Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

Glenn Beck's introduction states that the Jamestown colony was an example of "pure socialism," though in reality the colony was funded by shareholders; it was a corporation established for the twofold purpose of establishing a foothold in the potentially profitable New World AND to turn a quick buck through mining gold. Beck also seems to think that private property was invented at Jamestown in 1613, when Governor Dale allotted small plots of land (which was granted to the corporation by a king who did not own it) to the colonists. Zap! Capitalism! Actually, Dale's action resembles a modern profit-sharing plan that grants workers a share in the corporation. The real success of the colony and the state of Virginia began because John Rolfe, Jamestown settler and husband of Pocahontas, started growing tobacco. Beck then implies that the shift from socialism to capitalism, which occurred only in his imagination, is somehow responsible for producing four of the first five presidents, including Thomas Jefferson, conveniently ignoring the fact that Virginia was built on land stolen from native Americans, land farmed by labor stolen from African slaves. Free land, free labor. The tripe continues in the book itself. Cleon Skousen, in a pathetically desperate attempt to connect American democracy to Biblical authority, makes the astonishing claim that the ancient Israelites invented representative democracy while wandering in the desert as described in the Book of Exodus. Two problems: the Exodus never occurred--at least not as described in the Old Testament, which states that 600,000 men of fighting age left Egypt. Adding in wives, children, parents, etc., we find that a mob approximating two million people somehow got away unnoticed. (Despite copious written records from ancient Egypt, there is no record of the sudden departure of two million slaves from the city of Rameses.) Not only that, archaeologists following the Biblical route have found no artifacts from this mass migration, so apparently two million people wandered in the desert for forty years and didn't lose anything, not a knife, a trinket, a bowl, pot, or worn out sandal. Second, Skousen's claim is not supported by his source. He claims that the Isrealites elected representatives for each ten families, each 100 families, each 1,000 families, etc. What Exodus actually says is that Moses was appointed the ruler of the people by God, but discovered that judging every petty disagreement that arose was simply too time consuming, so at the suggestion of his father-in-law, Jethro, he appointed not "representatives" but judges to arbitrate minor disputes. None were elected, not Moses, not his brother Aaron, not the judges, and not Joshua, who commanded the army. No elections, no voting, no democracy. If you doubt this, read Exodus yourself, then follow through with the book of Judges and the two books of Kings. The Israelites backslid repeatedly, beginning with the golden calf. This backsliding, or doing "evil in the sight of the Lord," is first punished by God, then corrected by the appointing of a judge. The sequence repeats itself through a series of divinely appointed judges, then a series of kings, beginning with Saul. Not one judge, not one king was elected. These are just two examples of how both Beck in his introduction and Skousen in the book itself continually revise history to support their own beliefs. This kind of dishonest imitation "scholarship" (or perhaps just sloppy, tunnel-vision imitation "scholarship") has become a staple of the right wing noise machine in recent years. Save your money. I wish I had.