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Amazon.com Review
Look again at the title of this book: it's not a question, but a statement. "America is the greatest, freest, and most decent society in existence," writes Dinesh D'Souza. "American life as it is lived today [is] the best life that our world has to offer." There are those who hate it, or at least essential elements of it, from radical Islamists to the likes of Patrick Buchanan (on the right) and Jesse Jackson (on the left). But they are wrong to hate it, and D'Souza grapples with all of them in this engaging and compelling volume. D'Souza is the author of provocative books such as Illiberal Education and The End of Racism, plus the appreciative Ronald Reagan. This may be his most personal book, with parts written in the first person as the India-born D'Souza describes his encounter with the United States, first as an immigrant and now as a citizen. Foreign authors such as Alexis de Tocqueville and Gunnar Myrdal have offered some of the most penetrating assessments of America, and D'Souza clearly shares in this noble tradition. "I am constantly surprised by how much I hear racism talked about and how little I actually see it," he writes. What's So Great About America is also vintage D'Souza, full of feisty arguments and sharp humor. He is perhaps better at explaining why America's critics are wrong than explaining why America's celebrants are right, but he's very good at both. Written in the months following the September 11 terrorist strikes, this book should find a large and receptive audience. --John Miller

From Publishers Weekly
It's easy to see the appeal of D'Souza's patriotic cheerleading. A former domestic policy analyst under Reagan, he sees the world in black and white: on one side, America "the best life our world has to offer" on the other, "the enemy, which conducts its operations in the name of Islam." To his credit, D'Souza (Illiberal Education, etc.) lays out his case well, although little here is new: America, he says, is a land of opportunity and freedom (D'Souza himself immigrated to the U.S. from India), and those who oppose American policy are simply jealous. But he doesn't stop with exhortations to fellow citizens about why the war against terrorism is righteous. D'Souza, a leading conservative thinker, revels in thumbing his nose at his ideological opponents: one of his chapters is provocatively named "Two Cheers for Colonialism." In this chapter, D'Souza trumpets the science, democracy and capitalism that he believes have led the West to global supremacy. Along the way, he spares no chance to bash those who he thinks have "denigrated" America and trivialized its freedom: multiculturalists, feminists, hippies and vegetarians. For the most part, D'Souza steers clear of criticizing his fellow conservatives, and when he does, as when he lectures them about the need to combine morality with freedom, he lacks specifics. In the end, reading D'Souza's book is similar to spending an hour listening to Rush Limbaugh on the radio his fellow travelers will love it; readers on the left will love to hate it.
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From Booklist
There is no question mark in this book's title. Neoconservative propagandist D'Souza, born in India and a naturalized American, means to tell his compatriots why they should love their country. He begins by explaining "why they hate us." "They" are radical Muslims, and "why" is because they are losing power to advancing liberal democracy. From that position, D'Souza steps back to answer some major complaints against the West, and the U.S. in particular, because of colonial exploitation, racism, and a tawdry commercial culture. He acknowledges those evils but maintains that the benefits of Western culture, such as technological development, equality before the law, and individual self-determination, far outweigh them. He contrasts the social strictures of India with the openness of the U.S., which makes it a magnet for immigrants, and observes that Americans too often measure their country, but not other nations, against absolute standards of rectitude. Comparing nations would make Americans realize that the U.S. is "the greatest, freest, and most decent society in existence." A warm as well as heated argument. Ray Olson
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Customer Reviews

The Foriegn Feeling of Feeling Good
The book clearly begins with an effort to draw a polarized view of the Islamic and Western divide. Beginning with assimilating Precleses and Greece to today's West and then drawing contrast with an Islamic faith that advocates a conquest of anything not Islamic. For the West to ignore the views of Islamic doctrine D'Souza claims to be a mistake. In as much as we lament the idea of a church run State, Islam is diametrically opposite with sound church influenced state in their beliefs.

D'Souza suggests that agreeing to disagree with Muslims is a form of liberalism that we must put in check. It is liberalism itself that is at dispute. It becomes an obstacle when demonstrating that our society is a moral improvement upon theirs.

