Product Description

The Politically Incorrect GuideT to English and American Literature exposes the PC professors and takes you on a fascinating tour through our great literature-in all its politically incorrect glory. Included: a syllabus and how-to guide to give yourself the English lit education you were denied in school.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #65002 in Books
• Published on: 2006-11-13
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 288 pages

From the Back Cover
What PC English professors don't want you to learn from . . .

- Beowulf: If we don't admire heroes, there's something wrong with us

- Chaucer: Chivalry has contributed enormously to women's happiness

- Shakespeare: Some choices are inherently destructive (it's just built into the nature of things)

- Milton: Our intellectual freedoms are Christian, not anti-Christian, in origin

- Jane Austen: Most men would be improved if they were more patriarchal than they actually are

- Dickens: Reformers can do more harm than the injustices they set out to reform

- T. S. Eliot: Tradition is necessary to culture

- Flannery O'Connor: Even modern American liberals aren't immune to original sin

About the Author
Elizabeth Kantor earned her Ph.D. in English from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and an M.A. in philosophy from Catholic University in Washington, D.C. She is the editor of the Conservative Book Club, writes for Human Events, and blogs at Conservativebooknotes.com.

Customer Reviews

The book isgood; it needs improvement in certain areas.
Kantor's love of "Dead White Male Literature" is enthusiastic. She argues on behalf of the better-known authors and literary pieces in English literature. There were a number of flaws I found with how she presents the book.
She neglects to inform at an indepth level us why certain authors are on the list of (insert time period) literature you must not miss; examples of this include: Thomas Hardy, George Eliot, Newman et cetera. This is commonly found in the chapters on 19th and 20th century literature, and to a lesser extent in previous chapters. It would be nice if she could at least explain why she is recommending these texts.
Her chapter on American literature is awful. She neglects literature written before 1800, virtually all of the Transcendentalists. One quote that she has in the chapter "Henry James's novels aren't American enough to qualify-- he lived in Europe and England for most of his adult life" (Kantor 168). If he lived in Europe for most of his adult life, couldn't Kantor have placed him and the recommendation to read _The Portrait of a Lady_ in the chapter on either 19th or 20th century along side with fellow English writers?
The last issue I really have were clear omissions of authors. Along side the conspicuously absent chapter on American lit., I found several authors not mentioned. How could someone forget about: D.H. Lawrence, Thackeray, Robert Louis Stevenson, or Defoe; and other well-known authors get a passing reference,for example the Bronte's.
The quotes in the boxes entitled "What They Don't Want You to Learn from..." provide discussion questions for my class; for this, I thank you. These "discussion" questions led a few of my students playing Devil's Advocate, and as such caused all of my students to formulate different tactics to debating the sticky subject of Literature.

Retake the Castle
In many ways this book seeks to revive the stories, poetry, and novels that have been cast aside by twentieth century reactionaries. And when you think about it, a LOT has found its way to the curb of late. These are the kinds of essays I like, the kind that remind us why certain works of literature were great in the first place, offensive words, phrases, and outdated concepts and modes of living notwithstanding. Studying these groundbreaking efforts won't take us back to that time, they will only our heighten our sensitivity to how we arrived in the present.

The author bravely takes on the current state of disparity and conflict in modern education and, especially, litrary criticism, and wins her battles for the most part. Not all of this will speak to you, but there some wonderful essays on literature to be found herein.

Hear the Collective Wail of The Associate Professor
I can't think of a better way to recommend the P.I.G. to English and American Literature than simply to refer the prospective reader to the negative reviews already posted. If Dr. Kantor has these sandaled "scholars" in a lather she has surely hit the mark.

I am of that age that witnessed first hand the transition wherein the study of the traditional Western canon went from being the foundation of a serious education to a marginalized (and demonized) travesty. My high school teacher brought "Beowulf" to life and my sputtering university teaching assistant excoriated "Romeo and Juliet" as a rape manual.

The P.I.G. to E & A Lit. is a sliver of sanity that the college freshman can slip into her book bag with which to deprogram herself after each session of her required Lit. class. She can pick up her easy "A" and yet hold on to a love of the great works of our language. This is an antidote to one of the bitterest poisons dispensed by the ineffectual prigs currently seeking to murder our culture.

A genuine appreciation and love for the literature of Western civilization obviously comes from reading the works themselves rather than anyone's analysis or recommendations. But one must start somewhere and Kantor's guide is a fine "menu" from which to order.