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  • The Right Side of History

  • How Reason and Moral Purpose Made the West Great
  • Written by: Ben Shapiro
  • Narrated by: Ben Shapiro
  • Length: 6 hrs and 6 mins
  • 4.6 out of 5 stars (296 ratings)

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The Right Side of History

Written by: Ben Shapiro
Narrated by: Ben Shapiro
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Publisher's Summary

America has a God-shaped hole in its heart, argues New York Times best-selling author Ben Shapiro, and we shouldn't fill it with politics and hate.

In 2016, Ben Shapiro spoke at UC Berkeley. Hundreds of police officers were required from 10 UC campuses across the state to protect his speech, which was - ironically - about the necessity for free speech and rational debate.

He came to argue that Western civilization is in the midst of a crisis of purpose and ideas. Our freedoms are built upon the twin notions that every human being is made in God’s image and that human beings were created with reason capable of exploring God’s world.

We can thank these values for the birth of science, the dream of progress, human rights, prosperity, peace, and artistic beauty. Jerusalem and Athens built America, ended slavery, defeated the Nazis and the Communists, lifted billions from poverty, and gave billions spiritual purpose. Jerusalem and Athens were the foundations of the Magna Carta and the Treaty of Westphalia; they were the foundations of the Declaration of Independence, Abraham Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation, and Martin Luther King, Jr.’s Letter from Birmingham Jail.

Civilizations that rejected Jerusalem and Athens have collapsed into dust. The USSR rejected Judeo-Christian values and Greek natural law, substituting a new utopian vision of “social justice” - and they starved and slaughtered tens of millions of human beings. The Nazis rejected Judeo-Christian values and Greek natural law, and they shoved children into gas chambers. Venezuela rejects Judeo-Christian values and Greek natural law, and citizens of their oil-rich nation have been reduced to eating dogs.

We are in the process of abandoning Judeo-Christian values and Greek natural law, favoring instead moral subjectivism and the rule of passion. And we are watching our civilization collapse into age-old tribalism, individualistic hedonism, and moral subjectivism. We believe we can reject Judeo-Christian values and Greek natural law and satisfy ourselves with intersectionality, or scientific materialism, or progressive politics, or authoritarian governance, or nationalistic solidarity.

We can’t.

The West is special, and in The Right Side of History, Ben Shapiro bravely explains that it’s because too many of us have lost sight of the moral purpose that drives us each to be better, or the sacred duty to work together for the greater good, or both. A stark warning, and a call to spiritual arms, this audiobook may be the first step in getting our civilization back on track.

©2019 Ben Shapiro (P)2019 HarperCollins Publishers

What listeners say about The Right Side of History

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common sense look at politics and how we got here

I was a tad skeptical in the beginning and how the connections would conclude but I wholeheartedly recommend it.

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4 people found this helpful

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I like Ben, but...

In one phrase: God and USA good, most everything else bad.

I like Ben, and this books has some key messages; however, it is a pseudo-historical account to justify his own version of history.

Nothing wrong with that, c’est la vie after all; I just expected something different, with more objectivity perhaps.

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3 people found this helpful

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Enjoyable

Though I took issue with a few things, I found Ben's overall case to be well reasoned and articulate. It seems like a good jumping off point to learn more, which he encourages in the book. It leaves me somewhat more hopeful than I was before going through it.

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good start, but ends too biased

vgood start, but ends too biased. more political than balanced history. no real solutions to solve the societal dishrunt

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Very close to the mark

The author has done several hard things very well in this book, although there are some misses here. I don't feel the author has correctly understood the kind of ally Kant was in this narrative, as one who highlighted the importance of revelation, and one whose usage of the word "reason" was so expansive that he could easily be mischaracterized as one who would ever want reason without faith.

This book desperately needs someone like René Girard in this conversation, and John 6's "To whom shall we go?". I feel as though the author is just observing the phenomena across history rather than really getting to understand the mechanisms at play. For the final advice to be individualistic appeals to western values, I can understand that leaning from a right-leaning author, but the problem is memetic and the solution is the exposition and despelling of that memeticism.

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Truth through reason

I have always loved listening to Ben Shapiro. This book is an unbiased dive into history, philosophies, ideals and virtues. This book is pleasantly informative through it’s debate of the current American culture against true principles. I will be purchasing the hard copy as well. Fantastic listen!

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Fantastic!

If you love history, philosophy, politics and learning in general, I can’t recommend this book enough!

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Great book! One of the best

Being a regular listener of the Ben Shapiro Show I was thinking what more could Ben have to say? But let me tell you, this book was thorough and well researched. An excellent case for judah-christian values and the west. Will be listening to it again.

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It's a must read!

Next to the Bible, this is the most eye opening book I've ever encountered! I hope everyone in North America will read (or listen to) it, recognize the track we are on and how we need to move forward with reason instead of self realization! I recognize that my circle of influence is small but if I could, I'd persuade everyone to get a hold of The Right Side of History!

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Great

This book is for anyone who wants to more understand the foundation of the USA and why they are important to uphold.

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