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Ameritopia: The Unmaking of America

4.28 of 5 stars 4.28 · rating details · 723 ratings · 142 reviews

The man of system . . . is apt to be very wise in his own conceit; and is often so enamoured with the supposed beauty of his own ideal plan of government, that he cannot suffer the smallest deviation from any part of it. He goes on to establish it completely and in all its parts, without any regard either to the great interests or to the strong prejudices which may oppose...more

ebook, 288 pages

Published January 17th 2012 by Threshold Editions

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Jan 31, 2012 Bryn Dunham rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: owned-books

Ameritopia is a brilliant book tracing the origins of utopian ideology and its influence on modern society. I wanted to read it again after I finished it knowing the knowledge one can obtain is timeless. Levin eloquently describes how despite thousands of years of human experience man will never create a perfect utopian society as it defied the nature of mankind. All attempts thus far have led to tyranny and human misery. Citing the writings of Plato's Republic, More's Utopia, Hobbes's Leviathan...more

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Mar 07, 2013 William Rocha rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Ameritopia by Mark Levin is simply a classic for Conservatism and for defending freedom itself. This book describes the statist agenda and how it can easily slip into a dystopian society. Mr. Levin begins to make his case by explaining certain Utopia’s presented by philosophers of the past such as Plato’s Republic, Thomas More’s Utopia, Thomas Hobbe’s Leviathan and Karl Marx’s Communist Manifesto. Mark Levin delves deep into their faults and how they crash unavoidably. Then he goes on to explain...more

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Sep 17, 2012 Ann rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This is a difficult book to read for anyone who loves America as originally designed by our Founding Fathers. It is not an easy read because Levin also delves heavily into philosophers who greatly influenced our Founding Fathers as well as philosophers who continue to influence the current progressive/liberal political party. Philosophy is not a "quick read" but so necessary to understand the "deconstruction" of the American dream.
The writings of such philosophical pioneers as John Locke and C...more This is a difficult book to read for anyone who loves America as originally designed by our Founding Fathers. It is not an easy read because Levin also delves heavily into philosophers who greatly influenced our Founding Fathers as well as philosophers who continue to influence the current progressive/liberal political party. Philosophy is not a "quick read" but so necessary to understand the "deconstruction" of the American dream.
The writings of such philosophical pioneers as John Locke and Charles de Montisquieu gave the Founding Fathers the framework for our Constitutional Republic. These philosophers greatly influenced our Founders who were committed to "respect for human dignity and life through the acknowledging of inalienable individual rights and liberties, to free enterprise and private property rights,, where those who work hard enhance not only their own lives but contribute to the wellbeing of society at large, to a representative govt. of divided authority and limited powers directed at preserving and protecting the individual's inalienable rights and liberties, and to a just law applied impartially to all individuals."
Levin looks, in detail, into the polar opposite philosophies of Plato in Plato's Republic, Thomas More in his book Utopia, Thomas Hobbes in his book Leviathan, and Karl Marx's Communist Manifesto. Common to all is this idea of "utopianism" which promotes the idea of a "paradisiacal" existence, the concepts of pseudo "ideal" societies in which a heroic despot, a benevolent sovereign, or an enlightened oligarchy claims the ability and authority to provide for all the needs and fulfill all the wants and needs of the individual in exchange for his abject servitude. In the utopian model outlined by all four of these philosophers, the individual exists to serve the state and to be reshaped and molded by the state and the state exists to serve the "mastermind's" cause.
Mark Levin chronicles the erosion of American liberties over a century of incremental inroads that have been creeping into our government ... going back as far as Pres. Wilson and Pres. FDR, as well as Pres. Johnson up to the current politicians. He gives a fascinating look at the introduction of Social Security and Medicare and Medicade as government programs aimed at making all Americans dependent on the government for their future health and well being ... enter the current debate over universal health care.
Levin ends his book by asking these questions,"Have too many among us already surrendered or been conquered? Can the people overcome the constant and relentless influences of ideological indoctrination, economic manipulation, and administrative coerciveness, or have they become hopelessly entangled in and dependent on a ubiquitous federal government? ... Is it accepted as legitimate and routine that the government has sufficient license to act whenever it claims to do so for the good of the people and against the selfishness of the individual?"
Abraham Lincoln said in 1838, " ... If destruction be our lot we must ourselves be its author and finisher. As a nation of freemen we must live through all time, or die by suicide." I pray that we are not yet at the point of complete national suicide. (less)

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Jul 21, 2012 Jeb rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I didn't know anything about Levin before opening this book. And, still don't know much. So, when beginning the book, I didn't know I should expect a polemic. (I'm not stupid, just ignorant).

