Goldberg, Jonah 1969- (Jonah Jacob Goldberg)

PERSONAL:

Born March 21, 1969, in New York, NY; son of Sid and Lucianne Goldberg; married Jessica Gavora (an author and speechwriter); children: Lucy. Education: Goucher College, B.A., 1991. Politics: Conservative. Religion: Jewish.

ADDRESSES:

Home—Washington, DC. Office—National Review, 221 Pennsylvania Ave. S.E., Washington, DC 20003. E-mail—[email protected].

CAREER:

Lucianne Goldberg Literary Agency, New York, NY, vice president, 1991—; teacher in Prague, Czech Republic, 1991-92; American Enterprise Institute, Washington, DC, researcher, 1993-94; New River Media, Washington, DC, producer, 1994; producer of Think Tank with Ben Wattenberg, Public Broadcasting Service, 1996—.

Regular political commentator on the Cable News Network (CNN), guest host on CNN's Crossfire, and regular panelist on CNN's Late Edition with Wolf Blitzer. Other television appearances include Good Morning America, Larry King Live, Today, Nightline, Hardball with Chris Matthews, Politically Incorrect, Special Report with Brit Hume, Geraldo, and the National Broadcasting Corporation (NBC) Nightly News. Also guest on numerous radio programs.

AWARDS, HONORS:

Lowell Thomas Award, International Platform Association, 2001, for work as an Internet journalist.

WRITINGS:

Liberal Fascism: The Secret History of the American Left, from Mussolini to the Politics of Meaning, Doubleday (New York, NY), 2007.

Contributing editor, National Review, Washington, DC; founding editor, National Review Online, Washington, DC; editor and contributor, "Goldberg File," for the National Review Online, 1988—. Also contributor to various periodicals, including USA Today and the Los Angeles Times.

Wrote and produced the documentaries, Gargoyles: Guardians of the Gate, 1995; Notre Dame: Witness to History, 1996.

SIDELIGHTS:

Jonah Goldberg was born on March 21, 1969 in New York, New York, and earned his undergraduate degree from Goucher College in 1991. He has worked in a number of careers, including as a vice president of the Lucianne Goldberg Literary Agency, which is owned by his mother; as a teacher in Prague, Czech Republic; as a researcher for the American Enterprise Institute in Washington, DC; and as a producer for New River Media. He is the writer and producer of two documentary films, Gargoyles: Guardians of the Gate, 1995, and Notre Dame: Witness to History, 1996. He has also served as the producer of Think Tank with Ben Wattenberg for the Public Broadcasting Service. Goldberg has contributed to a number of periodicals, including USA Today and the Los Angeles Times. He is best known though as a contributing editor and columnist for the National Review Online. He is also the founding editor and a contributor to "Goldberg File," a regular column for the National Review Online. As a political columnist, he is well known for his conservative point of view. His book, Liberal Fascism: The Secret History of the American Left, from Mussolini to the Politics of Meaning, published in 2007, takes a controversial approach toward fascism, claiming it to be a left-wing political stance rather than the more traditional right-wing, and places modern-day liberals firmly in the position of the descendents of twentieth-century fascist regimes.

In Liberal Fascism, which has raised the ire of many liberal politicians and journalists, Goldberg maintains that the political knowledge of the previous sixty years has been incorrect in claiming that Mussolini, Hitler, and fascist political agendas in general fell on the right-hand side of the political spectrum. Instead, Goldberg believes that fascism is actually a leftist political concept. In addition, he contends that a number of political figures who were never considered to be fascists over the course of history actually uttered fascist doctrine, placing such lofty individuals as U.S. Presidents Woodrow Wilson and Franklin Delano Roosevelt into this category, as well as former U.S. Senator, presidential candidate, and current Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. Goldberg's argument stems from his insistence that the idea of fascism as a right-wing political position is actually an error that originated during the middle of the twentieth century. He states that Mussolini, in fact, was a right-wing socialist over the entire course of his life, and was only labeled as a fascist due to his decisions during World War I. At some point in time, right-wing socialism became synonymous with fascism, and the right-wing descriptor was carried over. In an interview with Alex Koppelman for Salon.com, Goldberg commented: "In the American context fascists get called right-wingers even though there is almost no prominent fascist leader—starting with Mussolini and Hitler—who if you actually … looked at their economic programs, or to a certain extent their social program, where you wouldn't locate most if not all of those ideas on the ideological left in the American context." He also noted that somewhere along the line, primarily as a result of World War II and its outcome, fascism became a shorthand term for evil, much in the way that the term liberal eventually became associated with all things soft and emotions-based, leading to the use of the term "bleeding-heart liberal."

