Deliver Us from Evil: Defeating Terrorism, Despotism, and Liberalism

Last updated
Deliver Us from Evil:
Defeating Terrorism, Despotism, and Liberalism
Deliver Us from Evil - Sean Hannity.jpg
The cover of Deliver Us from Evil, a 2004 book by Sean Hannity
Author Sean Hannity
LanguageEnglish
Subject American politics
Genre Political commentary
Publisher ReganBooks
Publication date
2004
Media typeHardcover/paperback
Preceded by Let Freedom Ring: Winning the War of Liberty over Liberalism  
Followed by Conservative Victory: Defeating Obama’s Radical Agenda  

Deliver Us from Evil: Defeating Terrorism, Despotism, and Liberalism is a 2004 best-selling book by conservative political commentator and media personality Sean Hannity. The book's publisher, ReganBooks, was owned by Rupert Murdoch, owner of Fox News. ReganBooks focused on celebrity authors and controversial topics, sometimes from recent tabloids.[ citation needed ] It is now defunct but experienced significant financial success while it existed. [1] [2]

Contents

Hannity has said he dictated much of his two books into a tape recorder while driving in to do his radio show. [3]

Summary

In the book, Hannity explains a direct progression from Adolf Hitler and Joseph Stalin through Saddam Hussein and Osama bin Laden. He praises world leaders such as George W. Bush and Ronald Reagan for moral clarity and vision, and contrasts these with viewpoints and actions of current politicians he sees as liberal. [3]

Reception and views

Rebecca Hagelin, vice president of The Heritage Foundation said, "Deliver Us From Evil contains brilliant explanations and defenses of conservative principles Americans have come to count on Hannity to deliver. But in a most compelling fashion, Sean also has the guts to call evil for what it is, and the boldness to illuminate truth as the only answer." [4] The conservative magazine National Review summarized it as providing a "compelling conservative perspective" [5]

Business Week stated that "Hannity's biases and rhetorical style are revealed from the outset", and that the book is "full of name-calling trumped up as intellectual debate, one-sided history lessons designed to deceive the ill-informed, and good old-fashioned war-mongering", and that it "isn't a good sign that millions of Americans are lapping up copies of this and similarly simple-minded and intemperate books." [6]

The St. Louis Post-Dispatch complimented the book for its style of prose that "steers clear of the dully academic", and then continued, "But that's the kindest thing to be said of Deliver Us From Evil. It reads like a long, long transcript of his television and radio shows, with their Manichaean monologues". [7]

Publishers Weekly said of the book, "Many readers... will find Hannity's 'irrefutable' evidence to be anything but", and that "his selective use of history and circular logic raise far more questions than it settles." [8]

The magazine of the World Future Society summarized the book, "The polarization typified in this one-eyed rant is a further complication in seeking security in today's world". [9]

A self-described liberal, Steve Young of American Politics Journal reviewed the book during an edition of the Hannity & Colmes show before a live audience. During the show, Young pinpointed specific sections where Hannity misconstrued sources to say something they did not. Young says that Hannity's response was to start talking over him, while urging the crowd to chime in, and to deny the plain facts Young showed him from on-hand copies of the material Hannity had misconstrued. [10]

Discussing the religiously wedded political rhetoric in the book, Jason Carter, grandson of President Jimmy Carter, arguing in the Georgia Law Review journal, stated that the book is "an example of not only 'us against them' piety but also the inappropriate use of religious language." He stated that "Hannity compares American liberals to terrorists and despots and categorically calls them 'evil'." Carter states that Hannity "takes a line from the Lord's Prayer, praying for God to deliver us from evil, and uses it to make a political statement as though his argument, his party, or his President would do the delivering." [11]

Related Research Articles

<i>Lies and the Lying Liars Who Tell Them</i> 2003 book by Al Franken

Lies and the Lying Liars Who Tell Them is a satirical book on American politics by Al Franken, a comedian, political commentator, and politician. It was published in 2003 by Dutton Penguin. Franken had a study group of 14 Harvard graduate students known as "TeamFranken" to help him with the research. The book's subtitle, A Fair and Balanced Look at the Right, is a parody of Fox News' tagline "Fair and Balanced." FNC sued Franken over the use of the phrase in a short-lived and unsuccessful lawsuit, which has been credited with increasing the sales of the book, an example of the Streisand effect.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sean Hannity</span> American television host and political commentator (born 1961)

Sean Patrick Hannity is an American talk show host, conservative political commentator, and author. He is the host of The Sean Hannity Show, a nationally syndicated talk radio show, and has also hosted a commentary program, Hannity, on Fox News, since 2009.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Alan Colmes</span> American broadcaster (1950–2017)

Alan Samuel Colmes was an American radio and television host, liberal political commentator for the Fox News Channel, and blogger. He was the host of The Alan Colmes Show, a nationally syndicated talk-radio show distributed by Fox News Radio that was broadcast throughout the United States on Fox News Talk on Sirius and XM. From 1996 to 2009, Colmes served as the co-host of Hannity & Colmes, a nightly political debate show on Fox News Channel. Beginning in 2015, Colmes supplied the voice of The Liberal Panel on Fox News Channel's The Greg Gutfeld Show.

