具体描述
The neocons have become at once the most feared and reviled intellectual movement in American history. Critics on left and right describe them as a tight-knit cabal that ensnared the Bush administration in an unwinnable foreign war.
Who are the neoconservatives? How did an obscure band of policy intellectuals, left for dead in the 1990s, suddenly rise to influence the Bush administration and revolutionize American foreign policy?
Jacob Heilbrunn wittily and pungently depicts the government officials, pundits, and think-tank denizens who make up this controversial movement, bringing them to life against a background rich in historical detail and political insight. Setting the movement in the larger context of the decades-long battle between liberals and conservatives, first over communism, now over the war on terrorism, he shows that they have always been intellectual mavericks, with a fiery prophetic temperament (and a rhetoric to match) that sets them apart from both liberals and traditional conservatives.
Neoconservatism grew out of a split in the 1930s between Stalinists and followers of Trotsky. These obscure ideological battles between warring Marxist factions were transported to the larger canvas of the Cold War, as over time the neocons moved steadily to the right, abandoning the Democratic party after 1972 when it shunned intervention abroad, and completing their journey in 1980 when they embraced Ronald Reagan and the Republican party. There they supplied the ideological glue that held the Reagan coalition together, combining the agenda of “family values” with a crusading foreign policy.
Out of favor with the first President Bush, and reduced to gadflies in the Clinton years, they suddenly found themselves in George W. Bush’s administration in a position of unprecendented influence. For the first time in their long history, they had their hands on the levers of power. Prompted by 9/11, they used that power to advance what they believed to be America’s strategic interest in spreading democracy throughout the Arab world.
Their critics charge that the neo-conservatives were doing the bidding of the Israeli government -- a charge that the neoconservatives rightfully reject. But Heilbrunn shows that the story of the neocons is inseparable from the great historical drama of Jewish assimilation. Decisively shaped by the immigrant exerience and the trauma of the Holocaust, they rose from the margins of political life to become an insurgent counter-establishment that challenged the old WASP foreign policy elite.
Far from being chastened by the Iraq debacle, the neocons continue to guide foreign policy. They are advisors to each of the major GOP presidential candidates. Repeatedly declared dead in the past, like Old Testament prophets they thrive on adversity. This book shows where they came from -- and why they remain a potent and permanent force in American politics.
作者简介
Jacob Heilbrunn writes regularly for the New York Times, Washington Monthly, and National Interest. He is a former member of the Los Angeles Times editorial board and was a senior editor at the New Republic. He lives in Washington, DC.
目录信息
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用户评价
初读时，我差点被那些冗长但极富画面感的环境描写劝退，但坚持读下去后，我发现那些看似多余的细节，其实是构建整个世界观的基石。作者对场景的描绘，不仅仅是背景板，它们本身就是有生命的、会呼吸的角色，它们见证了人物的挣扎与蜕变。比如某座城市的老旧建筑群，它所承载的历史重量，无形中压在了角色的肩上，成为他们无法摆脱的宿命感的一部分。这种将环境与人物命运深度绑定的写法，极大地增强了作品的史诗感和厚重感。同时，语言风格上充满了古典的韵味，用词考究，句式多变，极大地提升了阅读的审美体验。它成功地避开了当代文学中常见的浮躁和轻薄，展现出一种对“深度”的执着追求，值得我用慢节奏去细细品味，去感受每一个词语所携带的重量。
这本书最让我惊艳的是它对“道德模糊地带”的处理。它没有给我们任何轻松的出口，去指责谁是绝对的恶人，谁又是纯粹的受害者。每个人都坚信自己是站在真理一侧的，他们的每一步行动都基于自己对“正确”的理解，但这些理解之间却存在着不可调和的矛盾。作者的高明之处在于，他让你在阅读过程中不断地在不同人物的立场之间摇摆不定，一会儿你同情A，一会儿你又被B的说辞所折服。这种持续的认知失调，恰恰是作品主题的最佳体现——在复杂的世界里，绝对的“正确性”也许本身就是一个伪命题。它探讨的不是对错，而是“立场”的形成与固化。读完后，我发现自己对许多过往的争论都多了一层反思的维度，学会了在下一个“立场”出现时，先不要急于站队，而是先去理解那个“立场”是如何建立起来的。这是一次非常高级的心智训练。
这本书的结构设计简直是鬼斧神工，它采用了多重叙事视角，但这些视角之间并非简单的拼凑，而更像是一面破碎的镜子，每一个碎片都折射出不同的光芒，当你试图将它们重新组合时，最终得到的影像却比任何一个单独的碎片都要复杂和扭曲。我很少见到有作者能将如此众多的人物关系处理得如此清晰而又不失自然，每个人都有自己的逻辑和行为准则，他们的“正确性”彼此冲突，但又相互支撑着各自的叙事体系。这不仅仅是一部小说，更像是一部关于人类认知偏差的社会学田野调查报告，但它包裹在引人入胜的故事外衣之下，丝毫没有教条感。特别是其中关于“群体认同”那一章节的描绘，那种微妙的社会压力如何潜移默化地改变个体的判断标准，让人读来不寒而栗，深切体会到“从众心理”的巨大惯性。
这部作品给我的震撼是持续而深刻的，它像一把精密的手术刀，剖开了现代人际关系中最微妙、最难以言喻的那些裂痕。作者的笔触极其细腻，对于人物心理活动的捕捉简直到了令人毛骨悚然的地步。我尤其欣赏它对“沉默”的处理，那些没有说出口的话语，往往比任何激烈的对白都更有力量，它们在人物之间筑起了一道无形的墙，每一次呼吸、每一个眼神的闪躲，都充满了未尽的叙事张力。故事的节奏把握得恰到好处，并非那种大开大合的戏剧性冲突，而是缓慢地、如同冰川移动般推进，让你在不知不觉中就被卷入了角色的困境之中。读完之后，我花了好几天时间才真正从那种压抑而又充满哲思的氛围中抽离出来。它迫使我重新审视自己过往的某些决定，那些看似微不足道的选择，是如何一步步塑造了我们现在的“正确”与“错误”。这本书的格局很大，它讨论的不仅仅是小情小爱，更是关于个体认知与外部世界永恒的博弈。
老实说，我一开始对这种被誉为“现象级”的作品是抱持着一丝怀疑态度的，总觉得过度宣传难免言过其实。然而，当我沉浸进去后，才明白这本小说的高明之处在于它的“反高潮”叙事。它没有给你那种酣畅淋漓的结局释放，而是留下了一团缠绕的、待解的线球。作者似乎并不热衷于给出标准答案，相反，他更热衷于描绘探寻答案的过程本身所蕴含的价值与痛苦。文字的密度非常高，很多句子需要反复咀嚼才能体会其深意，这不是那种可以一口气读完的通俗小说，它更像是一部需要反复研读的文学经典。我特别喜欢其中关于“记忆的不可靠性”这一主题的探讨，每个人都在用自己的视角重塑历史，那么“事实”究竟还剩下多少纯粹的成分？这种对客观性的解构，让整个故事充满了迷雾般的张力，让人欲罢不能，即使感到困惑，也甘愿继续在这片迷雾中探索。
