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The Authoritarian Moment: How the Left Weaponized America's Institutions Against Dissent Hardcover – July 27, 2021

by Ben Shapiro (Author)
4.9 4.9 out of 5 stars 3,661 ratings
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New York Times Bestseller

How far are Americans willing to go to force each other to fall in line?

According to the establishment media, the intelligentsia, and our political chattering class, the greatest threat to American freedom lies in right-wing authoritarianism. We’ve heard that some 75 million Americans who voted for Donald Trump represent the rise of American fascism; that conservatives have allowed authoritarianism to bloom in their midst, creating a grave danger for the republic.

But what if the true authoritarian threat to America doesn’t come from the political right, but from the supposedly anti-fascist left?

There are certainly totalitarians on the political right. But statistically, they represent a fringe movement with little institutional clout. The authoritarian left, meanwhile, is ascendant in nearly every area of American life. A small number of leftists—college-educated, coastal, and uncompromising—have not just taken over the Democratic Party but our corporations, our universities, our scientific establishment, our cultural institutions. And they have used their newfound power to silence their opposition.

The authoritarian Left is aggressively insistent that everyone must conform to its values, demanding submission and conformity. The dogmatic Left is obsessed with putting people in categories and changing human nature. Everyone who opposes it must be destroyed.

Ben Shapiro looks at everything from pop culture to the Frankfurt school, social media to the Founding Fathers, to explain the origins of our turn to tyranny, and why so many seem blind to it.

More than a catalog of bad actors and intemperate acts,The Authoritarian Moment lays bare the intolerance and rigidity creeping into all American ideology – and prescribes the solution to ending the authoritarianism that threatens our future.

Previous page
  1. Print length
    288 pages
  2. Language
    English
  3. Publisher
    Broadside Books
  4. Publication date
    July 27, 2021
  5. Dimensions
    6 x 0.97 x 9 inches
  6. ISBN-10
    0063001829
  7. ISBN-13
    978-0063001824
  8. See all details
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Editorial Reviews

Review

“Ben Shapiro is single-handedly trying to shake America from a dangerous slumber. The Authoritarian Moment is a klaxon bell for anyone willing to fight for an intellectually open America—before it is lost for good.” — Abigail Shrier, author of Irreversible Damage

“The cultural battlefield is no longer right or left, conservative or progressive. It’s those who demand that you think a certain way versus those who champion cognitive liberty. With precision and wit, Shapiro masterfully exposes outdated, ideological thinking while making the compelling case for a kinder and more rational way forward.” — Peter Boghossian, author of How to Have Impossible Conversations

“It was never the Right that came after me, threatened me with violence, tried to shut me up, blacklist me, and defame me in mainstream or social media. It was the Left—a shock, initially, as a lifelong leftist (though I no longer identify with the Left). But here we are, facing a crisis in free speech and true diversity, and too many are refusing to admit who is driving it. It is imperative we fight back against cancel culture and this modern totalitarian threat—before it's too late.” — Meghan Murphy, founder and editor of Feminist Current

“In one of the biggest power grabs in modern-day history—where big government, big business, major media, and big tech manipulate the mob to push through their authoritarian agenda—there are standouts like Ben Shapiro fighting back with everything they’ve got, leading the charge against cancel culture and calling out the uncomfortable truths. They can’t cancel us if we don’t let them.” — Gina Carano, actress

About the Author

Ben Shapiro is founding editor-in-chief and editor emeritus of The Daily Wire and host of "The Ben Shapiro Show," the top conservative podcast in the nation. A New York Times bestselling author, Shapiro is a graduate of Harvard Law School, and an Orthodox Jew. His work has been profiled in nearly every major American publication, and he has appeared as the featured speaker at many conservative events on campuses nationwide, several of those appearances targeted by progressive and “Antifa” activists.