<i>Hannity & Colmes</i> American TV series or program

Hannity & Colmes was a live television show on Fox News in the United States, hosted by Sean Hannity and Alan Colmes, who respectively presented a conservative and liberal perspective. The series premiered on October 7, 1996, and the final episode aired on January 9, 2009. The show offered Hannity's conservative views and Colmes's liberal views incorporated into a current news story, or in conjunction with a featured guest.

<i>The Sean Hannity Show</i> American talk radio show

The Sean Hannity Show is a conservative talk radio show hosted by Sean Hannity. The program is broadcast live every weekday, from 3 p.m. to 6 p.m. ET. The show is produced in the New York City studios of radio station WOR and is sometimes transmitted via ISDN from Hannity's home in Centre Island, New York. The show is now syndicated by Premiere Networks, a subsidiary of iHeartMedia, on terrestrial radio affiliates across the United States, on Sirius XM Patriot channel 125. and on American Forces Network's AFN 360 PowerTalk and The Voice channels. The primary focus of the program is the politics of the day, with interviews of liberal and conservative commentators. After conservative radio show The Rush Limbaugh Show ended its run following Limbaugh's 2021 death, The Sean Hannity Show became the most-listened-to commercial radio talk show with millions of listeners.'

<i>The Orange Book</i> Book by Paul Marshall and others

The Orange Book: Reclaiming Liberalism is a book written by a group of prominent British Liberal Democrat politicians and edited by David Laws and Paul Marshall in 2004. Three contributors later became leaders of the Liberal Democrats: Nick Clegg, Vince Cable and Ed Davey. Other contributors include Chris Huhne, Susan Kramer, Mark Oaten and Steve Webb. The book's central philosophy, and some of its ideas, are supported by Liberal Reform, an internal group of the Liberal Democrats.

Paul Lawrence Berman is an American writer on politics and literature.

In the United States, conservatism is based on a belief in limited government, individualism, traditionalism, republicanism, and limited federal governmental power in relation to U.S. states. Conservative and Christian media organizations, along with American conservative figures, are influential, and American conservatism is one of the majority political ideologies within the Republican Party.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Andreas Kinneging</span>

Andreas Antonius Maria Kinneging is Professor of Legal Philosophy at the University of Leiden, and a conservative philosopher in the Netherlands.

"Deliver us from evil" is a line from the Lord's Prayer in the Bible.

In United States politics, modern liberalism is a form of social liberalism. It combines ideas of civil liberty and equality with support for social justice and a well-regulated mixed economy. Modern liberalism opposes corporate monopolies, opposes cuts to the social safety net, and supports a role for government in reducing inequality, increasing diversity, providing access to education, ensuring healthcare, regulating economic activity, and protecting the natural environment. This form of liberalism took shape in the 20th century as the voting franchise and other civil rights were extended to a larger class of citizens, most notably among African Americans and women. Major examples of modern liberal policy programs include the New Deal, the Fair Deal, the New Frontier, the Great Society, and the Affordable Care Act.

ReganBooks was an American bestselling imprint or division of HarperCollins book publishing house, headed by editor and publisher Judith Regan, started in 1994 and ended in late 2006. During its existence, Regan was called, by LA Weekly, "the world's most successful publisher". The division reportedly earned $120 million a year. ReganBooks focused on celebrity authors and controversial topics, sometimes from recent tabloids.

Liberalism in the United States is based on concepts of unalienable rights of the individual. The fundamental liberal ideals of freedom of speech, freedom of the press, freedom of religion, the separation of church and state, the right to due process, and equality under the law are widely accepted as a common foundation of liberalism. It differs from liberalism worldwide because the United States has never had a resident hereditary aristocracy, and avoided much of the class warfare that characterized Europe. According to American philosopher Ian Adams, "all U.S. parties are liberal and always have been. Essentially they espouse classical liberalism, that is a form of democratised [sic] Whig constitutionalism plus the free market. The point of difference comes with the influence of social liberalism and the proper role of government."

