Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #165148 in Books
• Published on: 1986-09-01
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 156 pages

Customer Reviews

Imperative reading.
I returned to this slim volume following the Sept. 11 attacks. While America is now said to be fighting "terrorism," few have pointed out the similarities between terrorism and our old foe communism. Reading Solzhenitsyn is at once alarming and comforting. In reading these words, now a quarter of a century old, it is not at all a stretch to apply them to our present situation. He writes: "I would like to call upon America to be more careful with its trust to prevent those pundits who are attempting to establish fine degrees of justice and even finer legal shades of equality (some because of their distorted outlook, others because of short-sightedness, still others out of self-interest)to prevent them from using the struggle for peace and social justice to lead you down a false road. They are trying to weaken you; they are trying to disarm your strong and magnificent country in the face of this fearful threat -- one which has never before been seen in the history or the world. Not only in the history of the country, but in the history of the world." This treatise had a monumental effect on me when I was in college, helping to shape much of my politics. Going back and re-reading it, I find that its content is as powerful and as applicable as ever. To boot, Solzhenitsyn writes with a sense of urgency that is uniquely Russian -- he is similar to Dostoevsky in that way -- and, like Dostoevsky, for having been in the Gulag, his words ring powerfully, indeed. A wonderful companion volume to this would be his Nobel lecture (he won the Nobel for literature in 1970), where in speaking about writing and art, he says, "One word of truth outweighs the world." In short, he is one of the most important thinkers/writers of the century. It is disheartening that these speeches are out of print.

Essential Reading
It is a somewhat daunting task to attempt to write an articulate review when Solzhenitsyn is so incredibly articulate himself. Suffice it to say that this book should be required reading for all world citizens, but especially those of us who carry American citizenship. We have much to learn from this book and we have a great deal to offer if we choose to engage.

The book is actually a collection of five speeches given in 1975 and 1976; three in the U.S. and two in the U.K.

There are numerous lessons and insights that are highly relevant. Perhaps a selected quote from the author's last speech provides a glimpse at why this work is so worth reading and contemplating. "We have become hopelessly enmeshed in our slavish worship of all that is pleasant, all that is comfortable, all that is material -- we worship things, we worship products. Will we ever succeed in shaking off this burden, in giving free rein to the spirit that was breathed into us at birth, that spirit which distinguishes us from the animal world."

Prophetic call to courage.
Read this book if you are wondering how polical correctness got this far. He nails the pseudopacifist in their feel good rush from responsibility. I believe he is right in questioning the ethos of the persuit of happiness. What does it mean to be an American? If we have nothing we will die for, don't be suprised when others who do, kill us.