The Rebuttal: Defending 'American Betrayal' From the Book-Burners by Diana West Page A
Authors: Diana West
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historians.
Unfortunately, this isn't what I had in mind.
It turns out that former Communists-turned conservatives
David Horowitz and Ronald Radosh have launched a vicious, personal and ad
hominem attack on Diana and American Betrayal. And right off the bat I have to
say that any writer/scholar is going to face criticism and pushback against
their work. But in an ideal world such criticism comes with an abundance of
collegiality, reflecting normative expectations of elevating the community of
scholars and scholarship. But with Horowitz and Radosh the attack is actually
the exact opposite. It's an attempt to destroy any scholarship that isn't the
acceptable form of anti-communism. This is conservative political correctness
of the most extremely ugly kind.
Lots of interested parties are weighing in on this, and the
heated exchange has seen a flurry of salvos issued at FrontPage Magazine, PJ
Media, with Diana responding at her blog. But to be clear, at this point it's
not whether Diana's book is right or wrong on facts and interpretations. It's
that she's being treated as shabbily as can be, and sadly this is by people
I've long held in very high esteem.
Let's start with Diana's initial, shocking email exchange
with the folks at FrontPage. See, " If
Frontpage Will Lie about This, What Won't They Lie About? " Diana
was responding to Radosh's attack on her book at Horowitz's website, which
included a nasty disclaimer falsely alleging that Diana refused to publish a
response to Radosh at FrontPage. Check that link for the full post. (And note
that Horowitz pulled his website's initial glowing review of the book, written
by Mark Tapson, " MARK
TAPSON ON DIANA WEST’S “AMERICAN BETRAYAL” .") But here's the exchange:
The email sequence starts at the bottom. I note that
Horowitz cc'd his email (immediately below) to three other people presumably to display his cleverness.
On Aug 7, 2013, at 1:08 AM, david horowitz wrote:
Dear
Diana,
Our decision to remove the review of
American Betrayal was not because it offered an incorrect opinion that we
wanted to suppress. The review was removed because the reviewer was as
incompetent to provide an informed assessment of your book as you were to write
it.
David
[Horowitz]
From: jamie glazov
Subject: Fwd: review of your
book
Date: August 6, 2013 7:41:00
PM PDT
To: David Horowitz
I guess we're not friends
anymore.
From: Diana West ...
Date: Tue, Aug 6, 2013 at
9:38 PM
Subject: Re: review of your
book
To: jamie glazov
Dear Jamie,
What gall. You and your crew
behave like little totalitarians, suppress an "incorrect" opinion of
my book, and, now that you have your "correct" review at the ready,
ask me to dignify your nasty tactics by engaging in civil debate. If I deem it
worth my while to respond to the Radosh review, I will find another outlet.
Diana
On Aug 6, 2013, at 9:41 PM,
jamie glazov wrote:
Dear Diana, I just want to
give you a heads up that our review of your book, written by Ron Radosh, will
be going up on our site at 9:30pm Pacific time this evening (12:30am Eastern).
David would like me to pass
on to you that you are most welcome to write a response to this review, and to
feel free to write at length to defend your position (but not longer than the
review itself).
Sincerely, Jamie.
I've
placed Horowitz's email in bold as the condescension and contempt for Diana is
really astonishing.
And the
exact same contempt bleeds across the page at Radosh's angry review at
FrontPage, " McCarthy on Steroids ." He's so fired up that he posted
another piece at PJ Media even before Diana was able to respond, " Why I Wrote a Take-Down of
Diana West’s Awful Book ."
And then
on it goes. Here's David Horowitz, " Editorial: Our Controversy
With Diana West ."
There's
also a review by historian Jeffrey Herf, " Diana West vs. History ." And then Ron Radosh lashes out
again, " Diana West’s Attempt to
Respond ."
And
Unfortunately, this isn't what I had in mind.
It turns out that former Communists-turned conservatives
David Horowitz and Ronald Radosh have launched a vicious, personal and ad
hominem attack on Diana and American Betrayal. And right off the bat I have to
say that any writer/scholar is going to face criticism and pushback against
their work. But in an ideal world such criticism comes with an abundance of
collegiality, reflecting normative expectations of elevating the community of
scholars and scholarship. But with Horowitz and Radosh the attack is actually
the exact opposite. It's an attempt to destroy any scholarship that isn't the
acceptable form of anti-communism. This is conservative political correctness
of the most extremely ugly kind.
Lots of interested parties are weighing in on this, and the
heated exchange has seen a flurry of salvos issued at FrontPage Magazine, PJ
Media, with Diana responding at her blog. But to be clear, at this point it's
not whether Diana's book is right or wrong on facts and interpretations. It's
that she's being treated as shabbily as can be, and sadly this is by people
I've long held in very high esteem.
Let's start with Diana's initial, shocking email exchange
with the folks at FrontPage. See, " If
Frontpage Will Lie about This, What Won't They Lie About? " Diana
was responding to Radosh's attack on her book at Horowitz's website, which
included a nasty disclaimer falsely alleging that Diana refused to publish a
response to Radosh at FrontPage. Check that link for the full post. (And note
that Horowitz pulled his website's initial glowing review of the book, written
by Mark Tapson, " MARK
TAPSON ON DIANA WEST’S “AMERICAN BETRAYAL” .") But here's the exchange:
The email sequence starts at the bottom. I note that
Horowitz cc'd his email (immediately below) to three other people presumably to display his cleverness.
On Aug 7, 2013, at 1:08 AM, david horowitz wrote:
Dear
Diana,
Our decision to remove the review of
American Betrayal was not because it offered an incorrect opinion that we
wanted to suppress. The review was removed because the reviewer was as
incompetent to provide an informed assessment of your book as you were to write
it.
David
[Horowitz]
From: jamie glazov
Subject: Fwd: review of your
book
Date: August 6, 2013 7:41:00
PM PDT
To: David Horowitz
I guess we're not friends
anymore.
From: Diana West ...
Date: Tue, Aug 6, 2013 at
9:38 PM
Subject: Re: review of your
book
To: jamie glazov
Dear Jamie,
What gall. You and your crew
behave like little totalitarians, suppress an "incorrect" opinion of
my book, and, now that you have your "correct" review at the ready,
ask me to dignify your nasty tactics by engaging in civil debate. If I deem it
worth my while to respond to the Radosh review, I will find another outlet.
Diana
On Aug 6, 2013, at 9:41 PM,
jamie glazov wrote:
Dear Diana, I just want to
give you a heads up that our review of your book, written by Ron Radosh, will
be going up on our site at 9:30pm Pacific time this evening (12:30am Eastern).
David would like me to pass
on to you that you are most welcome to write a response to this review, and to
feel free to write at length to defend your position (but not longer than the
review itself).
Sincerely, Jamie.
I've
placed Horowitz's email in bold as the condescension and contempt for Diana is
really astonishing.
And the
exact same contempt bleeds across the page at Radosh's angry review at
FrontPage, " McCarthy on Steroids ." He's so fired up that he posted
another piece at PJ Media even before Diana was able to respond, " Why I Wrote a Take-Down of
Diana West’s Awful Book ."
And then
on it goes. Here's David Horowitz, " Editorial: Our Controversy
With Diana West ."
There's
also a review by historian Jeffrey Herf, " Diana West vs. History ." And then Ron Radosh lashes out
again, " Diana West’s Attempt to
Respond ."
And
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