Nicholas von Hoffman (1929–2018)

This is one person's look at life in present-day America. The author feels that America is inside a 3000-mile wide terrarium, cut off from the rest of the world. This would explain that by the time of the US invasion of Iraq in 2003, the difference in world view between America and the rest of the world grew to the size of the hole in the ozone layer over the South Pole.

During the Nazi era, the Big Lie was simple and repeated over and over again until it became the equivalent of inescapable show more sound. For whatever reason, George Bush was not a good liar. He and his advisers made the mistake of elaborating, retracting and adding on to the reasons for attacking Iraq. The rest of the world must have been laughing when the Bush Administration came up with one more reason for invasion. The American people believed them, as they generally do when their government and television tell them something. Another rule to keeping things simple is to not offer any evidence, so there can be no refutation. The supposed warehouses full of evidence turned out to be nothing.

Ever since the Pilgrims landed on Plymouth Rock, America has believed that it is a "city on a hill," a feeling of "we are right and you are wrong." Since Providence has chosen America to work through human history, anyone already occupying the continent could justifiably be removed or killed.

The first lines of the National Anthem contain the roots of flagolatry, or excessive reverence for the national symbol. Democracies are always right, America is a democracy, so America is always right. Since America is the best democracy, it is more right than the others. Inside the terrarium called America, Arabs don't exist and nobody has heard of them. Arabs are considered non-people with a non-claim to nothing. Americans go on and on about being the greatest country in the world with an almost neurotic need for praise from outside the biosphere. Americans also have rabbit ears for criticism from outside, but the voice of reason just bounces off the glass.

This is a Wow of a book. I'm not sure if I have ever read a book quite like this. It's rare when an American can look at this country the way foreigners (probably) do. It is very highly recommended. show less

A pretty cogent example of why political satire often doesn't have a very good shelf life. Very dated, sledgehammer humour about Watergate.

What is amazing is the power this man wielded in the political arena. He crusaded against gay rights and communism with the help of J Edgar Hoover and Joseph McCarthy. He himself was a flagrant homosexual who eventually died of aids. He was key to the prosecution of the Rosenburg's and he had a major vendetta against Bobby Kennedy. Great work to learn more about the abuse of power in the political arena and how lives were ruined because one side did not agree with the freedom of political show more views. This is one to understand so we keep from repeating history.

I would also recommend the James Wood's movie Cohn I believe was the name of it and Tony Kushner broadway play Angels in America was also about Kohn life at the end. show less

this is a pleasant little book describing in a humorous fashion the very serious violation of the American
political system by the Nixon Republicans. I am surprized at the small number of members that possess a copy. It was a mainstay of liberal bookshelves for many years and was enlighted by Gary Trudeau's "Doonesbury" style cartoons. I obviously liked it.