Who Lost America?
Why the United States Went "Communist"
– and What to Do about It
A new book by
Stephen Baskerville, PhD
View the Table of Contents and Introduction.
Latest: Read the recent commentary on Who Lost America? by former Czech President and economist Dr Vaclav Klaus in a major newspaper:
"I too am troubled by empty, allegedly right-wing clichés..."
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Why has the far Left been able to stage what amounts to a coup d'état and take effective control of the US government? This is the first book to explain the disturbing political developments since early 2020. It is not another recitation of well-known events, nor another tirade against the Left. It also does not offer wishlists of the impossible. The aim instead is to explain why the extreme Left was allowed to take power and what practically can be done to mitigate the consequences. The failures of the organized, professional Right are partly responsible for permitting the Left to ascend to power, but we all bear some responsibility for neglecting serious abuses of power and permitting foolish policies that served as rehearsals for this debacle. Finally, the book offers a feasible blueprint for effectively overturning the coup and freeing ourselves from the grip of ideologues, because it is based on what ordinary Americans, outside the political class, are already undertaking spontaneously. As always with Baskerville's work, the reader will be forced to think “outside the box”, pushed outside his “comfort zone”, and encouraged to rethink his assumptions about our global crisis as a prelude to constructive action.
A Note on the Title
Following the unexpected Communist takeover of China in the Revolution of 1949, American anti-Communists engaged in recriminations over the question of "Who Lost China?" Many have belittled this debate. At the time, some said that the United States had limited power to influence events and claimed, in the words of the Washington Post, that "China was lost by the Chinese.” True or not at that time, the principle seems eerily and ironically relevant today. While many seek explanations in various "globalist" machinations (whose role is undeniable), this book suggests that, ultimately, "America was lost by the Americans."
Professional Endorsements
"American political science professor Stephen Baskerville has written a book called Who Lost America? ... He sees it as a takeover of the government by the radical left, which has so far never happened in the history of the United States... And he worries that [the] right is content with superficial and unconvincing ideological clichés and that it does not take sufficiently and consistently into account that 'the left has mutated.' Both of which I think are absolutely crucial to the debate not only in America but also in Europe. ... He talks not just about what happened, but especially about why we allowed it to happen. That is the question I ask myself today and every day about our domestic developments. Let us each find fault with ourselves. ... We allowed this."
– Dr Vaclav Klaus, former President of the Czech Republic
"Professor Baskerville is one of the most brilliant intellectuals in the United States at the moment. His latest book discusses the political events over the last decades that led to the absolute defeat of the Right and the hegemonic rise of a totalitarian Left. The book particularly describes the events of the last four years, including electoral fraud, mass psychosis, Covid, etc. Of particular interest to me is his superb analysis of the ongoing violations of civil rights and constitutional rights that are derived, in large part, from judicial corruption and lawfare operations. His explanation of the deterioration of higher education also fascinated me, mainly because I am able to testify as a legal academic to the veracity of the facts so richly presented. As Baskerville points out, the political class in that country must be undermined and the inalienable rights of every American citizen be fully restored. In sum, "Who Lost America?" is truly mandatory reading for anyone who wishes to understand the times and receive practical instructions on how to restore American citizenship and political stability. This is a fantastic book and couldn't recommend [it] more!"
– Augusto Zimmermann, Professor and Head of Law, Sheridan College, Perth, and author, Merchants of Death: Global Oligarchs and Their War On Humanity
“Do you ever wonder how and why America was taken over by woke ideology? Do you throw your hands up in despair over the mental health of our kids or wonder why our country is failing families and communities? If you are like me and wonder daily about these issues, read Stephen Baskerville’s new book. It just might help us save Western civilization.”
– Helen Smith, PhD, author, Men on Strike
"Breathtaking in its sweep – from its dissection of the the social vandalism wrought by feminists to its denunciation of the Mafia-like practices of the American justice system and the nihilistic militarism of US foreign policy, all the while bringing these disparate elements together into a coherent whole – this book is unique in that the author targets conservatives for whining but never winning. Stephen Baskerville identifies not so much the deep state as the welfare-warfare state, and especially its sexual politics, as the cause of the Left’s permanent coup d’état: Leftist policies are entrenched because citizens have retreated into individualism (as Tocqueville predicted) while bureaucrats have every incentive to ensure the continued existence, and even the aggravation, of the problems which their careers are supposedly meant to solve. Baskerville proposes a remorseless analysis of why things have gone so wrong – and what to do about it."
– John Laughland, Lecturer in Politics and History, Catholic Institute of the Vendée (France), and author, A History of Political Trials
“Stephen Baskerville to his credit never holds back in indicting the conservative establishment for the disastrous victory of the and its even more pernicious offspring such as gay marriage and trans ideology. This author does not conveniently separate the feminist destruction of traditional gender roles from those developments that came in its wake. This revolution has been all of a piece.”
