The Black Book of the American Left: The Collected Conservative Writings of David Horowitz
“The Black Book is a sad account of a man in misery. Horowitz’s diatribe against the left is way beyond reason with no verification of his claims against individuals and organizations.”
It’s difficult to comfort someone who feels terribly guilty and angry about a past event that had a major impact on how that person sees the world forever more. It is also downright impossible to reason with someone who takes that event and blames an entire group of people for the tragedy.
Such is the story David Horowitz paints in his latest book, The Black Book of the American Left.
Horowitz has published over 18 books, all on the same theme: liberals are the scum of the earth.
His publishing legacy includes, How Obama Betrayed America . . . And No One Is Holding Him Accountable, Radicals: Portraits of a Destructive Passion, One-Party Classroom: How Radical Professors at America's Top Colleges Indoctrinate Students and Undermine Our Democracy—just to name a few.
Horowtiz’s publisher, Encounter Books, publishes books with similar subjects and titles such as Revolt Against the Masses: How Liberalism Has Undermined the Middle Class by Fred Siegel. The Great Global Warming Blunder How Mother Nature Fooled the World’s Top Climate Scientists by Roy W. Spencer. And How Obama Is Transforming America’s Military from Superpower to Paper Tiger by Jed Babbin.
Included in his supporters that allow him the time and luxury of pursuing his mission come are John M. Olin’s Foundation. Olin’s foundation was established in 1953 by John M. Olin, president of the Olin Industries chemical and munitions manufacturing businesses. He invests millions in funding conservative think tanks and causes.
Another investor, Richard Mellon Scaife is an American billionaire and heir to the Mellon banking, oil, and aluminum fortune and owner and publisher of the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review. Scaife is also known for his financial support of conservative public policy organizations.
Horowitz’s vendetta against the left began when he was a New Left radical. During that period in the 1970s Horowitz was a supporter such causes as a Vietnam war protestor and the radical arm of the Black Panther Party. He assisted with the running of a school for the children of Party members.
During that time he hired a bookkeeper, Betty Van Patter. Patter was murdered in 1974. Her body was found floating in San Francisco Harbor. There is a lot of official support for the notion that she was murdered by the Black Panther Party, however no one has been charged or convicted of the crime.
Horowitz begins this book with that tragedy and sticks to the theme that all liberals, all leftists, and all radicals are Marxist, murderous, anti-American thugs bent on the destruction of the United States.
He jumps over the Bush Administration and heads straight to the Clinton White House, and Hillary in particular, accusing her of supporting a Black Panther accused of murdering Alex Rackley. This claim has been proven totally inaccurate and brings into question Horowitz’s entire claims of accusations of crimes by the Left, as the only citations throughout the book are from his articles, necessitating hours of research by anyone who wishes to ascertain beyond the self-aggrandizement the veracity of so-called “facts.”
In his lack of willingness to recognize action of government wrongdoing, Horowitz glosses over—barely mentioning—F.B.I. director, Edgar Hoover’s Counter Intelligence Program (COINTELPRO). In practice, COINTELPRO became a dirty game as the FBI collected information on reported and rumored political views as well as the intimate details of targets’ personal lives and then disseminated that information, true or not, in order to discredit target individuals in the eyes of their associates, colleagues, and families. This information was disclosed in Senator Frank Church hearings on Intelligence Activities and The Rights of Americans, Book One.
He goes on to say citizens should never question our government decisions in anything, including going to war. Horowitz condemns antiwar demonstrators as treasonous dissidents out to undermine the country and support the enemy.
Perhaps a good illustration of Horowtiz’s core belief is best described in one sentence taken from an article he wrote for Frontpage Magazine: “. . . an elite school like Columbia University haven’t been paying attention to what’s happened to our educational system from kindergarten to the university level, which has long been under the academic thumb of a Left that is comfortable supporting Islamic supremacists and anti-American terrorists both at home and abroad.”
The Black Book is a sad account of a man in misery. Horowitz’s diatribe against the left is way beyond reason with no verification of his claims against individuals and organizations.