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Praise for The Tyranny of Clichés
“In his new book, The Tyranny of Clichés, Jonah Goldberg pulls the Mother of All Gingriches. He enumerates the top two dozen liberal clichés — about the separation of church and state, the living Constitution, political dissent, that sort of stuff — and peppers them into tatters with research and argument and wit.” –
“He’s reminding us what this struggle — for a country, for a way of life, for a future of opportunity and progress — is all about.” – Rob Long, National Review
“Goldberg…treats the subject seriously but never gets so enraged by the inanities he is recounting that he loses his sense of humor.” –
“If the critical and liberal (is that one category or two?) reaction to Goldberg’s “Liberal Fascism” is any indication, few liberals will read “The Tyranny of Clichés.” They’ll ridicule it without reading it — which is too bad, because it contains useful lessons they could apply.”
John Bicknell, Roll Call
“… the real need goes beyond restating the obvious; it’s finding a way to make the obvious engaging. And here, Goldberg succeeds admirably.” –
“…it’s quite a feat to write a polemic about byzantine ideological disputes and political semantics and make it thoroughly enjoyable. If you’re interested in giving a precocious student or open-minded liberal an explanation for why they should take the trouble to understand conservatism, this is the book to give them.” –
Mark Hemingway, The Weekly Standard
“The usual reasons to read Jonah Goldberg are either because you love him or hate him. With his latest book, a potential third reason emerges: To insure that you are the first in your carpool, chatroom, or coffee klatch to fire his latest barrage of un-PC commentary at unsuspecting do-gooders.”
“. . . hilarious . . . scathing critiques of American political elites and their reigning conceits.” –
Kenneth Allard, The New York Journal of Books
“Jonah Goldberg, a prolific and often penetrating conservative columnist and commentator, has declared war in his turn on what he calls the “tyranny” of clichés, especially as that tyranny is practiced by liberal ideologues.”
“Readers who enjoyed Mr. Goldberg’s first book, Liberal Fascism, will find plenty to appreciate in The Tyranny of Clichés. The same high energy, nimble argument and welcome flashes of humor that helped to make Liberal Fascism a best-seller are on ample display here…” –
“The worst of both worlds results when a really dumb writer deliberately tries to bend words, and Mr. Goldberg is at his best when deconstructing and dispatching the resultant liberal blather.”
“Jonah Goldberg is annoyed by the right things… that is to say, the things that are most wrong about the smug, arrogant, and willfully ignorant liberal mindset that has been rejected by most ordinary Americans but still dominates much of academia and pop culture. Here’s hoping that Jonah Goldberg keeps annoyed—and keeps writing—for many years to come.”
– Aram Bakshian, Jr., The American Spectator
“…as Jonah Goldberg demonstrates in his important new book…hacks of both the elected and published variety are often unaware that the clichés they deploy often mean the very opposite of what they think they mean.”
“The left loves to delve into the rule book and mend the world’s ills by regulatory tinkering, but even when they’re expressing what they believe to be simple, universal truths, Goldberg finds the flaws in their thinking. When liberals are talking, he shows us why even the truisms aren’t true.”
“Goldberg…here continues to hone his role as an intellectual provocateur of American liberals. And he has also done the conservative layman a great favor by laying bare the true purpose of these maddening shibboleths of the left.”
“In a sense, Jonah Goldberg’s engaging and cant-free second book is not making an argument in itself; it is trying to facilitate argument that otherwise would be stifled by liberal cant constructed on a shaky foundation of self-satisfaction and ornamented to a fare-thee-well by intellectual conceit.”
– Jonathan Neumann, Commentary
“Dazzling”
– Andy Ferguson, Weekly Standard (cover)
“Jonah’s dismantling of the “wisdom is found in the political center” fetish deserves to be a seminar at journalism conferences for years to come…”
“I am hoping that when he finally hangs up his laptop at the end of a long career, he’s filled an entire shelf on all of our bookshelves.”
– Jim Geraghty, National Review Online
From RedState Review:
“The Tyranny of Cliches does an excellent job in puncturing several progressive delusions about their ideology, including the one about how progressives don’t really have an ideology in the first place; you want to read it.”
