Book Summary and Reviews of U. S. vs Them by J. Peter Scoblic

Book Summary

In U.S. Versus Them, J. Peter Scoblic argues that the Bush administration’s belief in “moral clarity”—its insistence that our foreign policy be based on a fight to the death between America and the forces of evil—has put us at grave risk. Although this worldview may have appealed to many voters in the 2004 election, it has in fact exacerbated the greatest threat to our country: nuclear terrorism. U.S. Versus Them reveals that the seeds of current foreign policy were planted fifty years ago, at the beginning of the Cold War, when conservatism was just beginning to take root, defining itself in opposition to Soviet communism. Scoblic shows how conservative ideology itself—from its development by William F. Buckley, Jr., through its implementation by Barry Goldwater and Ronald Reagan to its culmination in the current administration—has endangered Americans and will continue to do so long after this president has left the Oval Office.