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Review: Shapiro, Ben. The Right Side of History: How Reason and Moral Purpose
Made the West Great. Broadside Books, 2019.

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Review: Shapiro, Ben. The Right Side of History: How Reason and Moral Purpose Made the West Great. Broadside Books, 2019.

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Review: Shapiro, Ben. The Right

Side of History: How Reason and
Moral Purpose Made the West
Great. Broadside Books, 2019.
3 minutes

This work has all the hallmarks of Ben Shapiro: concise and long
bursts of logic. Also, for the first time I have ever seen in a book by
Shapiro, the book does not have an overly controversial title. It
essentially wants to put forward a history of western values
following two important pieces of what constitutes the western
civilization (with special emphasis on the effects in United States):
Judeo-Christian values and Greek reason.
The book is short and, by estimations, a no-brainer. It is not a
complicated philosophical treatise or anything of that sort. Rather, it
is a step-by-step demarcation of the origin of the values and reason
used in the United States, only describing the important aspects of
the thinkers and philosophers and their ideas to promote his thesis.
So, I am glad to say that to read this book you do not need a history
of philosophy book by your side.
Having said that, it is noteworthy that Shapiro’s knowledge of
philosophy is phenomenal, and hints a formation in humanities
similar as it was practiced generations ago: having knowledge of the
great books. Clearly the work follows the logic of someone who has
internalized the great works that western civilization can offer, while
also criticizing adamantly those works that go against the paradigm
of Judeo-Christian values and Greek reason (these pair of concepts
are a common theme in all the text).
In scope the work is essentially conservative in all aspects, both

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Review: Shapiro, Ben. The Right Side of History: How Reason and Moral Purpose Made the West Great. Broadside Books, 2019.
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religious and logical. It serves as an apology for western values. It is

implied that the opposition of the book’s thesis are a special breed of
left-leaning liberals, in which Judeo-Christian values and Greek
reason isn’t important or essential. Shapiro also implies that there is
such a thing as a right side of history.
I think this book is well written and a great example of fleshed-out
conservative arguments, although sometimes I don’t agree with
Shapiro’s reasoning. The balance he makes between values and
reason makes it a compelling argument against what he believes to
be sterile greek-sided-only arguments and anti-religious
Enlightement. It also serves as a great counter-argument to
contemporary postmodernists and marxists. Although one of his
flaw is simply having dependence in archaic, pre-Enlightement
notions of teleology.

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