Rating: 
Summary: A must-read to save a great civilization from extinction,
Review: 30 years ago I lived up-country, deep in the African bush. Every evening I twiddled the dials and adjusted the antenna on my short-wave radio. I was tuning into the World Service of the BBC and its radio serial "the Archers - an everyday story of country folk". This serial was the epitome of Englishness - robust, honest and worthy farming families leading their lives steeped in the rich cultural heritage of England. It was a world immensely civilized and comforting - it reinforced my identity - a universe woven through with integrity, self reliance, generosity, self restraint and common sense. Its institutions, parishes, policemen drew their strength, legitimacy and harmony from a centuries-long process of growth and adaptation.
Peter Hitchens describes how this world was subverted and finally chain-sawed into oblivion by an unholy coterie of jealous and doctrinaire do-gooders, misfits, intellectuals and an evermore influential leftwing media.
We now live in a geographic entity called Britain where state schools are obliterating our extraordinary achievements with a Stalinist airbrushing of history; where policemen operate like an occupying army; where the media indoctrinate the population with trash culture and scandalously biased `news' and opinion.
Now I know why I became out of sorts with the Archers. Those stolid farmers had become uncertain, self-critical, simpering, lap-dogs to masterful, bossy, manipulative and crusading wives. They were eating quiche for tea and measuring their manure in "kilos". In the novel `1984' George Orwell invoked a creepy feeling of alienness in the reader by having his hero go into an English pub and order a "litre" of beer. Well, pints are still in English pubs - just, but the new Archers' Britain invoked exactly the same feeling of alienness in me. And Peter Hitchens has explained why.
That Archers' England has been captured by scriptwriters, politicians and activists who have a clear agenda - to mock, denigrate and finally wipe out all that they could find of beauty and strength and worth - and replace it with a gender neutral, guilt-ridden, multicultural nightmare. Meanwhile the general population is sedated into apathy by consumer prosperity and brain rotting, social conditioning TV. It is an England that "would have lost at Trafalgar and Waterloo, and given up on the attempt to colonize America, because of the absence of safety nets, sexual equality and proper child care."
This same coterie hypocritically sends their children to élite schools to avoid them being turned into "mannerless, uncultured ignoramuses" by the state cooperative.
Peter Hitchens' work challenges head-on the new taboos and shibboleths erected by this coterie. Of course they spit and fume in frustration when he mercilessly dissects the cancerous, illogical and spiteful nature of their doctrines. Some of them have written sulphurous reviews on this page. Pay no attention to them - they are the Little Folk. Low self-esteem, the worm in the wood, the taint in the blood. They might change masters but they will be forever slaves.
As Anatole Kaletsky wrote, "a nation that loses its self awareness will lose its self-respect" and "Many people have become embarrassed, even afraid of being British". On those nosey, multi-racial official forms I am reduced to writing `Native English' in the `Other' box...
Is there any hope? Peter Hitchens book is a magnificent call to arms. It is required reading for the British people to confront the dry-rot that is eating the heart out of their cultural identity.
Rating: 
Summary: Well written with passion, but for what end?
Review: As an American conservative, I was recommended this book. In one work, this book shows the great ideological divide between modern American conservatives and the High Tories that Hitchens represents. While his call for a "culture war" might resonate among the social conservative branch of American conservatism, Hitchens, at his heart, calls for a return to the England of landlord and servant, and of isolation from the rest of the world. In some ways, Hitchens world sounds like a Kinks song -- he dreams of a return to the days of the British Empire, when Queen Victoria loved all her subjects, and Britannia ruled the waves. However, Hitchens does not only attack the cultural left. Some of his strongest vitriol is for Margaret Thatcher, who he accuses of addressing economic modernization at the expense of cultural concerns. The Anglican Church, school teachers, the media, social workers, EU enthusiasts, and the United States (which he seems to believe is some sort of corrupting influence on the working classes) all end up in his sights. This will not resonate well with most American conservatives, especially those of the libertarian bend (such as myself), nor do I suspect with most modern British conservatives. For in Hitchens' world, if not born the landlord, you must work as the servant. Reading this work, and some of the essays of his better known leftist brother Christopher, really makes you wonder what was in the water at the Hitchens residence in the 1960s.
