Mugged: Racial Demagoguery from the Seventies to Obama

Well, it's Ann Coulter. Her voice is strident, her tone scathing, and this book becomes an endurance test to see if you can get to the end before you gouge out your ears. The overall theme is that liberal politicians have used racial issues to bolster their political positions without regard to actual social outcomes of their policies. She cites multiple historical examples as well as statistical evidence in her argumentation, some of which is interesting and some of which is hard to sit through (for example, she breaks out which "Goldwater states" supported which presidential candidates over the last 40 years). This book is interesting if you're conservative and probably intolerable if you're liberal.

Great read. Well-written and well-documented. Another gem by Ann Coulter. Definitely worth a listen.

Ann showed me how little I knew about the development of the race industry in our country and how it is used every day to further an ideology.

Ann lays out her argument as if she were prosecuting a case and teaching a lecture at the same time. The facts are well documented and presented in a way that makes it nearly impossible to not see what she is trying to say.

Ann Coulter

Very informative!

Insightful, historical, thought-provoking

It demonstrate the hypocracy of the Left and how they usurp valid causes.

Another outstanding book from Coulter

The liberal left want everyone to think they are the party of the Minorities, but they also want the minorities to stay in the place the liberals put them. They do not want to have to contend with them. They will also sell them out if the issue they are fighting at the moment requires a sacrificial lamb. It is more loving to tell a people, pull yourself up, work hard, and no one will ever take what you have earned. No one in the USA is holding minorities down except the modern left!!

The meeting called by Spiro Agnew on the assassination of Martin Luther King

Her voice inflection adds immensely to the experience. Her passin for the subject comes through in her words.

No, it made me think.

Ann Coulter refutes the myth that Republicans are racist, and the Republican party, is the party of racism. She does this by recounting much of the actual history of the civil rights movement in America, from Reconstruction through the passage of the 1964 Civil Rights Act. Coulter's thesis is that, far from being the party of racism and bigotry, the Republicans are responsible for the advancement of civil rights for Blacks in America since the Civil War. It was only after the Democrat party realized that losing the Black vote would consign them to irrelevance that they moved from their position of opposition and obstruction to civil rights legislation, to embracing it, beginning with the 1964 Civil Rights Act. Coulter makes the case that, because Republican Barry Goldwater voted against the 1964 legislation (on purely progressive grounds, having supported prior civil rights bills), Democrats were able to seize on that opposition and spend the next 30 years painting the Republican party as the party of racism. She goes on to make that case that the Democrat party has always been the party of institutionalized racism, and makes a lucid, compelling, well-documented case for her thesis. The history is there, and verifiable, but largely unknown by the general public, who seems to only be able to digest 30 second sound bytes. Of course, fans of Ann Coulter will cheer when they hear her make her case using the sharp tongue and cutting jabs for which she is known. Coulter also narrates the book herself, and her argument is therefore delivered in a natural and convincing style, as opposed to previous Coulter audiobooks, which sounded less authentic because of their use of a professional narrator. Love her or hate her, if you are a person who will investigate facts apart from your biases presuppositions, Mugged gives lots of facts to investigate.

Any review that says they liked her other books but disliked this one is not being honest. This was one of her best (if not THE best) book. Its hard to rate them because the topics are so varied and are all of the same general style but if she has "bad" books, this most certainly is not one of them. If I had to pick a bad book from her I would have to say one of the article compilation books, and ONLY because they aren't new material just her putting a year or so worth of her newspaper articles into hardback.

This book reminded me why Ann Coulter is the most insightful political commentator today. There has NEVER been someone like her. She makes so many subtle points in Mugged that you have to read it more than once to "get" while also making you laugh.

I'm not as interested in the politics of race relations as I am in the social impacts, but often the two are inseparable in regards to this subject. So I found this book informative and interesting. Ann Coulter is, of course, a Fox News anchor and an obvious Republican, and quite a bit of this book was aimed toward slinging insults at the Democratic party. Fair enough in this case, although she does skip over some of the Republican transgressions in this area. However, I knew this would be the format of the book when I bought it, so I can't complain. Besides, by and large, I do agree with her that the vast majority of harm in the area has been done by left leaning liberals.

Being a media personality herself, Ann does concentrate quite a bit on the media's role in agitating racial "problems" that didn't exist until the media declared it was a problem and whipped up sentiment to that effect. She brings up a plethora of legal cases, weighing the real evidence and court findings against the liberal media's coverage and "community" reaction based on media coverage. Much of this was new information for me, and I enjoyed her insight. She was also surprisingly funny at times, and that was a bonus.

My problem with this book is simply that it will probably not be enjoyed by those with liberal/Democrat political leanings, and they are the very ones who need to be made aware that pandering does no one any good, least of all those who are being pandered to. In that respect, she will be, by and large, preaching to the choir with this book, since most of her readers will be prepared to believe (or already know) her subject matter. She is so antagonistic toward liberal Democrats that I can't see any of them sitting through this book with an open mind.

If the subject of racial demagoguery interests you, and you want to hear the facts from a somewhat less politically motivated writer, I would suggest reading Thomas Sowell's brilliant book "Black Rednecks and White Liberals" which takes the history of the problem back further and goes into more depth. It doesn't concentrate quite so much on media involvement and more on the historical and social aspects leading up to more current events. Mr. Sowell also has the added credibility of being a black man from Harlem and a world renowned economist. Ms Coulter does reference this book a few times, as the material is very similar in nature.

Ann Coulter did a good job of reading her own material, though not perfect, although I think that the few (very few) faults I found in her performance would not have been an issue with better editing.

Overall, a very good book, but if you don't already lean toward conservatism, it probably isn't for you.

Well, first, most people can't handle the Truth. If that's you, you're not going to like this book. On the other hand, if you find an unvarnished , fact-filled narrative of the past 40 years refreshing, it is a book well worth listening to.
Ms. Coulter hammers away relentlessly, as is her style, and presents fact after fact, irrefutably.
I very much enjoy Coulter's work, and I believe I have every one of her audiobooks.
If you have your head buried in the sand , or refuse to believe reality when it slaps you in the face, this is not the book for you.
On the other hand , if you want to face reality, and confront our social and fiscal problems head-on, I suggest you start with her first book, and work your way up from there.
For those so inclined , another , quite different viewpoint , can be found in an excellent
audio book , by Alfonzo Rachel.
Enjoy !

This was very informative. I like how fact based Ann's books are and Mugged is full of detailed info on the subject.