On September 11, 2001, HarperCollins had printed 50,000 copies of a 100,000-copy first printing of Michael Moore's STUPID WHITE MEN. Then the planes hit the World Trade Center. And the presses...stopped.

The next day, HarperCollins told Moore they were putting their fall list "on hold." Moore thought that was shrewd. But "hold" seemed to go on and on; finally, the publisher admitted there were "problems" with Moore's book. 

Let the author take it from here: "I was told that, unless I re-wrote large sections of my book, plus change the title and the cover --- and then reimburse the publisher of up to $100,000 out of my pocket so this new version could be reprinted --- the powers-that-be might actually destroy the ENTIRE run of 50,000 copies that had already been printed! I would then have to wait for up to a year before I could take it to another publisher. In other words, the book would be toast."

Moore refused. And then an amazing thing happened --- across the country, librarians demanded that HarperCollins publish the book, just as Moore wrote it. The publisher caved in. STUPID WHITE MEN made its debut on the Amazon nonfiction bestseller list at #1, on the New York Times list at #3.

So, you ask, what is so wild about this book that it came close to being banned in America?

Lots of laughs. Lots of common sense. And lots of ideas that the powers-that-be find very inconvenient.

Moore's premise is a comic conceit: White Men are dangerous. Consider: Have you ever been evicted by a black person? Ever been beaten by a black cop? Ever been denied a loan by a black banker? Ever heard a black person say, "We're going to eliminate 10,000 jobs today"? Nope. Only whites do this. So be very, very afraid of them.

But of course not every White Man spooks him --- he's most afraid of Republicans and Democrats.

Here is where guys like Bill O'Reilly have it all wrong. O'Reilly has Moore on his show --- click here for the very amusing transcript --- and attacks him for being a Communist (okay: Liberal Democrat). Moore is nothing of the kind. He's just an escapee from working-class Flint, Michigan, who believes that America should live up to its promises and level the playing field so all of us have a chance to prosper. Which means he sees only this difference between Democrats and Republicans: "Democrats say one thing and then do another --- quietly holding hands behind the scenes with the bastards who make the world a dirtier, meaner place. The Republicans just come right out and give the bastards a corner office in the White House."

Although Moore peppers his argument with shots at both parties, he is --- as you'd expect --- a whole lot funnier on Republicans. The President, for him, is the "Thief-in-Chief" who has been "a drunk, a felon, an unconvicted deserter, and a crybaby." Think that's cruel? Moore calls it "tough love."

Moore is best when he grabs hold of an issue and just...wails. Like the way certain Republicans changed their position on stem-cell research when they realized it could help their ailing kin. So Moore wrote a prayer that asks God to strike all powerful people with the worst possible afflictions. Sample: "We beseech you to make the children of every senator in the Mountain Time Zone gay --- really gay."

And you do not want to miss his encounter with Gov. Jeb Bush at 6:30 AM just two weeks before the Presidential election. Let's just say: They didn't go out for bagels and coffee afterward.

The cliche about guys like Michael Moore is that they make you laugh until it hurts. I find that exactly backwards. It already hurts --- plenty. Michael Moore finds the humor in the hurt and shows us why it's better to laugh than mourn. And then he gives us a sharp kick in the butt and tells us to Do Something about it.

"You deserve better," he argues. Apparently, a great many otherwise red-blooded Americans agree.

   --- Reviewed by Jesse Kornbluth


Click here now to buy this book from Amazon.

© Copyright 1996-2008, Bookreporter.com. All rights reserved.

Back to top.