In this intellectual companion piece to David Horowitz's acclaimed autobiography, Radical Son, the most famous defector from the radical Left argues that the historic themes of that conflict still drive our politics and animate our cultural debates today.

With keen political insight and a masterful grasp of history, Horowitz traces the radical project from its origins in nineteenth-century socialism to the disastrous excesses of such current "progressive" causes as political correctness, radical feminism, racial preferences, and what he describes as the nihilistic campaign to "deconstruct" the American idea itself. He points out the refusal of the political Left to learn from the checkered history of progressive movements for social justice and equal outcomes, and warns that this refusal is creating a new "cold war" against America—a culture war that pits "progressives" against America's founding principles and ideas.