I'm usually okay reading books by people with whom I profoundly disagree as long as they're reasoned. This book isn't. It starts off so poorly with Levin's 'definition' of utopia, that I gave up. I realized as he defined utopia so narrowly as to be meaningless, that there wouldn't be much point in going fur...more

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Mar 15, 2012 Dale rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Much more intellectual than I expected

Published in 2012 by Simon & Schuster Audio.
Read by Adam Grupper and the author, Mark R. Levin.
Duration: Approximately 8 hours.

Over the years I have listened to Levin's radio show from time to time (he used to be carried in my city) and what I always remember from that show is Levin's frequent bombastic outbursts, a kind of manufactured rage that was meant to punctuate his points but lost their punch as I realized that he wasn't just getting angry over s...more

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Mar 12, 2012 Jerry rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: politics

A very insightful analysis of the American Republic as designed by the founders and of the current progressive America as it has veered away from the original model which had made America exceptional.

Mr. Levin quotes and interprets Locke and Montesquieu whose philosophy greatly influenced the founders, and also quotes Plato, More, Hobbes, and Marx and shows how their philosophy appears to be the foundation of the modern American political system.

A key difference between the two philosophical s...more A very insightful analysis of the American Republic as designed by the founders and of the current progressive America as it has veered away from the original model which had made America exceptional.

Mr. Levin quotes and interprets Locke and Montesquieu whose philosophy greatly influenced the founders, and also quotes Plato, More, Hobbes, and Marx and shows how their philosophy appears to be the foundation of the modern American political system.

A key difference between the two philosophical schools is that the former values the individual and is based on the nature of man as he was created while the latter values the collective (as declared by the elites) and is based on impossible fantasies and deceptions.

Locke argued that knowledge is founded on experience. The natural state of man is perfect freedom and equality: “God gave the world to men in common, but since He gave it them for their benefit and the greatest conveniences of life they were capable to draw from it, it cannot be supposed He meant it should always remain common and uncultivated. He gave it to the use of the industrious and rational..."

Charles de Montesquieu in The Spirit of the Laws (1748) argued for the separation of powers among the legislative, executive, and judicial and that republican government does not work well over large regions and thus it is best to govern by a collection of smaller republican states.

The name Utopia comes from Sir Thomas More's novel of the same name in 1516. Utopia was a fictional island nation that featured plentiful goods to meet the needs of its people, every person (except rulers) being the same, houses all the same, everyone dressing the same, each family having a trade, to change trades one had to change families, farm harvest by compelling laborers from the cities, every city alike, no private property, no money, no poverty, 6 hour work day, each family with between 10 and 16 children, everything produced turned over to a central warehouse where each family takes only what they need, sick cared for in wonderful hospitals, but the chronically ill encouraged to commit suicide.

Thomas Hobbes' Leviathan in 1651 argued that men live in a constant state of conflict and thus can not be trusted to govern themselves. “The state of man … is a condition of war of everyone against everyone...” The answer is to turn over all his rights to a Sovereign and every other man also turning over his rights.

