Radical Chic and Mau-Mauing the Flak Catchers

I can't believe it took me this long to get around to reading this book. Here we see the rich and famous cavorting with violent anti-white, anti-American, and anti-Semitic criminals during the 1960s. It's hard to say who these pampered masochistic high society types hated more; themselves or their own people. Wolfe's recounting of Leonard Bernstein's "ode to the Panthers" party is outstanding. It's great journatlism. Heck, you know a situation is surreal when Barbara Walters is a voice of reason at a social gathering.As a writer, Wolfe, could not possibly have done a better job. The narrator is everywhere but is not himself a character in the proceedings. He may be a fly on the wall but he is a fly that takes copious notes. The details are magnificent and he has a savant's eye for great quotations. You'll laugh, you'll rage, the limousine liberals and champagne socialists will astound you. The book was written over 30 years ago but it is just as applicable today as one could replace The Black Panthers with a nineties fellon like Mumia Abu Jamal. The section on mau-mauing, or the fine art of the racial shakedown, is totally priceless. It too is as applicable to the present as to the past. Wolfe foreshadows the great future successes of Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson at coercing cash out of whites who willingly give it away to ease their politically correct minds. A magnificent effort and, at 10 bucks, the price isn't bad--a pity that he didn't write another 200 pages.

In the 1960s, it suddenly got trendy to be Black. Tom Wolfe wrote two long stories about how New York high society and how San Francisco political society and Black Power groups responded. Both stories are true, both are funny, both are tragic. And both are informative about the likely excesses of our own 2020's sudden elevation of "Black Lives Matter" to a politically correct religion. Those who don't learn from history are condemned to reap it. This book will entertainingly teach a little corner of how it came down last time.

More than 50 years later the guests at the unfortunate party given by Leonard Bernstein and his wife for the Black Panthers, must still cringe when they think of this book. With that sort of reaction from the party goers, best you go along, with Tom Wolfe as your dinner partner, and find out what went on. In a very real sense, this as a relevance now that it could not have had then; Social integration was, then, almost a stunt whereas today it's a maxim. Sadly, today's parties of disparate groups could never produce the hilarity found here;. As to the Mau Mauing the Flak Catchers, anyone who has had to deal with "customer service' will find an enormous number of very helpful hints at how to get past those unfortunate folk who have accepted jobs answering phones believing, or perhaps told,, that derailing the customer or caller whatever their beef, was good for both sides.

Fascinating premise. But, I just couldn't really get into it. The style seemed to jump from one setting to another without any real continuity. I think the author is trying to be above it all. Just showing the silly shallowness of the very wealthy white guilt ridden liberal of the time. I think that was the point. But, to be honest it put me to sleep. I'm sure there is wonderful social commentary in here somewhere. But, I'll have to leave it to a more astute, studious reader than me to find it.

The names of the government programs have changed but using racial intimidation to bully white people is still in full force. This is a fascinating piece on ground zero of the tactical change that should have been shut down when first detected. Instead, we have ended up with lethal nonsense where George Zimmerman was put on trial solely because of blacks racially intimidating whites to criminally charge him. The entire event was spun out of control into lies so that even after a nationally televised trial blacks still won't accept the facts and evidence of what really happened. Whites were just modern day flak catchers especially at work where blacks made it clear that if any white dared defend GZ complaints would be made. Everyone should have done a close reading of Tom Wolfe back in 1969 and considered it predictive analysis. But it seems Daniel Moynihan was only one who truly understood and saw the future.

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Wolfe does a great job describing in detail the elitist NYC icons hosting groups like the Black Panthers at lavish uptown parties to stamp their radical, leftist credentials. Goes right to the heart of the supreme irony of these social forays into the so called oppressed races. He does an equally superb job describing the practiced tactics of self-appointed ghetto leaders in milking the system in California's equal opportunity programs in Mau-Mauing the Flak Catchers. Makes you want to laugh and makes you sick at the same time.

This book is a superb analysis of the wealthy leftwing socialites smug coopting of the poorer class struggles and the utter incompetence of city governments throughout the United States.

Mau Mauing the Flak Catchers was hilarious. Four stars, enjoyed that a lot.Radical Chic was hard going, possibly because a Brit born in the 80s and come of age in the 90s it was hard to get the barrage of references about 60s - 70s US. Reading that first was a bit of a chore. Possibly all the superfluous details were just to show how vaccuous his subjects were and I didn't need to get them (like American Psycho - but without the payoffs)I'm any case the switch of styles was very impressive. He takes the Park Avenue set and the folks from the ghetto and presents them exactly as he finds them, no judgement, no moralising, no explaining, empathy with no sympathy. And very funny.Picked this up because Tom Wolfe books are usually very large, thought I'd dip my toe in, sample the author, and I think I might try something bigger and better known another time.

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Hilarious description of a society going bananas, 50 years before wokeness...idiots storming the fortress, Diversität at its beginning, racism, the other way rund.

Everything was perfect, shipping, the book was new and got in perfect condition, and the words in it are simply amazing, I love Tom Wolfe's work, and I think that this is a very good journalism book.

Book in top shape!