The Tyranny of Cliches
by Jonah Goldberg
- Percentage of approved critics who have given this book a positive review.
Critic Rating
73%
Critic Reviews: 15
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- User rating from iDreamBooks & iTunes
Reader Rating
76%
Reader Ratings: 188
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Synopsis
An uncompromising look at the dark side of clichés and how liberals use them to camouflage their true beliefsBarack Obama has stuck to one refrain above all others: he's a pragmatist, opposed to ideology and dogma, solely concerned with “what works.” That makes him an heir to a grand Progressive tradition: Deny your ideological agenda while pursuing it vigorously under the false-flag of reasonableness.According to bestselling conservative author Jonah... more
About Jonah Goldberg
- All Critics: 15
- Positive: 12
- Negative: 3
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The New York Times | 18 May 2012
In the end, his vindictive thrashings have very little to do with the actual practice of politics; the idea that political clichés are banal isn’t exactly a blinding insight, either.
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BookWorm Room | 19 Jul 2012
I was able to enjoy and appreciate Jonah’s inquiry into the intellectual fallacies that liberals use to claim the moral high ground and shut down serious discourse.
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American Thinker | 18 Sep 2012
Goldberg did the work. To use a timeworn journalistic cliché, Goldberg "got his hands dirty," which seems to be a lost concept in contemporary journalism. In doing so, to employ another cliché, Goldberg makes it look easy.
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Salon | 10 May 2012
his insecurity has made him a uniquely pathetic figure in contemporary conservative thought: He aspires to be taken seriously as a public intellectual, but he is the world’s laziest thinker.
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Breitbart | 30 Apr 2012
Goldberg uses scholarly history, damning logic, pop culture, and laugh-out-loud humor to connect the dots that expose the Left as the vacuous, dishonest, State-addicted mercenaries they really are
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Red State | 30 Apr 2012
good information, good but not breezy presentation of said information, and it will be good ammunition for people tired of listening to the same regurgitated talking points at holiday dinners – which is, of course, a cliche all its own
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Red State | 17 May 2012
it is a quick, entertaining and informative book; full of useful arguments, insights and food for thought.
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The Arizona Conservative | 2 May 2012
While Goldberg is certainly not the first conservative pundit to point out the brevity and inadequacy of these kinds of liberal arguments, his book takes painstaking efforts to actually work through every tacky cliché. While these represent his personal pet peeves, they certainly ring true for most readers.
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The American Conservative | 27 Jun 2012
A double-barreled cliché is in order here: on this fundamental question of what politics is for, The Tyranny of Clichés lets conservatives eat cake and have it, too.
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Misfit Politics | 14 Jun 2012
Thanks in no small part to Jonah Goldberg, your friends might have to start looking for new cliches by the time he’s finished. His new book The Tyranny of Cliches (Hereafter referred to as TOC) is little less than a dismantling of these annoying non-arguments bandied about by our friends on the other side. He also wisely reminds conservatives they can fall into the same pitfall.
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Commentary
Jonah Goldberg’s engaging and cant-free second book is not making an argument in itself; it is trying to facilitate argument that otherwise would be stifled by liberal cant constructed on a shaky foundation of self-satisfaction and ornamented to a fare-thee-well by intellectual conceit.
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Conservative Wanderer | 14 May 2012
All in all, I am very glad I purchased this book...With Jonah’s humor dotting it, it’s far from a dry read, and it provides a wealth of information.
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Noisy Room | 11 May 2012
Jonah says it so well in his book – he takes a multitude of liberal cliches and disarms them for you. And he does it with wit and passion. It is small wonder he is so admired in the conservative blogosphere.
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The Weekly Standard | 21 May 2012
it’s quite a feat to write a polemic about byzantine ideological disputes and political semantics and make it thoroughly enjoyable.
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The New York Times | 18 May 2012
After a while, it just becomes exhausting...Does Goldberg really believe this stuff? Or is he just being tendentious for rhetorical effect?
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