To contrast the founder's American Republic to today's Ameritopia, Mr. Levin first quotes Alexis de Tocqueville who, observing the new American republic in 1835, commented “Nothing is more striking to a European traveler in the United States than the absence of what we term government, or the administration. Written laws exist in America, and one sees the daily exercise of them; but although everything moves regularly, the mover can nowhere be discovered. The hand that directs the social machine is invisible... The administrative power in the United States presents nothing either centralized or hierarchical in its constitution; this accounts for its passing unperceived.” Then he quotes Tocqueville on the danger of what America could become if it pursues equality of outcome rather than sticking with liberty and equality of opportunity: "I seek to trace the novel features under which despotism may appear in the world. The first thing that strikes the observation is an innumerable multitude of men, all equal and alike, incessantly endeavoring to procure the petty and paltry pleasures with which they glut their lives. Each of them, living apart, is as a stranger to the fate of all the rest; his children and his private friends constitute to him the whole of mankind... Above this race of men stands an immense and tutelary power, which takes upon itself alone to secure their gratifications and to watch over their fate. That power is absolute, minute, regular, provident, and mild. It would be like the authority of a parent if, like that authority, its object was to prepare men for manhood; but it seeks, on the contrary, to keep them in perpetual childhood: it is well content that the people should rejoice, provided they think of nothing but rejoicing. For their happiness such a government willingly labors, but it chooses to be the sole agent and the only arbiter of that happiness; it provides for their security, foresees and supplies their necessities, facilitates their pleasures, manages their principal concerns, directs their industry, regulates the descent of property, and subdivides their inheritances; what remains, but to spare them all the care of thinking and all the trouble of living? Thus it every day renders the exercise of the free agency of man less useful and less frequent; it circumscribes the will within a narrower range and gradually robs a man of all the uses of himself. The principle of equality has prepared men for these things; it has predisposed men to endure them and often to look on them as benefits."

Then Mr. Levin describes present-day America: "The federal government has become the nation's largest creditor, debtor, lender, employer, consumer, contractor, grantor, property owner, tenant, insurer, health-care provider, and pension guarantor. Its size and reach are vast.” In 2010 the federal government spent 24% of GDP, in 2008 private sector regulatory compliance costs consumed 11.9% of GDP. Total unfunded obligations totals $61.6 trillion, $528,000 per household. Congress has established a massive administrative bureaucracy that unconstitutionally exercises legislative, executive, and judicial powers. The 2010 Federal Register totaled 81,405 pages. The number of criminal offenses is not actually known, but probably numbers in the tens of thousands.

How did we get from the America that Tocqueville observed in 1835 to the present? A major influence was the philosophy of Woodrow Wilson and Franklin Roosevelt. In 1908 Woodrow Wilson argued the president is to be as powerful as he can, the courts are to rewrite the Constitution at will, and the Congress is to rule over state legislatures without limits. Franklin Roosevelt in 1944 proposed his Second Bill of Rights which included the right to a job, a decent living, decent home, adequate medical care, a good education, and protection from economic fears of old age, sickness, accident, and unemployment. Levin argues “These are not rights. These are tyranny's disguise. By dominating the individual's property, the utopian dominates the individual's labor, by dominating the individual's labor, he dominates the individual. There is little space between Roosevelt's premise and the distorted historical views of Marx and Engels... Indeed, Roosevelt's worldview harks back to Thomas More's Utopia, a precursor to Marx's workers' paradise, where the individual's labor and property are ultimately possessions of the masterminds and subject to their egalitarian designs.”

Levin concludes, “It is is neither prudential nor virtuous to downplay or dismiss the obvious --- that America has already transformed into Ameritopia. The centralization and consolidation of power in a political class that insulates its agenda in entrenched experts and administrators, whose authority is also self-perpetuating, is apparent all around us and growing more formidable. The issue is whether the ongoing transformation can be restrained and then reversed, or whether it will continue with increasing zeal, passing from a soft tyranny to something more repressive... Have too many among us already surrendered or been conquered? Can the people overcome the constant and relentless influences of ideological indoctrination, economic manipulation, and administrative coerciveness, or have they become hopelessly entangled in and dependent on a ubiquitous federal government?”

All in all I found this to be a very worthwhile book. At times it is a difficult slog. I found myself having to reread pages and think about what is said. In the end, it is very clear to me that the Founders of the American Republic designed a precious and effective system that has gradually been torn down and replaced by an unsustainable utopian dream state that in the end crushes its citizens. (less)

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Mar 02, 2012 Lucas rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

The good news is: the American government is working tirelessly around the clock and running great deficits in order to create a perfect society just for you. The bad news is: if you have any work ethic, any ambition, any sense of worth as an individual, or if your idea of a good time is going to the store and deciding which type of lightbulb you will buy, then you are going to really REALLY hate it there.

