. . . in its own children.
A Substack entry in honor of David Horowitz, recently passed, from whom we the teachable have learned so much. We salute you, sir, and we will carry on to the best of our limited abilities.
Footnotes to Plato from the foothills of the Superstition Mountains
. . . in its own children.
A Substack entry in honor of David Horowitz, recently passed, from whom we the teachable have learned so much. We salute you, sir, and we will carry on to the best of our limited abilities.
Bill, I cannot forgive David Horowitz for his (ultimately unsuccessful but still harmful) attempt to cancel Diana West. Your visitors might be interested in hearing (the camera’s not on him) Sebastian Gorka defend her when Horowitz spoke on his “Black Book of Communism” eleven years ago; the late, great Stan Evans (McCarthy biographer) also defended West’s “American Betrayal” at that event. I’ll let others evaluate the worth of Horowitz’s replies.
“Diana West Controversy Erupts During Horowitz Q&A with Stanton Evans” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XRvLiW1dTQQ (14 minutes)
Horowitz’s 2020 tweet “Diana West is a deranged conspiracy monger with a bug up her ass about me because I published a negative review of one of her preposterous books” (https://x.com/horowitz39/status/1290658414008426499) only reinforces my dim view of his abuse of his standing in the conservative community.
West posted her receipts in “The Rebuttal: Defending ‘American Betrayal’ from the Book-Burners” (https://www.amazon.com/Rebuttal-Defending-American-Betrayal-Book-Burners/dp/1492884537)
I do, however, envy Horowitz’s memory of Isaac Deutscher and regret never getting the opportunity to interview him about the Trotsky biographer.
Tony
Thanks, Tony, for your contribution. I confess to knowing nothing of the contretemps between Horowitz and West, and I have never read any book by West. (Maybe you have one to sell me?) But I will follow your links to fill in my gaps.
You’re welcome, Bill. I apologize for the link to “The Rebuttal,” which doesn’t work: this one should: https://www.amazon.com/Rebuttal-Defending-American-Betrayal-Book-Burners/dp/1492884537
This dialectical masterpiece’s second half consists of the testimonies of a cloud of witnesses (Bukovsky, Stroilov, Evans to name just a few) supporting the message and the method of “American Betrayal.” Four bucks for the Kindle version; $8.60 for the attractively bound paperback.
Tony
Tony,
The first link is too muddled for me to understand. I couldn’t understand either Gorka or Horowitz, both of whom I respect. As for the second link, there is nothing at the other end of it.
Is there an article online by Horowitz that lays out his case against West? I am not going to buy a book by West rebutting Horowitz before I know what the latter is alleging.
No, Bill, there isn’t. Horowitz believed that one may go so far in exposing Soviet influence (not “control”) over the FDR administration, and no farther.
In 2013, it was brought to his attention that Diana West had crossed a line set by certain conservative consensus definers. Upon realizing this, he pulled a review of “American Betrayal” (AB) from his Front Page site. He alleged that the reviewer had been no more competent to review AB than Diana West was to write it.
Horowitz replaced it with “McCarthy on Steroids,” a seven-thousand-word hit piece by Ron Radosh, which cited none of her supporting evidence. Horowitz “invited” West to answer it and then claimed that she declined to do so . . . on that site! She wasn’t going to acquiesce in their unethical game.
“The Betrayal” fisks Radosh’s effort, which you may read here: https://www.frontpagemag.com/mccarthy-steroids-ronald-radosh/
That’s the best I can do, Bill, within the ambit of this combox.
Tony
Bill, apparently my original comment went up in cyberflames. Here’s a briefer version.
To answer your question, no. Ronald Radosh did that for him: https://www.frontpagemag.com/mccarthy-steroids-ronald-radosh/ Seven thousand words, not one of which acknowledges her documentary evidence for her claims.
Horowitz invited Diana to acquiesce in the unethical switching out the first review of American Betrayal (AB) after insulting the reviewer by saying he was no more competent to review AB than Diana was to write it.
The Rebuttal fisked Radosh’s hit piece. She didn’t decline the invitation to rebut. She just declined to do so on Front Page Magazine
Bill, also germane (and morbidly fascinating) is this essay of Diana’s from 2017, reprinted on her Substack last February: “The Rings Around the Rosenbergs: The high school where David Horowitz’s father taught was a veritable feeder-school for Soviet espionage” https://dianawest.substack.com/p/the-rings-around-the-rosenbergs
About this dimension of the issue, DH would not tolerate a word.—Tony
Tony,
Thanks for the Radosh article. Having read quite a bit of Radosh’s work, I find him very credible in general. As for the justice of his critique of West, I have no firm opinion, but given the ‘cred’ that Radosh has with me, I will give him the benefit of the doubt and not go further into this matter. The clock is running and I can’t read everything or have an opinion about everything.
And thanks for your 11:42 which I just now found. I’m afraid the combined ‘cred’ of Horowitz, Radosh, and Collier outweighs for me what I have read of West.