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| The Revolution: A Manifesto | 
 enlarge | Author: Ron Paul
Publisher: Grand Central Publishing
Category: Book
List Price: $21.00
Buy New: $11.90
You Save: $9.10 (43%)
New (48) Used (15) Collectible (6) from $10.75
Avg. Customer Rating:  710 reviews
Sales Rank: 106
Media: Hardcover
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 192
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.6
Dimensions (in): 8.1 x 5.2 x 0.9
ISBN: 0446537519
Dewey Decimal Number: 973.931
EAN: 9780446537513
ASIN: 0446537519
Publication Date: April 2008
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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| Customer Reviews:
Irritable tone but great content April 30, 2008
27 out of 34 found this review helpful
When you've been in politics as long as Ron Paul has, and you've seen the nation move so far away from principles which he regards as fundamental, I suppose it's natural for the man to feel exasperated. Unfortunately, getting impatient with the status quo is not usually the best way to entice people away from conventional opinions. The irritable tone in this book may therefore count against it as a tool for outreach. In addition, the book is not exceptionally well written; it seems a bit rushed.
The content, however, is so important, I feel more than willing to overlook the stylistic issues. Here's one of the last honest men in the federal government, and probably the last strict constitutionalist, telling it as it is.
While George W. Bush allegedly dismissed the Constitution as "just a piece of paper," its purpose was to preserve individual rights in the face of the inevitable tendency of people in power to seek more power. Thus the Constitution is not merely an historic document; it is our primary safeguard against a centralized system which exercises increasing authority in areas which are inappropriate.
This seems a reasonable enough concept, yet we have moved so far from it, it now sounds radical. Ron Paul's book attempts to show that in fact it is not radical at all, and the "revolution" in his title should not seem revolutionary. The values he advocates should remain fundamental to all the workings of the U. S. government. If Paul can convince a new generation of readers that this principle is as valid today as it was before World War II, this book will have served its purpose.
In the 1970s I read various warnings about the possible consequences of lobbyists and special-interest groups exercising increasing influence in Washington, news sources being bought up by just a handful of media conglomerates, the growth of the military-industrial complex, TV news becoming ruled by competition for ratings, unrestricted immigration, the growth of entitlement programs, and a disintegrating public education system. Thirty years later, it turns out that many of these warnings were correct, and we are now living with the consequences. The major news media have narrowed their coverage to the point where they omit more than they include and cannot deal with any topic that extends beyond sound bites. The two major parties have converged to the point where only their rhetoric is different; their actions are almost indistinguishable. Entitlement programs threaten to bankrupt the whole system, while encouraging people to depend on their government instead as a caregiver. A higher standard of living has placated the public, while poor education has reduced the capacity for independent thought.
Personally I doubt that there's a way out. But if there is any possibility for reversing any of these trends, Ron Paul is probably the best-situated person to inspire such a reversion, and this book is probably the best hope for spreading the message right now.
The book you've been waiting your entire life for April 27, 2008
25 out of 28 found this review helpful
This is the first time I have been compelled to write a review about a book on Amazon. The Revolution is the kind of book where it is almost impossible to imagine it not having some impact on the reader, whether they be conservative, liberal, or apathetic. Unlike other politicians, who are content in providing us with nothing more than catchy slogans and empty rhetoric, Ron Paul delivers in this quickly-readable volume a concise, coherent, and clear elucidation of what is wrong with America today. Through reason, logic, and historical example, Paul offers a scathing critique of a Big Government system which has plundered and impoverished the American people for the last hundred years. It also provides the blueprint for restoring this country to the sound policies that made it once great. It is so refreshing to read a book from a politician that cuts directly into the heart of the issues that matter, that no other politicians will even dare discuss, without insulting your intelligence in the analysis.
More so than any other book released in recent memory, this one has the ability of altering the course of history, and saving the American people from a looming economic disaster. The comparisons of this book to Thomas Paine's work that sparked the American revolution are entirely befitting; this truly is the Common Sense of our age.
You've read the other reviews. There is nothing more to say. Buy this book right now, without hesitation. In fact, buy more than one and distribute them to your local library, book club, church meetings, friends, family, and neighbors. There's a whole nation out there starved for the message of Liberty, and Ron Paul has given us to the tool to nourish their aching souls. Five stars.
