Reviews for The Collapse of Liberalism: Why America Needs a New Left

The average rating for The Collapse of Liberalism: Why America Needs a New Left based on 2 reviews is 2.5 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2010-07-10 00:00:00 Martin Haverkamp I was prepared for the political density (some of which went straight over my head!) but I was not prepared for the darkly satirical humour that also permeated this book. O'Rourke managed to make a series of essays, on topics I am not hugely knowledgeable about, as engaging as they were humorous. Whilst some of the facts stated are now outdated, this is still a relevant and interesting non-ficton, delivered in an individual style, and managing to be altogether damning of society.

Review # 2 was written on 2012-01-16 00:00:00 Jimmy Bronson Three chapters and DONE. Man, PJ O'Rourke used to be somebody. His work at National Lampoon was great, and the "High School Yearbook Parody" he helmed there is a high point in American humor. As a proto-neocon pundit, even when he was completely disagreeable, he remained a wit. Here he's going for Oliver Wendell Holmes but comes off as an open-mic comic crossed with Andy Rooney ("I hate cell phones! And people who use earpieces with their cellphones look like crazy people talking to themselves!") -- and his self-deprecating note in the TOC about this screed can't save it. And not only has he become clueless to the popular culture (or the pop culture circa 1997, as he misspells Tupac Shakur), he can't even get the right name of someone in his camp (note: the female senator from North Carolina and wife of Bob Dole does not go by "Libby." No matter how many hits come up when you Google it). Things like that may seem nitpicky, but if someone (or his people) can't be bothered to get easily-verifiable things like that right, then I'm certainly not going to trust him to hold forth on complicated things like why the UN and Social Security are messes.