War on Woke: Why the New McCarthyism Is More Dangerous Than the Old

by Alan M. Dershowitz

In War on Why the New McCarthyism Is More Dangerous Than the Old, Alan Dershowitz—#1 New York Times bestselling author and one of America’s most respected legal scholars—warns of the danger to the future of civil liberties and equality in America.   Alan Dershowitz has been called “one of the most prominent and consistent defenders of civil liberties in America” by Politico and “the nation’s most peripatetic civil liberties lawyer and one of its most distinguished defenders of individual rights” by Newsweek.   War on Woke exposes new McCarthyite tendencies and tactics of academia, the media, and the business community, especially high tech, that promote closed-minded intolerance. Dershowitz explains that the new woke McCarthyism challenges the basic tenets of the classic liberal (in the traditional sense) Freedom of expression; due process; presumption of innocence, right to counsel, equal application of the law; tolerance and respect for differing viewpoints, and that these bedrock principles are rejected by McCarthyite extremists on both the hard left and the hard right.   Analyzing the impact of this new woke McCarthyism through the relentless attempts to “get” Trump, the attention on the Bidens, and even its international manifestation relative to anti-Semitism, Israel, and the world, Dershowitz investigates the role of media and asks whether the US Supreme Court can constrain this growing threat as new woke McCarthyism becomes mainstream Americanism—especially as the current generation of students and young professionals become our political, media, business, educational, religious, and “influencer” leaders.  

Genres: Nonfiction

294 pages, Kindle Edition

Published March 19, 2024

About the author

Alan Morton Dershowitz is an American lawyer, jurist, and political commentator. He is the Felix Frankfurter Professor of Law at Harvard Law School. He is known for his career as an attorney in several high-profile law cases and commentary on the Arab-Israeli conflict.

He has spent most of his career at Harvard, where, at the age of 28, he became the youngest full professor in its history, until Noam Elkies took the record. Dershowitz still holds the record as the youngest person to become a professor of law there.

As a criminal appellate lawyer, Dershowitz has won thirteen out of the fifteen murder and attempted murder cases he has handled. He successfully argued to overturn the conviction of Claus von Bülow for the attempted murder of Bülow's wife, Sunny. Dershowitz was the appellate advisor for the defense in the criminal trial of O.J. Simpson for the murder of his ex-wife Nicole Simpson and her friend Ronald Goldman.

Reviews

[Mannie Liscum · Rating 3 out of 5]

The content-focus of Dershowitz’s book is timely and extremely important. However, the attempt to string together a series of previously written commentaries, letters, and Op-Ed into a coherent 232 pp prose was not entirely successful, in this readers opinion. The resultant text ends up being highly repetitive and less impactful than it might have been.

[Jay Cresva · Rating 3 out of 5]

In "War on Woke: Why the New McCarthyism Is More Dangerous Than the Old," esteemed legal scholar Alan Dershowitz delivers a compelling critique of contemporary "woke" culture, drawing parallels to the oppressive tactics of McCarthyism. Dershowitz argues that modern forms of intolerance, particularly within academia, media, and the tech industry, pose significant threats to foundational civil liberties such as freedom of expression and due process. While the book frequently references figures like Donald Trump, which some readers might find repetitive, its core message about the dangers of ideological extremism remains potent. Dershowitz's unwavering commitment to classical liberal principles offers a thought-provoking perspective on the current socio-political climate, making this work a valuable read for those concerned about the erosion of open discourse in society.

[Curran · Rating 3 out of 5]

Overall a pretty good summary of what’s going on with wokeness in a variety of contexts - politics, education, and media which highlights a very clear message of a select few in power that dictate what is being said and who’s allowed to be offended by it.

A lot of random side stories/topics make the book a bit difficult to follow from start to finish, as well as quite a few typos that are hard to ignore.

All in all a decent read, a bit more dense than I anticipated, but the perspective and thoughtful questions and points from Dershowitz were well thought out and made serious sense.

[Glenn Franco Simmons · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent book

Prof. Dershowitz has written another fair-minded, well-reasoned book. At stake are hard-earned freedoms. Some of the woke biases and prejudice highlighted in this book are shameful.