– Professor Paul Gottfried
Editor-in-Chief, Chronicles
and author, Antifascism: The Course of a Crusade
"No one matches the authority of Stephen Baskerville on this subject. In a marvelously precise and well-documented series of chapters, he shows the decades-old roots of our current cultural and political malaise. I particularly appreciate his ability to convey a great deal of information concisely and elegantly. Chapters on academia and foreign policy are shocking and compelling.
This is an extremely important book."
– Professor Janice Fiamengo,
University of Ottawa, and author, The Fiamengo File
A must read for anyone who cares about freedom and Machiavellian political intrigues. A cautionary tale about the consequences of lacking self-reflection and not understanding or rising to the challenges ahead of us.
– Roger Kiska
Legal Counsel, Christian Legal Centre
“In Who Lost America?, Stephen Baskerville not only conducts a masterful postmortem on the great American experiment, but points the way to resurrecting the same. This is must reading for every man (and woman) who longs for a return to sanity.”
– Paul Elam, author, Men. Women. Relationships:
Surviving the Plague of Modern Masculinity
"Stephen Baskerville has been at the forefront of America’s moral and cultural decline. His New Politics of Sex (2017) remains unsurpassed in exposing the ruinous impact of divorce. Who Lost America? reveals the why-and-how of the Left’s takeover of our nation’s institutions with the same probity. Even more, Baskerville shows us how to fight back.
– Deal W. Hudson,
President, the Morley Institute of Church and Culture
and host, Church and Culture program, Ave Maria Radio
"As Rome began to decay, Augustus understood that the commonwealth could not be preserved without serious attention to what too many today dismiss as "social issues". Dr Baskerville, too, stresses that the future of society depends on attention to underlying, long-term deficiencies politely passed over by the political class. It requires retracing our tracks to remove ourselves from the disastrous civilizational rut we are following. His final chapter on our endemic emasculation will force the reader outside his comfort zone, and the recommendations in the conclusion will demand that we summon unusual fortitude and, yes, masculine strength. But that’s precisely the point."
– Will Knowland, former Master in English, Eton College
"The left keeps advancing and well-meaning people can’t figure out what to do or don’t want to expend the time and effort to take on the left, starting with leftist women."
– Elaine Donnelly
Center for Miltary Readiness
Reviews
Vaclav Klaus, Lidové noviny (in Czech), 24 May 2024 (translation)
John Waters, "How the War Against Humanity Kicked Off," John Waters Unchained, 18 August 2024
F. Roger Devlin, "Courage Cannot Be Outsourced", Occidental Observer, reprinted in the Unz Review, 31 July 2024
Barbara Toth, PhD, Souls and Liberty, 1 July 2024
Agnes Radley, "The Curse of Feminism -- and How to Fight It," The Conservative Woman, 23 August 2024
"A Gentleman's Strike," The Illustrated Empathy Gap, 26 August 2024
Video Interviews
"This is Shah", (31 August 2024 (coming soon)
Interview with Benjamin A. Boyce, 29 August 2024 (coming soon)
Readers' Comments
"Baskerville has claims to being the world’s pre-eminent scholar. He’s always eminently readable, makes complete sense and knows of what he speaks. More power to him."
– Reader's comment at the New English Review
"Baskerville is the world’s pre-eminent academic, although with all due respect, that’s not saying much these days."
– Chronicles magazine reader's comment
"The world's greatest academic."
-- Substack reader's comment
“It's not often that books from academia are unputdownable and required reading, but Baskerville makes a habit of writing such. … No claim is undocumented, and yet most uncharacteristically of his scholastic brethren, he is eminently readable, which of course makes him a damned fine writer.”
– Amazon reader's review
"When future historians are chronicling the collapse of western civilization a.k.a Christendom, all they need do is read two people. The late British journalist Malcolm Muggeridge is one, and Baskerville is the other. Neither was capable of writing a dull sentence whilst all the while being doughty defenders of truth."
– Reader at the New English Review
"It's nothing less than we've come to expect from the world's most perceptive academic.
As with the author's two previous books... Baskerville manages to get to the hub of the very strange turn the world has taken in the past four years. If a decade ago, you'd have told people governments would in the future successfully manage to lock people in their homes for two years and basically shut down the world, scorn and ridicule would have been your reward. Trying to now unravel the reasons it did occur has proved beyond most of our pundits. Look no further. Baskerville convincingly traces the loss of liberty in the west and the reasons for it. This makes it a triumvirate of must read books he's now produced. In fact, so well does he write, that I'm tempted to delve into his first production, Not Peace But A Sword, despite having next to no interest in the Puritan Revolution."
– Amazon reader's review (2024)