Mark Levin is one of the most intellectual voices in the heated political arguments, and i...more

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Feb 29, 2012 Dan Makaon rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Although I learned a lot from this book, I found it hard to read. There were too many quotes and not enough exposition from the author, especially in the first half. It took a long time for me to grasp what point Levin was trying to make. Ultimately, it was clear but it seemed he was trying to prove a point by quoting and comparing political philosophers. I don't think that approach proves anything, but it does give background that helps one's understanding of political concepts. He could have m...more

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Feb 24, 2012 Patrick rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: ideas

Authors Epilogue:
MY PREMISE, IN THE first sentence of the first chapter of this book, is this: “Tyranny, broadly defined, is the use of power to dehumanize the individual and delegitimize his nature. Political utopianism is tyranny disguised as a desirable, workable, and even paradisiacal governing ideology.”

Plato’s Republic, More’s Utopia, Hobbes’s Leviathan, and Marx’s workers’ paradise are utopias that are anti-individual and anti-individualism. For the utopians, modern and olden, the individ...more

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Feb 14, 2012 Mike rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Mr. Levin gives an excellent overview of the political/philosophical thinkings of (in this order): Plato, Thomas More, Thomas Hobbes, Karl Marx, John Locke, Charles de Montesquieu, and Alexis de Tocqueville. If you have ever wanted to compare and contrast the philosophy underlying totalitarianism (society is supreme) to that underlying individual sovereignty (individual is supreme) then this is a good book with which to start.

Mr. Levin is, of course, on the side of individual sovereignty, and hi...more

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Jul 18, 2012 Jennifer rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Little did I know that Dystopian novels such as The Giver, The Hunger Games, 1984, etc., had inspiration from such philosophers as Plato, More, Hobbes, and Marx! However, each of these influential thinkers and philosophers invented or imagined Utopian societies with several common features to those imagined by Lois Lowry, Susanne Collins and George Orwell. The most noticeable feature is what Dave likes to call "Plan B" (or what we refer to in LDS doctrine as Satan's plan), which is the sacrifice...more

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Apr 23, 2012 Daniel rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

More Essential Reading from Mark Levin

Ameritopia, like Levin's other books, condenses several years of deep reading and contemplation into an easily understood narrative. Ameritopia provides an outline of thought and philosophy since the ancient Greeks. Ameritopia covers Plato's Republic, More's Utopia, Hobbes's Leviathan and Marx's Communist Manifesto and explains why the utopian fantasy of the left has never and can never be achieved, leading usually to horrible tyranny. Levin then covers the...more

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Feb 10, 2012 Andres rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: sonyreader

Mark is a very intelligent and educated man. This comes across more strongly in his books than on the radio, as the angry ranting does not carry over to the printed page. Don't get me wrong, he has every reason to be angry; unfortunately, telling half the population that they are idiots and to get off the phone is not a mature, convincing form of argument. This country has to be fixed via dialogue where we convince our deluded Liberal Utopians that their schemes are unworkable even if their inte...more Mark is a very intelligent and educated man. This comes across more strongly in his books than on the radio, as the angry ranting does not carry over to the printed page. Don't get me wrong, he has every reason to be angry; unfortunately, telling half the population that they are idiots and to get off the phone is not a mature, convincing form of argument. This country has to be fixed via dialogue where we convince our deluded Liberal Utopians that their schemes are unworkable even if their intentions are pure.

Anyway, back to the book... Mark spends a good portion of it reviewing Utopian writings that were known to our founding fathers, as well as Karl Marx's later version. He demolishes their assumptions in a logical and thorough manner, both using analysis as well as pointing out historical examples (where possible) when these delusions were attempted and failed miserably.

He follows this by reviewing and analyzing the writings on which the Founding Fathers and framers of our Constitution based their philosophies and plans when creating our great nation. He clearly explains why the three branches of government must be separate and independent, and why the Federal government was limited in power in comparison to the States' governments.

He wraps up by moving forward in time and discussing when our country started going down the wrong path (Woodrow Wilson's presidency, in case you were wondering) and how we've continued stumbling down it thanks to Utopians trampling over the Constitution in a deliberate, willful manner.

