Nine essays, by writers such as Michael Tomaskey ( New York magazine), Todd Gitlin (Columbia U.), Kanan Makiya (Brandeis U.), and Laura Secor (the Boston Globe ), are presented as examples of "hard-headed liberalism" and address a range of political issues of post-9/11 American domestic and foreign politics. Tomaskey argues that if liberals and the Democratic party start standing up to the Bush administration on foreign policy, they will also be able to achieve more on the domestic front; Gitlin attacks the "anti-American left" for being insufficiently patriotic; Makiya argues that the Arab world is mired in a culture of victimhood; and Secor defends the bombing of Yugoslavia as the type of bombing we should support. Other essays address issues of globalization, economic inequality, and the role of American intellectuals with a similar brand of "hard-headed liberalism." Annotation (c) Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)