Product details

  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Broadside Books (July 27, 2021)
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Hardcover ‏ : ‎ 288 pages
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0063001829
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0063001824
  • Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 15.4 ounces
  • Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 6 x 0.97 x 9 inches
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.9 4.9 out of 5 stars 3,661 ratings

About the author

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Ben Shapiro

Ben Shapiro

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Ben Shapiro is editor-in-chief of The Daily Wire and host of "The Ben Shapiro Show," the top conservative podcast in the nation. A New York Times bestselling author, Shapiro is a graduate of Harvard Law School, and an Orthodox Jew. His work has been profiled in nearly every major American publication.

Customer reviews

4.9 out of 5 stars
4.9 out of 5
3,661 global ratings
Ben, Characteristically, Has his Finger on the Pulse of our Culture
5 Stars
Ben, Characteristically, Has his Finger on the Pulse of our Culture
From the first lines of the introduction, I knew I was holding a book that would be difficult to put down.Ben's poignant analysis and engaging manner makes this both a challenging and yet enjoyable reading experience.He pulls no punches and makes no unsupported claims. He brings the problems into crisp focus, and shines a bright light on the only workable answer.This is a book to read and to give as gifts to your family and friends.
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Top reviews from the United States

Katie B.
5.0 out of 5 stars A must read. Best book I've read on WOKE!!
Reviewed in the United States on August 8, 2022
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Review by Richard Bayer, PhD

Ben Shapiro is driven to write for the sake of America, and for the future of his children (to whom the book is dedicated) in a country on the brink of the loss of the freedoms promised to us by our founding fathers and mothers. (226) The passion of the author is quite evident in the book, making it a captivating read. The book is exhaustively researched.

According to S. the danger in our time is not from an authoritarian right. Those who broke into the capital January 6 imagining they were helping President Trump, wearing bull horns, are little danger. The concern today is the authoritarian left which has captured and weaponized most of our major institutions: elementary education (Critical Race Theory or CRT), academia, politics, the legal system, the media, and so forth. Penalties from the authoritarian left include social ostracizing, career suicide, to name just two.
Popular submission to this “new normal” has come relatively swift. S. points out insightfully that “It took just a few weeks from the splitting of the Red Sea for the Jews to embrace the Golden Calf.” (4). S. also points out that human nature has an authoritarian instinct. The Jews dissatisfaction with Judges and preference for the authority of a King is case in point.

I would have liked to see S. discuss more of the positive methods of resistance to the new normal. Public schools have students with parents who can influence the process. Local schools also have “Boards of Education” for which anyone in the district can run. The media is truly a plural term these days. Alternative views can be aired and acted upon. News outlets such as CNN, Fox, Msnbc, ABC, etc. bring quite different perspectives and worthy interpretations. So, it seems to me that the system has checks and balances which can be put into action.

“The authoritarian moment relies on the acquiescence of a silent majority. We must no longer be silent.” (227) Then a new birth of freedom can begin. S. ends on a hopeful note.

The book is a must read for anyone in the field of social ethics. It may well be his fourth New York Times bestseller.

RICHARD C. BAYER, PhD.
Graduate Theological Union, Berkeley, CA (degree granting institution)
13 people found this helpful
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B. Parsley
5.0 out of 5 stars American Freedoms Are Under Attack
Reviewed in the United States on December 3, 2021
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Freedom of speech is at the very foundation of the United States, and it is being censored by leftists in all our institutions. People are being canceled by the most innocuous remarks. The heavy boot of fascism by the political left is destroying America. No one is safe from the new rules governing speech. After reading Shapiro’s book you will wonder if we still live in America. It is beginning to look more like Soviet Russia or Mao’s China.

It doesn’t matter how high a position you have advanced to, the leftists will come after you if you dare cross their new dictates . You must talk the talk, walk the walk and obey every crazy new edict they are pushing. And if you cross that invisible line, you must grovel and apologize over and over. Even then you may lose your job.

Americans must wake up and fight the leftist who intend to rule them. Freedoms that are listed in our Bill of Rights are under attack. The very foundation on which the country was built is being crushed. Leftists are determined to destroy America so they can build it back better. They must destroy our history, destroy our founders, and destroy our Constitution.

