America is under attack as never before—not only from terrorists, but from people who provide a rationale for terrorism. Islamic intellectuals declare America the “Great Satan.” Europeans rail against American “globalism” as embodied by McDonald’s.

In our own country, on the political left, there are still those who blame America for every ill in the world. And left-wing multiculturalism—dominant in our own schools and universities—teaches students that Western and American culture is no better than, and probably worse than, Third World cultures. Even on the political Right, traditionally the home of patriotism, there are those who say that America has become so decadent that we are “slouching towards Gamorrah” and should expect “the death of the West.”

But in What’s So Great about America, best-selling author Dinesh D’Souza takes on all of America’s critics and proves them wrong—as perhaps only a writer with an immigrant’s understanding of this country can. He defends not an idealized America, but America as it really is, and measures America not against utopia, but against the rest of the world in a provocative, challenging book.

What are some of the alleged sins of America and the West?

Slavery? But the West is unique not in having slavery but in abolishing it.

But the West is unique not in having slavery but in abolishing it. Colonialism? D’Souza, an immigrant from India, gives two cheers for British colonialism, pointing out that while it was degrading for the colonized, their sons and daughters are the beneficiaries of Western law, culture, education, opportunity, and prosperity.

D’Souza, an immigrant from India, gives two cheers for British colonialism, pointing out that while it was degrading for the colonized, their sons and daughters are the beneficiaries of Western law, culture, education, opportunity, and prosperity. Decadence? But who is truly virtuous, asks D’Souza, a society that enforces Talibanic edicts or the West, where virtue is a free-will choice? Where else in the world has the value and potential of the individual been more fully realized than in America?

D’Souza argues that, more than any other country, America allows people the chance to “write the script of their own lives.” This is why the idea of America is so appealing to immigrants and to young people around the world.

Thoughtful and engaging, What’s So Great About America offers the grounds for a solid, well-considered patriotism—the sort of patriotism that America will need to sustain itself in the many challenges that lie ahead.

What Others Are Saying

“This book brings a new personal tone to D’Souza’s always-sharp handling of ideas. There are at least two ‘bests’ in the book: the best discussion I’ve seen on the nature of the Islamic threat, and the best argument against racial reparations. Then there’s the powerful account of D’Souza’s own enchantment with the America he encountered when he first came here as an immigrant from India. My favorite D’Souza book. Read it!”

—SHELBY STEELE, author of The Content of Our Character

“This book is convincing, eye-opening, and ultimately uplifting. Buy it, and consider yourself lucky.”

—BEN STEIN, TV host of Win Ben Stein’s Money