He really doesn't offer much hope, or a solution, other than go back to the way things were. And admittedly, that is the cleanest possible solution. But as others have said before, once you let the people vote themselves free pie, they ain't giving up their free slices. Social Security and Medicare are examples of this. People think they are paying into these programs when in fact they are actually paying for the people that came before them. Both programs will run out of money in the near future, but who will man up and say this is where it ends, and those of you who have paid into them but not collected benefits yet are shit out of luck?

Mark paints a clear picture, and I learned a few things I didn't know, while being very much entertained by his clear prose and no holds barred style. My one complaint is that he has a habit of repeating many of the quotes from historical sources. Some repeated 3 and 4 times. It gets to be annoying after a while, but thankfully there weren't many of these.

All in all a great book and should be required reading. The fact, which he points out, that more people in this country vote in American Idol than they do in the primaries proves that the idiots have won. Maybe if they're forced to read books like Mark's, we can start recovering them from the idiocy they've fallen into.(less)

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May 19, 2013 Yvonne Carter rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I highly recommend this book to anyone who has a desire to understand the significance of this great nation, how and why it was created, and especially the background understanding of the founders of this country and the government and constitution they formed. He thorough explores the false foundation and tyranny of a utopia. Political utopianism is tyranny disguised as desirable and workable. It is really anti-individual. He explains the writings of those who professed the thinking of a perfec...more

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Jul 08, 2012 Lee Ann rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Excellent! I thought this would be more of what I already hear on Levin's radio show - his political opinions always supported with scads of facts. He's no knee-jerk editorialist - which is the thing I love the most about him. He sounds a bit like a curmudgeon, but he's brilliant and never comes to the table without being fully loaded for bear. So I was unpleasantly surprised that Ameritopia was more like a text book - explaining the writers and philosophers that the left leans on to come up wit...more

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Jun 25, 2012 Bob rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

“Ameritopia” is well written, interesting and very informative. The author does a very good job, without getting bogged down, of evaluating and summarizing foundational works that have heavily influenced politics and politicians down through the ages. He looks at Plato’s “Republic”, Thomas Moore’s “Utopia”, Thomas Hobbes Leviathan” and Karl Marx’s “Communist Manifesto” . In each of these the author helps the reader to see the philosophy of man that each of the writers possess and shows how it is...more

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Mar 10, 2012 Bob Barrett rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Although I agree with the points of the author, I found the book a challenge to read. The author spends a lot time quoting philosophers who use a language that can be tough to understand. The author then makes a small comment about the quotes, but I found it hard to see how the author came to his conclusions. I was therefore forced to re-read the quotes to try to understand how the author came to his view. The first several chapters were mostly quotes of philosophers - too much so. There was not...more

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Nov 11, 2012 Julie rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This book is great ~ great ~ great. A bit difficult to read but worth it so hang with it. The most important view of covering the best political minds and the history of the greatest thinkers on the subject. It is HELPFUL to look at what thinking has shaped our present day system and political reason. The only critique I will make is what seems to be the *lumping* of all the thinkers together. It makes it a bit confusing and seems as though Levin is complaining about all of them. I don't like (f...more

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Dec 23, 2012 Don Weidinger rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Reviews of Thomas Moore’s Utopia, Hobbs’ Leviathan, Marx’s Communist Manifesto-no private property and mass extinction by Stalin-Mao-others, John Locke's essays and Social Compact on the individual and property rights as the great equalizer of opportunity, Montesquieu's balance of power in legis-exec-jud or king-parliament-judicial of enforce-made-interpret laws, Reagan-only 1 generation away, Lincoln 1838 fail from within, servitude decreases taxes, we do nothing better than what we do freely,...more

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Mar 01, 2012 Mike (the Paladin) rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I fully realize that many will look at this book and immediately decide they don't want to read it. This is a free country (for a while yet anyway) and that's cool. I do (believe it or not) understand. I'm going to make a request, that's all just a request.

Give this book a chance. Even if you know you're from the other side of the political spectrum give it a chance and think about it, that's all I ask, think about it. This book is not written tongue in cheek, it's not sarcastic, it's factual, w...more

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Jul 18, 2012 Nathan rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This book is a serious book on political philosophy. Levin summarizes the structure and tenants of utopian systems envisioned by Plato, Thomas More, Thomas Hobbes and Karl Marx. In contrast to those untenable systems, he articulates the philosophical origins of the American government.