Ben Shapiro has given us the information and the warning of where leftists are taking us. Now it is up to us to fight for the America we love. Our children and grandchildren will be the recipients of a free America or a socialist/communist dictatorship. We must not fail them.
7 people found this helpful
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Aaron Horak
5.0 out of 5 stars Two Years later still relevant
Reviewed in the United States on September 6, 2023
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The one thing about reading books about politics & current events is that when they are published if you don’t read it immediately you will read certain sections and chapters that are already “old news.” Don’t get me wrong this book has those moments, but the vast majority are on point.
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BookLover
5.0 out of 5 stars Great book - excellent
Reviewed in the United States on July 27, 2021
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Many of us centrists lean conservative, but the Leftist media can make us really upset. Ben's chapter 7 is a masterful examination of editor Walter Lippmann's " legacy" - context for the rise of fake news. "Crowdsourcing the Revolution" in chapter 8 discusses how social media companies (Twitter) encourage "viralty." Ben's great gift is his ability to bring past cause/effects into the current mind set, and how communication platforms can distort attempts to frame arguments. I suspect that some of the reviews of this book are from people who never it. The most disturbing section was Ben's analysis of the Leftist "...repeat and believe - or be labeled evil." His book is a very readable, fact-based discussion of people and entities in power who have created this Woke "rules" culture and the new vocabulary that justifies their assumed "authority." Thought provoking. Ben is a voice of sanity showing the obfuscation and hypocrisy of the Left.
32 people found this helpful
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Dr Brian Keating
5.0 out of 5 stars A Moment of Inertia!
Reviewed in the United States on July 27, 2021
Verified Purchase
A worthy successor to Ben's previous books, The Authoritarian Moment takes off where those left off. Ben writes for the long term, sort of a younger version of Taleb's "Incerto" series, one can only glimpse the penumbra of the emanations of his conservative cultural commentary from a perspective in the far-off future. If you have an open mind, you will find this book fascinating, especially it’s commentary on the impact on scientific and cultural institutions far outside the Ivory Tower of Academia, where, Ben argues, the Left's authoritarian impulses originated. The book only slightly misses the mark when it comes to the aspects of 'authoritarianism ' Ben presumably respects such as religion -- Ben is Orthodox after-all.

In other words, if authoritarianism is good for God, in what other circumstances is it not only tolerable, but essential? No big deal. I will discuss this lone lacuna with him on my podcast in the very near future.
8 people found this helpful
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Top reviews from other countries

Brian McIntosh
5.0 out of 5 stars Inspired to believe again!
Reviewed in Canada on November 22, 2021
Verified Purchase
Ben has a way of presenting his views with a clarity that allows everything we’ve seen and heard lately come together in a picture that confirms what is happening not just in America but in many democratic nations around the world. The epidemic has brought it to the forefront. If we stand for freedom and stand with each other we will survive this.
One person found this helpful
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bdf
5.0 out of 5 stars Good read
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on August 20, 2021
Verified Purchase
A great exposition on the topsy turvy world we are living in due to the dominance of crazy leftism. A bit short on 'what to do'.
9 people found this helpful
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JohnA
5.0 out of 5 stars You gotta read this one!
Reviewed in Australia on July 7, 2023
Verified Purchase
Issues the necessary challenge to live real life, not to buckle to the lemmings of the day.

It's tough times which call for tough love and strong backbones.
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Rafael
5.0 out of 5 stars This book ought to be forbidden
Reviewed in Canada on August 27, 2021
Verified Purchase
This book ought to be forbidden. It talks too much sense. We need to protect the Utopia!

Imagine the irony... Ben Shapiro does an amazing job at communicating his points with facts and well-thought-out arguments. Better read it before it gets banned.
9 people found this helpful
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Amanda Meder
4.0 out of 5 stars Short weekend read
Reviewed in Germany on October 12, 2021
Verified Purchase
I definitely enjoyed this book. It's not that long of a read and not too complex. The average person can read this and not feel confused. He's no Thomas Sowell, but makes some pretty valid points. Granted, most of the points Ben uses are commen sense. If a conservative is looking to read this book, he's not going to learn much. It's just a bunch of things that reinforces what a modern conservative already knows and believes in.
3 people found this helpful
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