In D'Souza's attempt to patronize America and at the same time qualify him to write the book, an interesting note can be taken. As an immigrant from India, D'Souza recognizes while that it is possible for he an Indian to become an American in America; it is not at all possible to do the same in India, or any other country. He suggest that this is one of the many reasons explored in the book that enables A Christian, Jew, Muslim to work side by side in life and give no thought to the ethnic "bad blood" in their history. Becoming an American is less about your place of birth but about embracing ideas. The evil that lurks within is the academic left who preach multiculturalism as the anecdote to patriotism. They preach that forcing Western ways on other countries is bad. Yet for example when the British left India in 1947, India chose to keep many of the British practices. I learned in reading Guns, Germs, and Steel, that this adoption on technology has been a primary part of the evolution of man since Adam and Eve. How's that for a drawing from the best of theology and evolution? While multiculturalism is teaching the traditional religions and customs of far away countries in our educational institutions as current practice, those practices are actually fading away in those countries. When I contrast this with books I recently read, with pictures of Yannomami Indians of the Brazilian Rain Forest wearing T-shirts and Levi cutoff shorts, I believe D'Souza. Sure there may be a place for the past, but evolution and improvement in a standard of living is what humans do.

In meeting the challenge of multiculturalism, D'Souza brings up the question of ethnocentricity. He demonstrates that indeed this is not the sole domain of the West. Ethnocentricity is an aspect of all civilizations and in fact the more primitive the technology and life style the more prominent the observed degree of ethnocentricity. In contrast the West has carried forward in the center of it's thinking the practice of the Greeks. Whereby we continuously question our identification of what is good. We are willing to look at other cultures for the answer. I can't help but recall in every book I have read on Islam that proclaims everything there is to know is already written in the bible. In fact in Iran science is shackled by it's limitation in terms, words not founded in the Koran.

Science, Democracy, and Capitalism are the three staples that set the West aside from the rest of the world. Now add progress. This is a Christian idea, meaning the fulfillment of a plan. In the West Human Beings build on the accomplishments and discoveries of others. With this idea, people in America have realized a society where the common man sees himself as equal to a CEO in terms of freedom to choose his destiny. In America money is not an end but a means to a longer, healthier and fuller life. Money enables immigrants to pursue a life with dignity, security and comfort that they would not have realized in their homeland. The American allows a person to choose his destiny and work towards achieving his dreams. D'Souza illustrates this by describing the conversation between the parent and child where the questions is asked; "What do you want to be when you grow up?" The phrase that captures the answer is the pursuit of happiness.

By mid book it is clear that D'Souza is staunchly opposed to the activist views of multiculturalism. While there is a sentiment within the academic left who impose their ideals on naive students; the majority of this movement comes form African-Americans. What I find so amusing in the arguments he uses you realize the rhetoric in one side or the other. Ones beliefs or desire places him to see one interpretation of history as rhetoric and the other side of the same story as fact. Take the example from the chapter on The Reparations Fallacy where Fredrick Douglas sites the Congressional view of blacks ....please use a keyword search ....cigarroomofbooks.blog.... to gain more of my insights and to share yours.

Outsider's Perspective
Interesting - an outsider's (D'Souza is from India) perspective on what makes America unique. The author is good cultural observer, and has a decent philosophic background.

Perpetually relevant
In the aftermath of 9/11 a lot of ink was spilt on trying to understand why America was attacked and how do America's enemies perceive this nation. Amidst all of the soul-searching a new theme had gradually emerged especially on the intellectual left: America was attacked because America is an awful country that has always been doing a lot of bad domestically and abroad. In words of one infamous preacher, America's chickens had come home to roost. And yet America to this day attracts more voluntary immigration than any other nation on Earth. One of those immigrants is Dinesh D'Souza, the author of this book. In that capacity he is one of the best people around to tell America what is so great about her, and to remind her many detractors that its greatest achievements are the true reasons why so many hate her. D'Souza is not an uncritical admirer of America, but someone who has truly lived an American dream and achieved a remarkable level of success in his professional life. Like many other immigrants from traditional cultures, he is also apprehensive about bringing up his kids in a country where there are no absolute and immutable social norms. But just like many others, he is also appreciative of living in a country that enables one to pursue one's dreams and not be restrained by the circumstances of one's birth. These are the enduring messages of the American way of life. So even though the book was written as a response to particular historical events and circumstances, it remains fresh and relevant for as long as the idea of American dream is fresh and relevant. And if history is any guide, this will remain true for many more years.