In The Survival of the Adversary Culture, Paul Hollander argues that the political and social forces brought into sharp focus by the term adversary culture are very much with us. Though the Reagan years have seen the virtual disappearance of the protests of the 1960s, Reagan himself is seen by many as the symbol of everything inauthentic in American society. On this foundation, the adversary culture thrives, and Hollander analyzes its progress.
His book has four parts. "'Moral Equivalence' and Critiques of America" brings together essays of George Kennan, the Sister Cities project, economic determinism, misconceptions of the Soviet Union, and Western European and Latin American anti-Americanism. "Subcultures of Criticism" critiques various groups of America's critics. "Political Escapism" discusses evidence that contradicts the glowing accounts of communist countries by Westerners who have either overlooked evidence that refuted their testimony or been misled. The epilogue is a "poignant memoir" (as Sidney Hook remarks in his foreword to the book) of Hollander's own experiences growing up as a Jew in Hungary, dealing first with Nazis and then communists. Here Hollander discusses the relationship between twentieth-century Hungary and his work as a sociologist.
THE WORLD & I excerpts a chapter from "Political Escapism" entitled "Model Prisons and Political Tourism under Socialism," in which Hollander explores the manipulation of Western tourists in communist countries. Incredibly, some Western tourists to the Soviet Union, China, Vietnam, and Cuba have seen prisons created solely for their benefit. In these countries and in Nicaragua, visitors have blindly accepted false information about political prisoners. The chapter has been
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