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The Good Fight

Why Liberals—and Only Liberals—Can Win the War on Terror

Peter Beinart

'The years since 9/11 have seen so much American recklessness and so much stupidity that it is sometimes hard to even remember the hope, solidarity and resolve that Americans and Australians once shared …'

More than six years after the September 11 attacks, the close friendship forged between George W.

Opinion

‘A penetrating account that challenges Australian and American liberals to combine idealism and realism in their fight against terrorism.’
Michelle Grattan

About this Title

'The years since 9/11 have seen so much American recklessness and so much stupidity that it is sometimes hard to even remember the hope, solidarity and resolve that Americans and Australians once shared …'

More than six years after the September 11 attacks, the close friendship forged between George W. Bush and John Howard remains. But in their nations more broadly, the common purpose has withered, drained by the sense that both men have failed the moral and intellectual challenges of that day.

In this powerful and provocative book, Peter Beinart offers a new liberal vision, based on principles liberals too often forget: that America's greatness cannot simply be asserted, it must be proved. That American leadership is not American empire. And that liberalism cannot merely define itself against the right, but must fervently oppose the totalitarianism that stalks the Islamic world today.

Peter Beinart's The Good Fight is a passionate rejoinder to the conservatives who have ruled Washington since 9/11. Beinart argues that America can again embrace the creed that brought it greatness in the past, but only if liberals remember that democracy begins at home. Above all, it is a call for liberals to revive the spirit that once swept America, and inspired the world.

About the Author

Peter Beinart is a Senior Fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations and editor-at-large of The New Republic. He writes columns for Time magazine and the Washington Post, and is a regular commentator on radio and television. He lives with his wife and son in Washington, D.C.

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978-0-522-85383-4