“…good information, good but not breezy presentation of said information, and it will be good ammunition for people tired of listening to the same regurgitated talking points at holiday dinners.”
-Moe Lane, RedState.com
“[Tyranny of Clichés] is a quick, entertaining and informative book; full of useful arguments, insights and food for thought. At its most basic it is a challenge to conservatives to fight back and not allow the left in this country to continue to make lazy, ideological loaded statements and arguments in the name of pragmatism and a fake “just the facts, ma’am” attitude.
“Jonah is a serious writer who wrestles with important issues that lie at the heart of so many of our political, cultural and societal problems. He understands the rot at the heart of liberalism and yet the unwillingness of so many to deal with the actual intellectual, philosophical and historical truths at the root of this problem.” –
“ In a humorous and engaging way, TOC forces you to unpack and re-think some of the fundamental cliches of our time.” –
-Kevin Holtsberry, RedState
“…with ‘The Tyranny of Clichés: How Liberals Cheat in the War of Ideas’…not only has Goldberg (editor-at-large for National Review Online) avoided the sophomore slump — in many ways he has an even bigger triumph on his hands.” – –
“…entertaining and informative…” –
“Goldberg’s deconstruction is so scholarly and complete, no one who isn’t intentionally manipulating our language will ever hear this nonsense in the same way again.”
“…the primary reason to recommend ‘[The] Tyranny [of Clichés]’ is The Writing. I should send Jonah a bill for the three yellow highlighters his prose cost me. Goldberg is not only the rare writer with a real voice (who makes you burst into laughter regularly), but his ability to persuasively bring together history and wit and quotes from “Animal House” into incredible packages of knowledge and insight makes “Tyranny” a page-turner you don’t want to end.
-John Nolte
From the Winnipeg Free Press Review: “While the book’s subtitle will probably inflame the sensibilities of those who haven’t gotten past the title of Goldberg’s earlier book, a fair reading of The Tyranny of Clichés is both educational and entertaining…”
“He elucidates the historical and philosophical background of sayings and ideas whose provenance is often wrongly taken for granted. Goldberg refuses to be thrown by slippery arguments that move back and forth between “don’t be ideological or dogmatic” and “be pragmatic.”
“Goldberg peppers intellectual depth with peppery prose.”
“Goldberg is especially effective at dismembering arguments that cherry-pick science, and the appeal to the magical epithet “scientific” to forestall arguments.”
– Bill Rambo, Winnipeg Free Press
“While Goldberg is certainly not the first conservative pundit to point out the brevity and inadequacy of these kinds of liberal arguments, his book takes painstaking efforts to actually work through every tacky cliché.”
“What I most enjoyed about this book, is the subtle subplot [Goldberg] builds, slowly attacking the pseudo-moral-superiority that liberals enjoy in their ephemeral insipidity.”
– Jacqueline Otto, Townhall
“This was a great book. Buy at least three of them, and read at least one.”
– Doug Wilson, Blog & Mablog
“The only regret I have is that I didn’t buy the dead tree version…it’d be nice to have some copies to throw around to friends and colleagues this election year. In other words, you can’t borrow mine, so go buy it. And you’re all rich, so buy multiple copies.” –
Chris Naron, RightNation
“… might be the best and most fun-to-read primer on the tenets of conservative politics since P.J. O’Rourke’s Parliament of Whores.”
-Mark Hemingway, Goodreads.com
“Funny, informative, and a fine step forward reviving vigorous political discourse in America!”
“…a treasure.”
“The history lessons are vital.”
“Goldberg delivers these clarifying lessons with such style and humor that they are downright entertaining. Honestly, you will find yourself chuckling.”
“This is not only an important book, but it is also a fun book.”
– Craig Matteson, Amazon
“Jonah Goldberg has written an incredible new book – The Tyranny of Cliches: How Liberals Cheat in the War of Ideas. That boy can write!”
“I love this book. It’s intelligent, cutting, entertaining and exposes liberal ideology for the dishonest propaganda that it is. Jonah is not only a brilliant author, he has a spine and tells the truth. My kind of pundit. In the daily battle against the Left, this book provides ammunition to spar with. It’s red meat for the conservative warrior.”
– Terresa Monroe-Hamilton, NoisyRoom.net