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A surprise best seller in England, The Abolition of Britain is bitingly witty and fiercely argued, yet also filled with somber appreciation for what "the idea of England" has always meant to the West and to the world at large. One English critic called The Abolition of Britain "an elegant jeremiad" in which Peter Hitchens identifies everything that has gone wrong with Britain since World War II and makes the case for "those many millions who feel that they have become foreigners in their own land and wish with each succeeding day that they could turn the clock back." Writing with passion and flair, Hitchens targets the pernicious effects of TV culture, the "corruption and decay" of the English language, the loss of politeness, and the "syrupy confessional mood" brought on by the death of Diana, which Hitchens contrasts with the somber national response to the death of Winston Churchill. If there is a term that summarizeseverything that has gone wrong in Britain, it is "Tony Blairism," which Hitchens sees as having rewritten England's history, trivialized its journalism, subverted its educational system and cultural standards, and overthrown accepted notions of patriotism, faith, and morality. The New Britain is government by focus group in which people are told what to feel as a way of preventing them from asking how they want to be governed. Looking at the changed face of his country, Hitchens finds a "politically correct zeal for the new" whose impact on daily life has been "as devastating in effect, if not in violence, as Mao tse Tung's Cultural Revolution in China."

Tabla de contenidos provista por Syndetics

• Preface to the Second Edition(p. vii)
• Introduction: A Modern Man(p. 1)
• 1 The Warrior and the Victim(p. 17)
• 2 Born Yesterday(p. 44)
• 3 Class War(p. 64)
• 4 The Pink Bits(p. 84)
• 5 Hell Freezes Over(p. 105)
• 6 The Telescreen Triumphs(p. 128)
• 7 Forty Years On(p. 144)
• 8 A Real Bastard(p. 162)
• 9 The Queen's English(p. 177)
• 10 Difficulties with Girls(p. 190)
• 11 Last Exit to Decency(p. 207)
• 12 Suburbs of the Mind(p. 221)
• 13 The Pill That Cured Morality(p. 232)
• 14 Health Warning(p. 248)
• 15 Is Britain Civilized?(p. 263)
• 16 Year Zero(p. 273)
• Conclusion: Chainsaw Massacre(p. 289)
• Afterword(p. 319)
• Notes(p. 329)
• Acknowledgements(p. 337)
• Works Cited(p. 339)

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Library Journal Review

Published in Britain with the subtitle "Lady Chatterley to Tony Blair," this book could also be titled "John Bull Rages Against the Machine." Journalist Hitchens (Daily Express) begins with an essay comparing British behavior during the funerals of Winston Churchill and Princess Diana. He mourns the Britain last seen at Churchill's burial and decries the outpouring of emotion in the latter event, in which Britain, "world capital of reserve," lost its cool. The author then expands in all directions, employing racism and pretty much every other ism in arguing that the Empire, its colonies, and its culture were a better world for all concerned. Among his broadsides: corporal punishment, the Church of England, the Conservative Party, and the Empire were the bulwarks of British and, by extension, Western civilization. Though he covers much ground, his thesis is that the "cultural revolution" in Britain, i.e., multiculturalism, abetted by television (especially the shows Beyond the Fringe and Monty Python), have ruined the family and everything else good and decent. At times a spark of objectivity flares, and the text generally shows Hitchens to be a well-read journalist, but the tone consistently slips from bitter to rude. Hitchens writes proudly about the obstacles he surmounted getting this book published. Sadly, he succeeded.ÄRobert Moore, Raytheon, Sudbury, MA (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

Notas de autor provistas por Syndetics

Peter Hitchens is one of Britain's most controversial journalists. (After a bruising encounter at a press conference, Prime Minister Tony Blair told him to "sit down and stop being bad.") He writes for the Mail on Sunday in London and lives with his family in Oxford