Rating:
Summary: Well written with passion, but for what end?
Review: As an American conservative, I was recommended this book. In one work, this book shows the great ideological divide between modern American conservatives and the High Tories that Hitchens represents. While his call for a "culture war" might resonate among the social conservative branch of American conservatism, Hitchens, at his heart, calls for a return to the England of landlord and servant, and of isolation from the rest of the world. In some ways, Hitchens world sounds like a Kinks song -- he dreams of a return to the days of the British Empire, when Queen Victoria loved all her subjects, and Britannia ruled the waves. However, Hitchens does not only attack the cultural left. Some of his strongest vitriol is for Margaret Thatcher, who he accuses of addressing economic modernization at the expense of cultural concerns. The Anglican Church, school teachers, the media, social workers, EU enthusiasts, and the United States (which he seems to believe is some sort of corrupting influence on the working classes) all end up in his sights. This will not resonate well with most American conservatives, especially those of the libertarian bend (such as myself), nor do I suspect with most modern British conservatives. For in Hitchens' world, if not born the landlord, you must work as the servant. Reading this work, and some of the essays of his better known leftist brother Christopher, really makes you wonder what was in the water at the Hitchens residence in the 1960s.
Rating: 
Summary: A Sweeping Indictment of Tony Blair's "Cool Britannia"
Review: Britain has become a shadow of its former self. This is a hard hitting, no holds barred social criticism from journalist Peter Hitchens. Hitchens is quite a wordsmith and has taken to the task of putting Tony Blair's "Cool Britannia" under a microscope. The UK just like my beloved America is in the midst of a culture war. Britain's traditions, culture and cherished national institutions are being demonized and eroded from within by cultural Marxism... Hitchens is quite frank in admitting the British national spirit has lost its dynamo, because of the assent of the Americans on the world stage, which has become a political, cultural and economic superpower. Though, he tacitly admits Britain can't blame all of its woes on Hollywood and Yankees. It appears Gramsci's "long march through the institutions" has taken its toll, particularly in Britain. Frankly, Britain seems to be in a worst boat than the US now with its embrace of multiculturalism. Britain has been browbeaten into an imperial guilt complex where its cherished cultural contribution to the world is ridiculed as "racist" and "jingoistic." Even Shakespeare is under attack which Hitchens makes light of. Hitchens also chronicles the attack on traditional morality and Christendom by liberal relativists. Britain's sexual revolution has dealt a harsh blow to the traditional family while a state hijacked by leftists has aided and abetted in the attack on the family. Take a walk on a London street, as I have, and you'll see phone booths littered with pornographic solicitations for prostitutes. And the societal stigmatism against immorality seems to have faded. The book really doesn't touch much on the immigration issue though... which might be worth addressing since London increasingly looks like one of its former colonies in terms of demographic make-up. Sadly, this book though reads like a eulogy. Hitchens never offers a prescription for reversing the perilous course Britain has taken. For non-British readers, the book may get boring at times when Hitchens speaks of people, places and things that they aren't all familiar with and/or have trouble relating to. This diagnosis of a culture in chaos may be just for Britain, but a cultural war is being waged throughout the West. I give Abolition of Britain a (3.5/5.0 stars.)
Rating:
Summary: Peerless
Review: British history (and permutations of its ruthless geneology) makes Tralfamadore look more like Utopia with each passing Night. God Bless Hitchens for defecating on the facade of English Erudition and for kicking it in it's obese, pastry-stuffed hindquarters.
Rating:
Summary: Objections to the first review displayed on amazon.com site
Review: I object to the inclusion of the first review of my book 'The Abolition of Britain' in the amazon.com site. The 'reviewer' plainly has not read the book since he repeatedly and almost obsessively refers to content on immigration. The book does not even mention immigration. I don't object to uncomplimentary reviews. They are part of the author's job. But I am baffled that amazon.com should have selected this hostile and ignorant diatribe as the FIRST review of my book(out of more than 20) displayed on the site.