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Michael Savage</span> U.S. radio talk show host and author

Michael Alan Weiner, known by his professional name Michael Savage, is an American right-wing author, political commentator, activist, and former radio host. Savage is best known as the host of The Savage Nation, a nationally syndicated talk show that aired on Talk Radio Network across the United States until 2021, and in 2009 was the second most listened-to radio talk show in the country with an audience of over 20 million listeners on 400 stations across the United States. From October 23, 2012, to January 1, 2021, Michael Savage had been syndicated by Cumulus Media and Westwood One. He holds master's degrees from the University of Hawaii in medical botany and medical anthropology, and a Ph.D. from the University of California, Berkeley in nutritional ethnomedicine. As Michael Weiner, he has written books on nutrition, herbal medicine, and homeopathy; as Michael Savage, he has written several political books that have reached The New York Times Best Seller list.

<i>Let Freedom Ring: Winning the War of Liberty over Liberalism</i> 2002 book by Sean Hannity

Let Freedom Ring: Winning the War of Liberty over Liberalism is a 2002 book by conservative political commentator and media personality Sean Hannity.

Liberalism is a political and moral philosophy based on the rights of the individual, liberty, consent of the governed, political equality, right to private property and equality before the law. Liberals espouse various views depending on their understanding of these principles but generally support private property, market economies, individual rights, liberal democracy, secularism, rule of law, economic and political freedom, freedom of speech, freedom of the press, freedom of assembly, and freedom of religion, constitutional government and privacy rights. Liberalism is frequently cited as the dominant ideology of modern history.

<i>Obama Zombies</i> 2010 book written by Jason Mattera

Obama Zombies: How the Liberal Machine Brainwashed My Generation is a book written by Jason Mattera. Published in 2010 by Simon & Schuster, the book purports to reveal methods that Barack Obama's 2008 presidential campaign used to organize or mislead young voters.

<i>Losing Our Religion</i> Book by S. E. Cupp

Losing Our Religion: The Liberal Media's Attack on Christianity (2010) is a book-length critique of media bias by author, journalist, and conservative political commentator S. E. Cupp.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Timeline of modern American conservatism</span>

This timeline of modern American conservatism lists important events, developments and occurrences which have significantly affected conservatism in the United States. With the decline of the conservative wing of the Democratic Party after 1960, the movement is most closely associated with the Republican Party (GOP). Economic conservatives favor less government regulation, lower taxes and weaker labor unions while social conservatives focus on moral issues and neoconservatives focus on democracy worldwide. Conservatives generally distrust the United Nations and Europe and apart from the libertarian wing favor a strong military and give enthusiastic support to Israel.

<i>Hoax</i> (book) Book by Brian Stelter

Hoax: Donald Trump, Fox News and the Dangerous Distortion of Truth is a nonfiction book by American journalist Brian Stelter, former CNN chief media correspondent. The book was first published on August 25, 2020, through Atria/One Signal Publishers and covers the entanglement of Donald Trump and Fox News.

References

  1. "Trend-Setting Publisher Plans To Move to and Go Hollywood" by Edward Wyatt, The New York Times , April 12, 2005
  2. "ReganBooks Moving to Hollywood" Archived 2007-09-29 at the Wayback Machine , The Book Standard, April 12, 2005
  3. 1 2 Poniewozik, James. "Sean Hannity". Time, 0040781X, 11 November 2002, Vol. 160, Issue 20.
  4. Hagelin, Rebecca (March 23, 2004). "Sean Hannity is the real deal". Heritage Foundation. Retrieved 12 April 2010.
  5. National Review, May 3, 2004, review of Deliver Us from Evil, p. 13.
  6. "Sean Hannity's One-Sided History" from Business Week online.
  7. Levins, Harry. "Bush Country and Deliver Us From Evil". St. Louis Post-Dispatch, 7 March 2004. Available online. Archived at https://www.webcitation.org/5WRnJp68B?url=http://www.stltoday.com/stltoday/emaf.nsf/Popup?ReadForm&db=stltoday%5Centertainment%5Creviews.nsf&docid=9AA10DB3097C84EF86256E4E000BCBE7 Emphasis in original.
  8. Publishers Weekly, February 16, 2004, review of Deliver Us from Evil, p. 167.
  9. Book Review: Deliver Us from Evil: Defeating Terrorism, Despotism, and Liberalism. Future Survey, June 2005, Vol. 27 Issue 6, p. 5-5, 1/2p; ISSN   0190-3241.
  10. Young, Steve (March 2, 2004). "Deliver us from Sean Hannity". American Politics Journal. Archived from the original on 26 May 2011. Retrieved 12 April 2010.
  11. Carter, Jason, "Toward a Genuine Debate about Morals, Religion, Politics, and Law: Why America Needs a Christian Response to the Christian Right." Georgia Law Review . Rev. 69 (2006-2007), p. 112. Earlier version of article available http://law.bepress.com/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=3508&context=expresso. Also see cover of Hannity's book and supra notes 80–86 and accompanying text.