cover image The Fight Is for Democracy: Winning the War of Ideas in America and the World

The Fight Is for Democracy: Winning the War of Ideas in America and the World

. Harper Perennial, $13.95 (304pp) ISBN 978-0-06-053249-9

Todd Gitlin, Michael Tomasky and Paul Berman are among the contributors to this collection of liberal viewpoints on the U.S.'s role in the post-September 11 world. Citing Auden, New Yorker contributor Packer calls the 1990s a""low, dishonest decade"":""We had had it too good, had gotten away with it for too long,"" he writes, hoping that terrorist attacks will""make us better""--a truer model of democracy for the world in the fight against totalitarianism. Tomasky calls on liberals to break with leftist""Chomskyism"" to offer a real alternative foreign policy to that of conservatives. Susie Linfield considers the consequences of carrying a refusal to make judgments about the Third World over from the realm of the arts to the political sphere. As Packer points out, the contributors do not always agree among themselves, which makes for a stimulating read for liberals seeking a new way to conceptualize America's place in today's world.