The Things That Matter Most

The conservative newspaper columnist locates the sources of contemporary social problems in the libertinism and atheism of the 1960s, and makes a case for returning to traditional beliefs in God, family, and country. 150,000 first printing. $150,000 ad/promo.

A blustery foreword by Rush Limbaugh sets the tone for this collection of articles by syndicated columnist Thomas, who considers liberalism the greatest threat to contemporary America and condemns homosexuals, popular music and the "cultural, media and academic elites." Thomas's rhetoric makes his partisan views sound more populist than political: "Common sense" is a litany in these columns, and for Thomas "a little censorship," school prayer and the GOP make sense, while welfare, sex education and abortion do not. Baby boomers come under particular attack for "their relentless pursuit of social anarchy." Thomas shows no patience for those who, in his opinion, use their freedom of expression improperly, among them the ACLU and network television. Thomas's prose is blunt, his arguments visceral rather than reasoned. Accordingly, only on his terms and through his conception of American society might this book be considered anything but dogmatism. 150,000 first printing; $150,000 ad/promo; Conservative Book Club dual main selection; Doubleday Book Club alternate; author tour.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Short, acerbic takes on contemporary mores from a widely syndicated newspaper columnist who views the state of the union with considerable alarm. Thomas (whose monosyllabic first name could easily stand for Calvinist) trains his fire on two targets: ``the secular, libertine vision'' of the tuned-in, turned-on 1960s and the havoc that vision subsequently wrought upon an America Thomas idealizes as ``the virtuous, religious republic of our history.'' Relying mainly on anecdotal evidence, he offers a heartfelt, deadly earnest jeremiad detailing how the radical anti-establishment precepts embraced by many baby boomers in their salad days have endured--and helped to undermine traditional values. Thomas accuses boomers of having unwarranted confidence in big government's capacity to solve socioeconomic problems and of harboring ruinously permissive attitudes toward drugs, pornography, sex, and even violent crime. While he fulminates effectively against abortion on demand, no- fault divorce, single-parent families, homosexual marriages, socialized medicine, Hillary Clinton, declining rates of literacy and numeracy, and cultural/gender sensibilities run riot. Thomas has a pro-active program of his own. In brief, the author's ethic centers on what he views as the bedrock graces and verities of Western civilization: church, family, community, discipline, self- sufficiency, industry, individual initiative, objective standards of good and evil, and above all, an abiding faith in God. On occasion, the author sounds like a herald of theocracy: ``Values, personal and national, must be drummed into children so they will think and act in ways that promote American interests, and their own.'' For the most part, however, Thomas proves an articulate, principled spokesman for the conservative agenda. The text includes an awesomely self-congratulatory foreword from Rush Limbaugh. (First printing of 150,000; Conservative Book Club selection; $150,000 ad/promo; author tour) -- Copyright ©1994, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

Rush Limbaugh enthusiastically introduces this book, and on the strength of his round rightness' recommendation as well as columnist and commentator Thomas' own popularity, HarperCollins/Zondervan has ordered a 100,000-copy first printing. Rush's roots audience will easily go for Thomas, but softer Rushophiles may find him more resistible. Not because his ideals are different from Rush's or bad; few would argue that the things of Thomas' title--"faith in a personal God who is knowable, family, freedom to pursue one's dreams, and keeping most of the gain one gets through hard and honest work"--are not good for individuals and for society. Rather it's because Thomas so often misrepresents history and those he thinks are his adversaries. He seems to think, for instance, that the theological notion of the death of God was a creation of 1960s political radicals; he implies that New Left guru Paul Goodman approved of the reality of his perception that in the 1950s only scoundrels made appeals to patriotism and community spirit--Goodman certainly did not; he presents the Library Bill of Rights as something ALA's Office of Intellectual Freedom concocted in the mid-1980s to apologize for smut. These portrayals and others are factually and intellectually false. Thomas is much better when he argues not historically but as a moralist about contemporary events and popular culture. Then he speaks to our hearts and souls quite effectively indeed. Ray Olson