The contrast presented in this book is similar to Thomas Sowell's "A Conflict of Visions" in which he contrasts competing visions he calls "constrained" and "unconstrained."

The history of the 20th century is litter...more

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Sep 22, 2012 Carine rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: usa, liberty, politics

Levin takes us on a tour of famous utopias imagined and written about during History (Plato's Republic, More's Utopia, Hobbes' Leviathan and Marx's and Engels' Communist Manifesto) and how they were doomed to fail, destroying individual rights on the way. He then reminds us about the origins of America's founding and her philosophical roots (Locke, Montesquieu) and why America has been successful as long as she has been faithful to her origins (Tocqueville).

Finally, and unfortunately, the conclu...more

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Feb 11, 2012 Dan rated it 1 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: politics

I was predisposed to like this book: a defense of liberty and individualism with serious emphasis placed on primary sources of original utopian thought. Unfortunately the author chooses only tiny fragments of his opponents' writings, so the chapter on Plato, for instance, contains only 5% Plato himself and 95% Levin saying and arguing against what he thought Plato meant. So even if Levin ends up on the right side, he's hardly convincing. And there are serious numerical flaws in later chapters on...more

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Jun 30, 2012 Jerry rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Mark Levin contrasts those that pursue utopian societies (whether Plato, Hobbes, More, or Marx) and the Founders. Levin gives an in depth look into the influence of John Locke and Baron Von Montesquieu on the founders and how that influence created a government based on laws and a correct understanding on man and God. He then shows how that government established by the founders stayed true to those principles through the observations writings of Alexis de Tocqueville. The ultimate question is...more

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Apr 30, 2012 Tresuiri rated it 1 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Holly moley this is a book for the far right libertarians. Seriously, one of the central tenants of this book is that we (as a country) need to reject modern society in the sense of the social net we have set up. I believe the author wants to turn back the clock to America in the 1920s or 1930s; wishful thinking for sure. If you've heard pundits state that FDR was 'the worst president ever' and wondered what obscure reference is being made - then this book will explain the pundit's position for...more

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Feb 10, 2012 Thomas rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

An amazing book. A must read for any who consider themselves American. A lot of history regarding the philosophical underpinnings of the founding of the United States of America, as well as the thoughts of the founders. And then on to the undoing of this great country, beginning with the Utopian Woodrow Wilson, on through F.D.R., Johnson and finally Barack Obama.

This book details, through their own writings, how those Presidents and many others, have sought to subvert the intent of the founders,...more

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Sep 06, 2012 Eddie Taylor rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Awesome book. Very insightful and Mark Levin does an outstanding job of describing the "utopias" - Plato's "The Republic", More's "Utopia", Hobbe's "Leviathan", and Marx's "Communist Manifesto" (Edward M. House's book, penned under Philip Dru, "The Administrator" would have been another good example as well especially given the fact that Mr. House was an adviser to Wilson)to demonstrate how "Tyranny...is the broad use of power to dehumanize the individual and delegitimize his nature." He then co...more

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Jan 24, 2012 William rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: history, political

This is the second book I’ve read by this author. I was not disappointed, his last book was great and so is this one. “Ameritopia” is simply the best book I’ve ever read for insightful information on the impending challenges we face from blind sighted uninformed liberals and especially the media. This book also shows why defending and upholding the Constitution is so crucial in defending and preserving our liberty and freedoms. The book is very easy to read and understand. Congratulations to Mar...more

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Jul 15, 2012 Jeff Chambers rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Conservative commentator Levin does a great job of mapping elements of philosophical classics like Plato's Republic, Hobbes' Leviathan, More's Utopia, & Marx's Communist Manifesto (all Utopian ideas) into today's terms. He illustrates that utopian's have been continuously at odds with the ideals set forth by Locke and Montesquieu which influenced the founding of United States (he defines this as Americanism). His conclusion is that what exists today is a both (hence Ameritopia). Ameritopia a...more

