Michael Parenti's "The Culture Struggle" is quite short, but lively and written in a crisp and clear style. In this booklet, he discusses the role and function of culture within our societies as well as those of the past, showing how culture is a battleground of ideology. Parenti engages not just the role of ideology in science and in popular culture, but also in medicine, psychiatry, New Age and cults, marriage, and so forth, all issues relevant to current events.

None of the things he points out will be at all new to anyone who is familiar with radical left critiques, but that does not mean this book is useless or preaching to the choir. Quite the opposite: I think it can play a good role as one of those books that one can give to friends or family members with very little political interest or awareness and to people who are not familiar with or good at reading academic style monographs, but who want to understand the leftist critique of our society. Parenti occasionally still uses terminology that might be difficult for readers of a less educated background (such as "plutocratic" and "monopolistic"), but generally the book is extremely easy to read and still makes a lot of good and important points. So, pass it on to your coworkers or grandparents and anyone else who could use a confrontation with a critical look at society. ( )