Stupid White Men, Michael Moore's screed against "Thief-in-Chief" George Bush's power elite, hit No. 1 at Amazon.com within days of publication. Why? It's as fulminating and crammed with infuriating facts as any right-wing bestseller, as irreverent as The Onion, and as noisily entertaining as a wrestling smackdown. Moore offers a more interesting critique of the 2000 election than Ralph Nader's Crashing the Party (he argued with Nader, his old boss, who sacked him), and he's serious when he advocates ousting Bush. But Moore's rage is outrageous, couched in shameless gags and madcap comedy: "Old white men wielding martinis and wearing dickies have occupied our nation's capital.... Launch the SCUD missiles! Bring us the head of Antonin Scalia!... We are no longer [able] to hold free and fair elections. We need U.N. observers, U.N. troops." Moore's ideas range from on-the-money (Arafat should beat Sharon with Gandhi's nonviolent shame tactics) to over-the-top: blacks should put inflatable white dolls in their cars so racist cops will think they're chauffeurs; the ever-more-Republicanesque Democratic Party should be sued for fraud; "no contributions toward advancing our civilization ever came out of the South [except Faulkner, Hellman, and R.J. Reynolds]," because it's too hot to think straight there; Korean dictator Kim Jong-il "has got to broaden himself beyond porn and John Wayne" by watching better movies, like Dude, Where's My Car? (which contains "all you need to know about America"). Whatever your politics, Stupid White Men should make you blow your stack. --Tim Appelo
From Booklist
The latest appraisal of contemporary American society by a popular and iconoclastic commentator. Brad Hooper
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved
Book Description
The government has been seized by a ne'er-do-well rich boy and his elderly henchmen . . . Our great economic expansion is unraveling faster than a set of Firestones . . . Our water is poisoned, the ozone's in shreds, and the SUVs are advancing like a plague of locusts . . . Remember when everything was looking up? When the government was running at a surplus, pollution was disappearing, peace was breaking out in the Middle East and Northern Ireland, and the Bridge to the Twenty-First Century was strung with high-speed Internet cable and paved with 401K gold? Well, so much for the future. Michael Moore, the award-winning provocateur behind Roger & Me and the bestseller Downsize This!, now returns to size up the new century -- and that big, ugly special-interest group that's laying waste to the world as we know it: stupid white men. Whether he's calling for United Nations action to overthrow the Bush Family Junta, calling on African-Americans to place whites only signs over the entrances of unfriendly businesses, or praying that Jesse Helms will get kissed by a man, Stupid White Men is Mike's Manifesto on Malfeasance and Mediocrity. Among his targets: George W.: "President" of the United States. The Thief-in-Chief. A trespasser on federal land, a squatter in the Oval Office. Send in the Marines! Launch the SCUD missiles! Bring me the head of Antonin Scalia! Bill Clinton: One of the best Republican presidents we've ever had. The Former Yugoslavia: Bring back Marshall Tito! Nobody in America liked him much when he was alive, but now he looks like Lady Bird Johnson. The Idiot Nation: A friggin' stain on a blue dress. That's what captured our attention in the nineties -- along with slow-moving Broncos, six-year-old strangled beauty queens, and Hugh Grant's dating habits. Corporate America: There is no recession, my friends: no downturn, no hard times. The rich are wallowing in loot -- and now they want to make sure you don't come a-lookin' for your piece of the pie.The polls indicate that 60 percent of Americans are "upset or angry" about this land in which we now live -- a land where crooked courts select the president and money rules the day. So if you're feeling the same way and you're wondering what's going to give out first -- the economy, Dick Cheney's pacemaker, or your new VW Beetle -- here's the book for you.
About the Author
Micheal Moore's first book, Downsize This!, was a New York Times bestseller in both hardcover and paperback. The award-winning director of the groundbreaking documentary Roger & Me, which became the largest grossing nonfiction film of all time, Moore is the creator and host of the Emmy-winning series TV Nation and The Awful Truth. Also the coauthor (with Kathleen Glynn) of Adventures In A TV Nation, he lives in New York City.
