The Right Side of History: How Reason and Moral Purpose Made the West Great

Ben Shapiro

Mar 2019 · HarperAudio · Narrated by Ben Shapiro

About this audiobook

America has a God-shaped hole in its heart, argues New York Times bestselling author Ben Shapiro, and we shouldn't fill it with politics and hate.

In 2016, Ben Shapiro spoke at UC Berkeley. Hundreds of police officers were required from 10 UC campuses across the state to protect his speech, which was -- ironically -- about the necessity for free speech and rational debate.

He came to argue that Western Civilization is in the midst of a crisis of purpose and ideas. Our freedoms are built upon the twin notions that every human being is made in God’s image and that human beings were created with reason capable of exploring God’s world.

We can thank these values for the birth of science, the dream of progress, human rights, prosperity, peace, and artistic beauty. Jerusalem and Athens built America, ended slavery, defeated the Nazis and the Communists, lifted billions from poverty and gave billions spiritual purpose. Jerusalem and Athens were the foundations of the Magna Carta and the Treaty of Westphalia; they were the foundations of Declaration of Independence, Abraham Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation, and Martin Luther King Jr.’s Letter from Birmingham Jail.

Civilizations that rejected Jerusalem and Athens have collapsed into dust. The USSR rejected Judeo-Christian values and Greek natural law, substituting a new utopian vision of “social justice” – and they starved and slaughtered tens of millions of human beings. The Nazis rejected Judeo-Christian values and Greek natural law, and they shoved children into gas chambers. Venezuela rejects Judeo-Christian values and Greek natural law, and citizens of their oil-rich nation have been reduced to eating dogs.

We are in the process of abandoning Judeo-Christian values and Greek natural law, favoring instead moral subjectivism and the rule of passion. And we are watching our civilization collapse into age-old tribalism, individualistic hedonism, and moral subjectivism. We believe we can reject Judeo-Christian values and Greek natural law and satisfy ourselves with intersectionality, or scientific materialism, or progressive politics, or authoritarian governance, or nationalistic solidarity.

We can’t.

The West is special, and in The Right Side of History, Ben Shapiro bravely explains that it’s because too many of us have lost sight of the moral purpose that drives us each to be better, or the sacred duty to work together for the greater good, or both. A stark warning, and a call to spiritual arms, this book may be the first step in getting our civilization back on track.

Ratings and reviews

I was born and raised in Los Angeles, I was born in a state that is very Democratic. Thanks to conservatives like Ben Shapiro, I realized how much I took for granted and how misinformed I have been throughout most of my life. This book is basically an explanation in full detail of what makes the USA the greatest country in the world. It is unfortunate to see so many young Americans these days being purposely misinformed and misdirected to delusion. I strongly recommend this book to all Americans

i couldn't even get through this. Ben Shapiro is suuuuuuch a jerk. If you want your mind to be a toxic partisan dumpsite, by all means, toss your money to this guy, but a better book would be something like Steven Pinker's Enlightenment Now (Pinker disdains the left as much as the right and arrives in a much more interesting and educational place).

After listening to this book I bought the physical copy to take a closer look at each chapter. Upon each completion, I found myself questioning the author's credibility and judgement. I do not recommend this mediocre attempt to summarize the history of the west. It is full of misconceptions and mistakes that would be difficult for any logically sound person to make. There are numerous books with more accurate and unbiased information to choose from on the web which is why I highly recommend you save yourself some time and skip this one. Two stars because the author, although perhaps delusional, is a somewhat decent writer.

About the author

Ben Shapiro is founding editor-in-chief and editor emeritus of The Daily Wire and host of ""The Ben Shapiro Show,"" the top conservative podcast in the nation. A New York Times bestselling author, Shapiro is a graduate of Harvard Law School, and an Orthodox Jew. His work has been profiled in nearly every major American publication, and he has appeared as the featured speaker at many conservative events on campuses nationwide, several of those appearances targeted by progressive and “Antifa” activists.