One for the ages April 22, 2008
24 out of 26 found this review helpful
Ron Paul has written a masterpiece. He covers a multitude of issues, and does so in a way that is easy to follow. It's a short read and written in a manner that even those not normally interested in politics will enjoy. Very eye-opening and informative.
A must-read for anyone who wants to preserve the life of individual liberty we have all grown to cherish. Sick of the status quo no matter which party is in power? Finally someone who makes sense. Ron Paul is a true statesman, not a politician.
"One of the penalties for refusing to participate in politics is that you end up being governed by your inferiors." - Plato
If you've never been involved in politics before, there's never been a better time to get started than now. The Revolution - A Manifesto is the place to start.
 Right out of the park May 2, 2008
24 out of 30 found this review helpful
With all the other reviews on here it would seem that Ron Paul has quite a bit of a lovefest going on, but there is a good reason for that. This man speaks volumes of truth in a world that is starved for it. Congress would say it, the media won't even cover it...but as long as there is someone out there brave enough to call it like it is, there will be listeners.
Like his other books, Ron doesn't fail to state where we have jumped off track and the game plan for getting us back in line with a sane world. His points are well laid out and his answers just make sense.
While the book is really good it leaves me a bit sad to think about all that America will miss out on with Ron Paul not in the Oval Office.
I'd give the book five stars like most of the rest of folks reviewing but choose instead to go with four because I found the book too short and was left wanting to read another 500 pages.
 Overly simplistic anti-government tirade August 7, 2008
24 out of 68 found this review helpful
I can see both good and bad in Ron Paul's book THE REVOLUTION, but let me say right off the bat that I do not support his unrelenting libertarian attitude that government is the source of all evil. Paul rightly points out many problems that we face today - high federal budget deficit, runaway health care costs, belligerent foreign policy, presidential illegalities, and on and on - but in my view these are not the result of government per se, but rather are the fault of the astoundingly bad leadership we in the U.S. have suffered from in the last 10 or so years. There is an increasingly common view, which I sympathize with, that Republicans have deliberately tried to ruin government functions in this country in an attempt to cause more people to reject ALL government. See John Dean's 2007 book Broken Government: How Republican Rule Destroyed the Legislative, Executive, and Judicial Branches for a good example of this argument. I should note that Paul is somewhat more favorable to state and local governments since he says they're closer to the people and thus more controllable than a national government, though from his general anti-government attitude, I assume he would not wish for any governmental body to do much.
To take one illustrative example of the problems described in this book, Paul entirely blames government for the high cost of health care in the U.S. Here he quotes his hero, the economist Ludwig von Mises, who said that "government interventions create unintended consequences that lead to calls for further intervention, and so on into a destructive spiral of more and more government control." Yet one glaring discrepancy here is that most developed countries have much MORE government intervention in their health care systems than we do, yet health care costs in the U.S. are much HIGHER than anywhere else in the world! Nor does he mention the abuses of health insurance companies in this country. What can I as an individual do to deal with those companies? What good is freedom from government if we're thus trampled by big business instead? We need government to set some fairness standards with health insurance. But Paul would never propose such a thing, since that would dilute his black-and-white view that government is all bad and private enterprise is all good. So Paul ignores the problem. The same is largely true with the environment, where he at least supports the concept of environmental protection, yet barely discusses the matter, and for instance does not mention how to deal with the worldwide problem of global warming. Might we need government to do something here? Heavens!
But as I said at the beginning, I do agree with Paul in some regards. For example, he has a good point that our government has gone beyond the powers that the Constitution explicitly granted. I agree that if Congress wants to do more than that, the Constitution should be amended rather than using the "elastic clause" to mean that Congress has infinite powers. I also agree with his emphasis that we must roll back our foreign empire for both economic and practical reasons. He has been adamantly opposed to our invasion of Iraq, and here is an issue that we agree on. (Another reviewer here has a good point, though, that our departure from the Middle East, which Paul advocates, would not be sufficient to deal with Islamic terrorism.) However, although I agree with Paul on some points, and he certainly paints a vivid picture of some enormous problems that we face in the decades ahead, what I am opposed to about THE REVOLUTION is Paul's relentless anti-government tirade that extends to virtually all issues, and which I believe is overly simplistic, sometimes to the point of absurdity.
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