Right Turns: Unconventional Lessons from a Controversial Life Book

Nationally syndicated talk-radio host and noted film critic Michael Medved has taken an extraordinary journey from liberal activist to outspoken conservative. Along the way he has earned millions of admirers—and more than his share of enemies—by advancing controversial, often counterintuitive arguments, including:

- Liberals love losing because it makes them feel virtuous
- America isn’t normal—it’s bizarrely blessed
- Hollywood has lost touch with America—and punishes people who point that out
- Conservatives are both happier and nicer than liberals
- Talk radio is a source of hope, not hatred
- Business isn’t exploitative—it’s heroic
- There is no such thing as “planned parenthood”
- A more Christian America is good for the Jews
- Do-it-yourself conservatism provides the only cure for save-the-world liberalism

In the...

The New York Times - Harry Stein

This is what makes Michael Medved's provocative memoir, Right Turns: Unconventional Lessons from a Controversial Life, so welcome. There is certainly no question about where Medved stands: he is a leading cultural conservative with a nationally syndicated radio show; his book is blurbed by a who's who of right-wing conspirators (Rush Limbaugh, Laura Schlessinger, Bill Bennett and, yes, Ann Coulter). But its pages are mercifully free of pettiness and bile. To the contrary, what we get is precisely what many who find his ideas objectionable profess to seek: an explanation of how a complex and decent man -- a proudly Jewish, former liberal activist yet! -- came to embrace them.