Download Radical Son: A Generational Odyssey epub

I have bought 11 copies of this autobiography of David Horowitz. I give it to everyone who will read it for the wisdom and insight his life gives, from being reared a Communist, to idealizing the party and working to bring Communism to young people in forming the SDS in the 60's, to being disillusioned and becoming a conservative. An interesting and exciting journey. I lived through the 60's and missed so much of the history being made and the reason for so much upheaval among young people and found it enlightening to revisit that era.

This is the journey of David Horowitz warts and all. He grew up in a household of card carrying Communist parents who because they were Jewish didn't really feel that America was that special---there were many doors and neighborhoods closed to them. His father, though he was involved in the usual boyhood father/son sports like swimming in the lake spending time at the seaside,never really gave David a lot of encouragement and throughout his life and well into adulthood when David became a well known writer, his father was still critical of him. It didn't matter that their ideologies were the same, committed to leftist leaning politics.

When David Horowitz completed his studies at Columbia, he married, and ultimately ended up at Berkeley in the early 1960s in the era of the Vietnam War when radical forces and protestors were occupying the University of California there. He began writing for left wing publications and was very involved in left wing organizations, like the Black Panthers. He was committed to finding the funds for the school sponsored by the organization and became part of the board of directors. What he discovered though, is many of the powers that be in the Black Panthers were very reluctant to accept his suggestions and that their solution to many problems was violence---against the police or "pigs" and anyone who remotely disagreed or didn't follow the mantra of Huey Newton. It was when a friend of David's was murdered that he began to distance himself from this group and do some real soul searching.

Horowitz is a very introspective writer. He explores his feelings and sometimes failings when he discusses his personal life--his marriage, affairs, and his propensity for falling for needy women. He was with his first wife, Elissa for twenty years and he is very descriptive of how she was the ultimate stay at home mom and rejected by the women in David's New Left group. Ironically, he points out, all of those women had marriages that ultimately fell apart. He was the father of four children and admits that it was his relationship with them in part, that made him realize that everyone is different and that it's important to accept them for who they are instead of trying to make people fit a mold. As a parent, he started to think in terms of what became known as "second thoughts."

It was ultimately Horowitz' discovery that instead of helping the "oppressed" the New Left was actually harming them by encouraging dependence, and mostly advocating violence and destruction as the way to accomplish their goals.

Horowitz is certainly a talented writer and he leaves no stone unturned. Someone made me aware that he travels with a bodyguard and after reading this book, I'm not surprised. He offended a lot of people that he formerly associated with who considered him a traitor to the cause. Some of the chapters where he describes what he writes got a bit too verbose and it was hard for me to concentrate. I really enjoyed the chapters where he was asked to write biographies of such families as the Rockefellers, Kennedys, and even the automakers, the Fords. He discovered especially with the Rockefeller family that they had some third generation folks who were radicals and not so complimentary of their ancestral family. It was when he researched the Fords that he became impressed that they were in fact, in most instances, the perfect example of those that start from the bottom and work themselves up to become successful.

I am encouraged to read more of his books. He certainly is a prolific writer and look forward to hearing more from him!

Updated: April 30, 2014

What a fascinating book. I had no idea how dark and what ties to hard-core communism the 60's and 70's leftist movements were.
Horowitz has total cred to write about it too, having been raised by communists and lived deep, deep in the radical left in Berkeley.
He also blows the lid off how the AIDS crisis was handled.
He is a serious writer and this book is an eye opener, no matter where you are on the political spectrum

I picked this book up after hearing it mentioned in a conversation, so glad I did. What a tremendously talented writer
David Horowitz is, his prose flows with each page leaving me reading till the wee hours of the night.
His book provides insight to the workings of the left's politics, their roots of communism and strategy to replace our
democracy with such. His writings are relevant to what our country is faced with today through the continued engineering from the Left "Progressives."
The background of the Weatherman, Bernadine Dohrn & Bill Ayers circle the skepticism involving our
own president Obama. Then of course there's our own home grown Hanoi Jane Fonda and her once hubby, Tom Hayden. Their combined roles
and attempts to overthrow this country are nothing short of treasonous.
This book is one I recommend to everyone whose company I share or meet, thats how
valuable the information is in understanding just what this great country of ours is up against. My next purchase,
Mr. Horowitz's, " Destructive Generation." Thank you,
David for this incredible book and the soul searching it must have taken you to see it through,you're a brave soul for exposing the Left and its factions.

I agree with Richard A Roberts' post on May 26, 2015, "A must read to understand a radical socialist", and I do recommend it. However, the title should have been, "The History of the Communist Party in America". The insight he demonstrates and the education he delivers on socialism and progressives is invaluable but, I guess, I expected
to enjoy a more personable chronicle. Thought I would never get through it, but still my admiration for David Horowitz grows. Thanks Mr. Horowitz
for the education.