Stupid White Men: And Other Sorry Excuses for the State of the Nation! FROM OUR EDITORS
Michael Moore's mission is to ruffle as many feathers as possible, and with his latest manifesto, Stupid White Men, he's done an admirable job. Moore, known as both a filmmaker and a bestselling author, takes on our current and former presidents, corporate America, and the judicial system in this irreverently witty, no-holds-barred look at the state of the nation.
FROM THE PUBLISHER
"Remember when everything was looking up? When the government was running at a surplus, pollution was disappearing, peace was breaking out in the Middle East and Northern Ireland, and the Bridge to the Twenty-First Century was strung with high-speed Internet cable and paved with 401(k) gold?" Well, so much for the future. Michael Moore, the award-winning provocateur behind Roger & Me and the bestseller Downsize This!, now returns to size up the new century - and that big, ugly special-interest group that's laying waste to the world as we know it: stupid white men. Whether he's calling for United Nations action to overthrow The Bush Family Junta, calling on African-Americans to place Whites Only signs over the entrances of unfriendly businesses, or praying that Jesse Helms will get kissed by a man, Stupid White Men is Mike's Manifesto on Malfeasance and Mediocrity.
SYNOPSIS
The government has been seized by a ne'er-do-well rich boy and his elderly
henchmen . . . Our great economic expansion is unraveling faster than a set of
Firestones...Our water is poisoned, the ozone's in shreds, and the SUVs are
advancing like a plague of locusts...
Remember when everything was looking up? When the
government was running at a surplus, pollution was disappearing, peace was
breaking out in the Middle East and Northern Ireland, and the Bridge to the
Twenty-First Century was strung with high-speed Internet cable and paved with
401K gold? Well, so much for the future. Michael Moore, the award-winning
provocateur behind Roger and Me and the bestseller Downsize This!, now returns
to size up the new century -- and that big, ugly special-interest group that's
laying waste to the world as we know it: stupid white men. Whether he's calling
for United Nations action to overthrow the Bush Family Junta, calling on
African-Americans to place whites only signs over the entrances of unfriendly
businesses, or praying that Jesse Helms will get kissed by a man, Stupid
White Men
is Mike's Manifesto on Malfeasance and Mediocrity.
Among his targets: George W.: "President" of the United States. The Thief-in-Chief. A trespasser on federal land, a squatter in the Oval Office. Send in the Marines! Launch the SCUD missiles! Bring me the head of Antonin Scalia! Bill Clinton: One of the best Republican presidents we've ever had. The Former Yugoslavia: Bring back Marshall Tito! Nobody in America liked him much when he was alive, but now he looks like Lady Bird Johnson.The Idiot Nation: A friggin' stain on a blue dress. That's what captured our attention in the nineties -- along with slow-moving Broncos, six-year-old strangled beauty queens, and Hugh Grant's dating habits. Corporate America: There is no recession, my friends: no downturn, no hard times. The rich are wallowing in loot -- and now they want to make sure you don't come a-lookin' for your piece of the pie.The polls indicate that 60 percent of Americans are "upset or angry" about this land in which we now live -- a land where crooked courts select the president and money rules the day.
So if you're feeling the same way and you're
wondering what's going to give out first -- the economy, Dick Cheney's
pacemaker, or your new VW Beetle -- here's the book for you.
FROM THE CRITICS
Library Journal
With Arte Johnson's fine reading, Moore's work offers searing indictments of problems and the sources of those problems in contemporary American society-the stupid white men we have empowered to lead our government and economy. His solutions are often wryly amusing and always thought-provoking and will probably not be enjoyed by the political conservatives among your patrons, although it may be in their interests to know that at least one flaming liberal is on to them. Among the key concepts the author develops is that the differences in political rhetoric between Republicans and Democrats result in few or no differences in their actions once they are in power. George W. Bush's and Bill Clinton's programs end in similar disasters for radically different "reasons" though couched in opposing terms. Moore's call to political involvement at the level each listener feels is appropriate is challenging and refreshing. Recommended.-Cliff Glaviano, Bowling Green State Univ. Libs., OH Copyright 2003 Cahners Business Information.