracy, and plutocratic nationalism. Further identifying
intermediate steps between them, he argues that the contemporary
American political scene can be characterized as consisting of
eight political perspectives: individualist, paleolibertarian,
paleoconservative, theoconservative, neoconservative,
communitarian, progressive, radical, and individualist. He offers a
chapter on each of these perspectives, detailing how they are the
result of differing attitudes towards arche and kratos and the
positions this leads them towards.
*Reference & Research Book News*
What to my mind makes his book valuable is less its
reconceptualization of the categories of left and right than its
usefulness as a political and philosophical primer for those who
would like to understand the ideological landscape in America….[i]f
you'd like to understand and make sense of the various branches of
conservatism and libertarianism, as well as the various divisions
that exist to this day on the left, Brian Patrick Mitchell has
written a useful and worthy introduction that will entertain and
inform. Before you know it, you'll know all the lingo, the key
people, and a brief history of all these schools of thought. Not
bad for such a quick read.
*LewRockwell.com*
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