Rating:
Summary: Bad book but raises important issues
Review: I think this book is very misunderstood. As I read it I do not feel that Mr. Hitchens is calling for a turning back of the clock or to bring back any "bad old days" for anyone. What he is arguing for, I believe, is for us to think about and to fully realize that change comes at a cost. Sometimes the change is good, but sometimes it comes at the cost of losing something else that was good. Our progressive age (the past century and a half) has certainly accomplished some things that were worthwhile. But at times the progressive urge has overtaken any sense of reason or restraint and there was change for the sake of change. Worse, change for the sake of fantasy. Hitchens, in this wonderful book, presents us with some views of what he thinks we have lost. I say we, even though he is speaking of Britain, much of what he talks about has at least an oblique corollary in the US. We have to get over this notion that all change equals progress and that progress is universally salutary in consequence or that our age is the most enlightened and humane that has emerged from a recently benighted past. If the Whig interpretation of history is the view that all of the past was building up to the realization of the glorious present there is also a Progressive interpretation of history. It is that the present could be a golden age of happiness for all humanity if only they would realize how awful the past really was and how miserable their lives truly are and awaken from this false consciousness to the Progressive view of things. As Hitchens points out so masterfully over and over again, no amount of evidence can overcome invincible ignorance. However, I think by reading this book and at least thinking about what he has to say rather than simply rejecting it as reactionary blathering there is a lot to be gained. It certainly can help us understand more about how the present go this way and why some traditional things still linger on when the Progressive view says that such things should simply evaporate in the mists like a bad dream. Well, my friends, there is much more to history than any one view of things can account for. And Hitchens has done us a service by helping us see clearly what we have too easily consigned to the dustbin of history and what it has cost us.
Rating:
Summary: Simply Excellent!
Review: In his book, "The Abolition of Britain", journalist Peter Hitchens states profoundly what many millions of Britons currently think - that the cultural revolution that swept the nation in the aftermath of Sir Winston Churchill's death has made many feel like foreigners in their own land. Particularly poignant is his contrast between the years 1965 and 1997, and the funerals of the Greatest Briton, Sir Winston Churchill, and Diana, Princess of Wales. In 1965, Britain was a restrained, conservative and patriotic society. A nation mourned at the death of a great man, but it did so in a solemn and dignified manner. Cranes were lowered in respect along the Thames and people filed quietly along to catch a glimpse of Churchill's coffin. Hitchens also makes marked contrasts between the general perceptions of the populations of both years. In 1965, Britons looked towards the Empire as an achievement to be proud of, and they looked back with pride over the 1000 years plus of British history. How different it is today. Hitchens' most potent revelation is his description of the marked contrast with the funeral of Lady Diana, when an outpouring of emotion swept over the nation in torrents. The funeral processions were most unlike those of Sir Winston. Hitchens correctly highlights Churchill's death as the point when the Britain of old, the Britain whose values it's gallant soldiers defended against the menaces of Hitler and the Kaiser, began to be seriously undermined by the politically-correct leftists. Hitchens' book is a profound indictment of Blairism and the fuzzy "Third Way" political system which it has created. This is a book that needs to read by ALL Britons, for it explains where the entire concept of Britain and the British became undermined. Excellent.
Rating: 
Summary: 'This is nonsense- I'm British
Review: This book- aimed at the American market- incorrectly depicts Britain in a harmful, yet unfortunately stereotypical manner.
Watching American films and telivision I am greatly upset to see the disrespectful manner in which British are shown : In the character mold of either as nice naive 'stuck up' idiots( Buffy/ Friends etc.) or as evil naive 'stuck up' idiots (the Patriot etc). These depictions are hurtfully racist, and untrue. Hitchins 'Abolition of Britain' does little to improve our image, and to someone who does not know Britain well is extremely misleading. Unlike the way they are portrayed in the book and in American pop culture, the British people combine being extremely kind generous and tolerent. With sophistication and intellectualism. The arguments of Peter Hitchins are ,however , awfully naive. Britain was once the most powerful nation in the World, it no longer is. The reasons for this decline listed in the book are ridiculous. In reality Britain was only so successful off the back of the Industrial revolution, once the rest of the world's technology caught up it no longer had such an advantage. Britains economy can only progress so far with limited natural and human resources. As for loss of etiquette and rising crime: The Working Class which now infringes on the Lower Middle Class makes up about 85% of the South of England and 99.99% of the North, never had etiquette, have always been violent and criminal, there is no difference in this now compared to 100 years ago.
