3 stars. For me, the virtue of this book was learning that the political left in France and Europe is the same as the left on this side of the pond--unrelenting ideologues, impervious to facts, and who revise history and the facts in their favor. "Stalinists have always subjected authors who publish critiques of Communism to ad hominem attacks, labeling them "simplistic" or "obsessive" or "visceral" anticommunists, the object being to discredit them as paranoids incapable of objective thought. Epithets like these were cooked up more than a half-century ago in the backrooms of the totalitarians' thought police, yet the non-Communist left, with pathetic servility, still uses them in their strivings to marginalize the heterodox."
Moreover, those on the left advocate for a utopian ideal which, because it does not exist in reality, can never be criticized. "Utopia is not under the slightest obligation to produce results: its sole function is to allow its devotees to condemn what exits in the name of what does not."
I docked the book a couple of stars because it feels rather like a disorganized rambling--like articles or conversations hastily cobbled together. Revel repeats himself frequently. Also, there was much detail on French politics that will not be of much interest to the average American. Nevertheless, the book excels in confirming of the ideological essence one discerns in the left--whether in Europe or America. ( )