Author: Harry Stein
Publisher: Delacorte Press (Dell)
June 2000.

Former liberal journalist Harry Stein's journey from being a 70's liberal to a 90's conservative is, in reality, a study of what could be better described as a journey to the center. When Stein's book was released in June 2000, he was interviewed by Brian Lamb on C-Span's Booknotes. The interview was aired again on August 20, 2000.

Stein is a fascinating person whose liberating transformation was stimulated by heavy doses of family and common sense. His book should be required reading for liberals and conservatives whose minds have not been slammed shut from radical infections.

From the Publisher:

"Bestselling author and renowned ethics columnist Harry Stein didn't start out conservative. But somewhere along the way, real life and fatherhood gave him pause. In this passionate and provocative memoir, Stein recounts his personal journey that began with a few troubling questions he couldn't even share with his friends.

"Now the truth is out. In this daring, brilliantly argued, often savagely funny work that is bound to resonate with many who have witnessed the social revolution of the past thirty years and questioned even some of its outcome. Even secretly.

"Harry Stein's left-liberal credentials were spotless. As a journalist in an industry populated by liberals, he carried the left-wing banner in his life and work. The transformation of Harry Stein began when he became a father. And nothing in his wildest dreams could have prepared him for what was to come.

"First of all, the Right was beginning to sound right. Even worse, the Left was beginning to sound and look wrong. Stein cuts through the distortions on both sides and shows how liberating it is to no longer have to pass as a correct thinker. Speaking to his peers and the times, Stein fearlessly tackles such provocative topics as feminism, affirmative action, PC education, media, gay rights, and sexual McCarthyism. He tells what he really thinks of sex, lies and Bill Clinton, how his columns on Murphy Brown and day care were his personal "coming out," the daily corruption of network news and big-time front pages. what has happened to the once-great newspaper, The New York Times."

Stein describes why most journalists are liberal and much about what makes them tick. He also explains why the news media is liberal, egoistic and greedy. Curiously, he has joined the ranks of former liberal journalists such as Norman Podhoretz and David Horowitz, and millions of baby boomer liberals who weathered the radical liberal storm and learned from it rather than being consumed by it. Few, if any, conservatives have made the reverse transformation.

As an early supporter of integration, Stein is concerned that a moral giant like Dr. Martin Luther King is now despised by radicals, along with Clarence Thomas, as an Uncle Tom, and the fact that King has been replaced by "race hustlers. Harry Stein's wife Priscilla was a Berkeley liberal, who made the same transformation when she had her first child, decided to stay home, and felt the condemnation of feminists who believed that day-care was better for children than a stay-at-home mom. Stein's transformation was validated when his 15-year-old son argued with his teacher that "Huckleberry Finn" was not a racist book.

As expected, the shallow-minded liberal press and condescending book reviewers took 'offended aim' at Stein's book and spewed their all-too-familiar liberal venom at his truths. Therefore, Stein's book can easily be viewed by independent thinkers as a badge of courage and the silly, terrorist, reviews as medals of honor.