The books section on the Conservative party too is incorrect: politics in Britain is not financially profitable, the most talented and intelligent people work for private firms, therefore those in political parties are not very talented/intelligent. Especially those in the conservative party, who are mostly bald...(William Hague) ugly monsters (Anne Witticombe) or... from Spain (Michael portilo). The econmic policy of the conservatives in the 1980's was dire, this however is not mentioned in the book. On multi culturilism this book is terrible. Britain as a result of its Empire had an influx of immigrants from India, Bangledesh, China and Jamaica, following the WW2. Now some 5m British of these origins live in South England alone. London Town is now 45% non-white. This has been a good thing for Britian bringing over foreign cuisine- I particulary like a Jamaican restaurent in my area- talented footballers and a diverse and tolerant culture.
Peter Hitchins purports to being an old school intellectual type, yet it is this type of person in Britain who is least racist. The only racist people in Britain nowadays are Working Classes in the North and Working Classes in some estates in the South. As an Oxford graduate I can assure you that no one I know from Oxford holds racist views -as Americans like to believe.
Also his euro-sceptic views point to my view that Hitchins is in fact a Working Class man in disguise- most if not all in the middle and upper classes can afford holidays to europe and have no fears about intergrating with it . Only working class tabloids (The Sun) are against the single currency and the like. Britain is not abolished ,but is in a very healthy state with much more tolerance, sophistication, literacy and vibrancy and a much better foreign policy than the US- where you cannot walk the streets at night-. In Europe we have lower crime rates, lower teenage pregnancy rates, high literacy rates and higher life expectancy rates than in America. Do not read this book it is absolute fiction. Britain is not dead, it is America which is dead.
Rating:
Summary: Highlights Difference between American &English Conservatism
Review: This is an extremely well written book. I do not intend to enter the controversy that it has provoked. Suffice it to say that Hitchens has argued that many of the Socialist cultural and social initiatives since the Second World War are fundamentally unBritish.
Hitchens has identified the essential nature of Britain as a conservative, monarchical parliamentary democracy, and sees changes to the education system, the Established Church, the censorship of plays, capital punishment, and so on as direct attacks upon the essence of being British. He sees such attacks as of a piece with the great Oliver Cromwell's attack on King Charles I.
He does not identify support for the free enterprise system as an essential feature of being British on this view.
Whatever view one takes of the controversy, this is a book that should be of interest to American conservative intellectuals. In British terms of 100 years ago, American conservatism is Whiggery. Edmund Burke was a Rockingham Whig. American liberalism is radicalism. Tom Paine was an extreme radical. Both Paine and Burke had strong Quaker roots.
Britain has 2 further groups that are not present in America to any serious extent - namely, socialists and Tories. This is a very Tory book. Prime Minister Tony Blair is in the radical mould.
The Whig can agree with much of this book, in its attacks on political correctness, the "dumbing down" of the syllabus in the government school system, etc. But at day's end, the Whig will not endorse the underlying theme of one size fits all Toryism. The lesson I derived from the book is the great danger to freedom where there are philosophies of government that do not feel any obligation to "ring fence" the sphere of government action. This applies to Toryism, but even more strongly to socialism.
Hitchens' intelligent and gifted Tory lamentation is that the government is doing the wrong things, rather than the government is doing too much and much of it poorly.
For myself, I think it is a bit hard on New Labour's Prime Minister, Tony Blair, in seeking to suggest that there is a litmus test for being British apart from being a subject of the Queen resident in the United Kingdom - Britain is not America - it is hard to see being British as an allegiance to an idea - but to anyone familiar with Seymour Martin Lipset's "Continental Divide," this is a fascinating book. I highly recommend it to anyone who wants a stark, clear, commonsensical and pugnacious primer on what ails society from a Tory point of view, especially as Hitchens goes the extra distance and offers for consideration an aetiology germane to those ailments. It is a popular, but yet scholarly, work. It would rate 5 stars if it were a little less pugnacious, but it would not be half as confronting or enjoyable.
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