It is not Goldberg's intention to claim that modern-day liberals are Nazis, nor does he suggest that the liberal politicians he names are evil. He does, however, point out that if one was to take certain aspects of modern liberal agendas point by point, the extremism of some of them falls well in line with fascist political processes, if not with the actual political goals. For instance, Mussolini's idea of totalitarianism referred in his day to a society in which everyone participated and belonged—a sense of total unity. Conversely, certain aspects of modern public policy could possibly appear to have fascist or dictatorial leanings, such as the ban on smoking in restaurants or in some cases in any public location, even outdoors. While it could be said these laws are enacted with the purpose of protecting nonsmokers from secondhand smoke, they also revoke the rights of smokers, in a sense that they no longer have the right to be unhealthy if they so choose. Other legislation and proposed legislation regarding various health risks, Goldberg believes, can be applied similarly.

Over the course of Liberal Fascism, Goldberg addresses many modern-day liberal policies and traces them back to what he states are roots in fascist principles. He looks at a number of different liberal ideas, ranging from the environmental movement to the attitudes of Hollywood, and the principles espoused by the Democratic Party. He likens the public image held up of Kennedy, both during his presidency and in the years following his assassination, to a fascist politician engaging in theatrics to sway his audience. He also compares FDR's New Deal program to some of Nazi Germany's policies; however, this association is perhaps less convincing for most liberal and even some conservative readers.

Despite its controversial nature and the strong criticism it faced from a number of critics and authors of Web logs in particular, Goldberg's Liberal Fascism received praise from a number of reviewers for its intriguing ideas and thorough research, if not for the book's overall thesis. A Publishers Weekly reviewer stated that the work's "tone suffers as it oscillates between revisionist historical analyses and the application of fascist themes to American popular culture," but praised it overall. Booklist reviewer Bryce Christensen stated that the book is "certain to attract interest—whether critical or laudatory—across the political spectrum." Paul Johnson, a contributor to the National Review, declared that "the book is meaty with little-known facts, audacious intuitions, and sophisticated persiflage." Andrew Potter, in a review for Maclean's, stated that "Goldberg has a point. If we allow ourselves to call ‘fascist’ every politician or party that we find revolting, then we are depriving ourselves of a very useful concept." Potter noted, however, that "the solution to partisan idiocy is not more partisan idiocy—all things said and done, FDR was no more a fascist than George W. Bush is a terrorist."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

Booklist, December 15, 2007, Bryce Christensen, "Liberal Fascism: The Totalitarian Temptation from Hegel to Whole Foods," review of Liberal Fascism: The Secret History of the American Left, from Mussolini to the Politics of Meaning, p. 8.

Columbia Journalism Review, May 1, 2002, "Red Meat and Flying Monkeys: Jonah Goldberg's Other National Review," review of Liberal Fascism, p. 57.

Commentary, March 1, 2008, "Mussolini's Ghosts?," review of Liberal Fascism, p. 63.

Editor & Publisher, September 3, 2001, "Et Cetera," author information, p. 24; February 8, 2007, "Liberal Bloggers Paying Iraq Bet Offered by Conservative Pundit," author information; October 27, 2007, "Liberal Fascism, Book by Columnist Jonah Goldberg, Hacked at Amazon.com"; January 16, 2008, "Jon Stewart Goes after Jonah Goldberg and ‘Fascism’—He Responds," author information.

First Things: A Monthly Journal of Religion and Public Life, February 1, 2008, "You're Possibly Not Familiar with This Earlier Version of the Cole Porter Song," review of Liberal Fascism, p. 71.

Maclean's, January 21, 2008, Andrew Potter, "That's the Trouble with Abusing the F-word," review of Liberal Fascism, p. 12.

National Review, February 11, 2008, Paul Johnson, "Poisoned Root," review of Liberal Fascism, p. 46.

New Republic, March 12, 2008, "Jackboots and Whole Foods," review of Liberal Fascism, p. 35.

New York Times Book Review, December 30, 2007, David Oshinsky, "Heil Woodrow!," review of Liberal Fascism.

Publishers Weekly, November 26, 2007, review of Liberal Fascism, p. 44.

ONLINE

Alternet Web site,http://www.alternet.org/ (January 11, 2008), Brad Reed, "Jonah Goldberg's Liberal Fascism Brings Historical Revisionism to Comical New Heights."

American Prospect Online,http://www.prospect.org/ (January 8, 2008), David Neiwert, "Jonah Goldberg's Bizarro History," review of Liberal Fascism.

Antiwar.com,http://www.antiwar.com/ (November 11, 2002), Justin Raimondo, author information.

California Literary Review Online,http://calitreview.com/ (January 8, 2008), Paul Comstock, "Liberal Fascism? Jonah Goldberg Explains," author interview.

Salon.com,http://www.salon.com/ (January 11, 2008), Alex Koppelman, "We're All Fascists Now," author interview.

Starbucks Web site,http://www.starbucks.com/ (August 19, 2008), Jonah Goldberg, "The Way I See It," author interview.

OTHER

National Review Online Radio, January 8, 2008, "Jonah Goldberg on Liberal Fascism," audio file.