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Mar 01, 2013 Chad rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Levin is very thorough in describing what leads to two opposing political ideologies, Utopia and the America that our Founding Fathers constructed. He draws heavily on past thinkers to build a very well put together historical view of how we got to where we are. I found the first half of the book much harder to read than the last half because of the volume of lengthy quotes from people such as Plato. That being said, the way he used those early thinkers to build his narrative was really well don...more

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About Mark R. Levin

Mark Levin has become one of the hottest properties in Talk radio, his top-rated show on WABC New York is now syndicated nationally by Cumulus Media. He is also one of the top new authors in the conservative political arena. Mark's radio show on WABC in New York City skyrocketed to Number 1 on the AM dial in his first 18 months on the air in the competitive 6:00 PM - 8:00 PM time slot. Mark's book...more Mark Levin has become one of the hottest properties in Talk radio, his top-rated show on WABC New York is now syndicated nationally by Cumulus Media. He is also one of the top new authors in the conservative political arena. Mark's radio show on WABC in New York City skyrocketed to Number 1 on the AM dial in his first 18 months on the air in the competitive 6:00 PM - 8:00 PM time slot. Mark's book Men in Black was released February 7, 2005 and quickly climbed to Number 3 in the nation on the New York Times Best-Seller list. When your book is endorsed by Rush Limbaugh and Sean Hannity, you know you have a winner on your hands. In a short period of time, Mark has become one of the most listened to local radio Talk show hosts in the nation.

Mark Levin took over the WABC 6:00 PM slot on September 2, 2003. Before that, he hosted a popular Sunday afternoon program. "He's smart, witty, and fast on the draw," according to WABC Program Director Phil Boyce. "He has this sharp sarcastic wit that can easily stun his opponents. I know I would not want to debate him." Mark's show follows the ever popular Rush Limbaugh and Sean Hannity on WABC, but everyday he manages to come up with a new twist on the day's top news events, as well as his own unique information. His passion and intellect have made him a favorite of tens of thousands of radio listeners in the New York City area.

Mark has been a frequent guest and substitute host on The Sean Hannity Show, and has also been an advisor to Limbaugh, who frequently refers to him on the air with the nickname "F. Lee Levin." He is perhaps more well-known for his nickname, "The Great One," coined by his friend Hannity.

Mark Levin is one of America's preeminent conservative commentators and constitutional lawyers. He's in great demand as a political and legal commentator, and has appeared on hundreds of television and radio programs. Levin is also a contributing editor for National Review Online, and writes frequently for other publications. Levin has served as a top advisor to several members of President Ronald Reagan's Cabinet - including as Chief of Staff to the Attorney General of the United States. In 2001, the American Conservative Union named Levin the recipient of the prestigious Ronald Reagan Award. He currently practices law in the private sector, heading up the prestigious Landmark Legal Foundation in Washington DC.

Source: http://marklevinshow.com/article.asp?...(less)

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“Where utopianism is advanced through gradualism rather than revolution, albeit steady and persistent as in democratic societies, it can deceive and disarm an unsuspecting population, which is largely content and passive. It is sold as reforming and improving the existing society's imperfections and weaknesses without imperiling its basic nature. Under these conditions, it is mostly ignored, dismissed, or tolerated by much of the citizenry and celebrated by some. Transformation is deemed innocuous, well-intentioned, and perhaps constructive but not a dangerous trespass on fundamental liberties.” — 58 people liked it

“Utopianism also finds a receptive audience among the society's disenchanted, disaffected, dissatisfied, and maladjusted who are unwilling or unable to assume responsibility for their own real or perceived conditions but instead blame their surroundings, 'the system,' and others. They are lured by the false hopes and promises of utopian transformation and the criticisms of the existing society, to which their connection is tentative or nonexistent. Improving the malcontent's lot becomes linked to the utopian cause. Moreover, disparaging and diminishing the successful and accomplished becomes an essential tactic. No one should be better than anyone else, regardless of the merits or values of his contributions. By exploiting human frailties, frustrations, jealousies, and inequities, a sense of meaning and self-worth is created in the malcontent's otherwise unhappy and directionless life. Simply put, equality in misery -- that is, equality of result or conformity -- is advanced as a just, fair, and virtuous undertaking. Liberty, therefore, is inherently immoral, except where it avails equality.” — 43 people liked it

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