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Dinesh D'Souza (born April 25, 1961 in Bombay, India) is an author and the Robert and Karen Rishwain Fellow at the Hoover Institution at Stanford University. D'Souza is the author of numerous ''New York Times'' best selling books and one of the most prolific and prominent conservative writers and speakers in the United States.
D'Souza was born in Bombay, India and arrived in the United States in 1978, originally through a Rotary International program. He attended high school in Patagonia, Arizona and then attended Dartmouth College, where he graduated Phi Beta Kappa in 1983.
In 1981, D'Souza published the names of officers of the Gay Student Alliance in an article for The Dartmouth Review, including the names of those who claimed to be still closeted. [1]
Following his graduation from Dartmouth, D'Souza moved to Princeton, New Jersey, where he worked for Concerned Alumni of Princeton, a conservative organization strongly critical of coeducation, affirmative action, and campus access to birth control. As writer and editor-in-chief for Prospect, the organization's magazine, D'Souza wrote a March 1984 cover story identifying a freshman who had begun a sexual relationship with another student against her mother's wishes. D'Souza offered details of the woman's sex life, and criticized Princeton University for paying the student's tuition fees after the student's mother withdrew financial support. The ensuing scandal was reported in The New York Times.[1] D'Souza claimed that the woman's name had been published as the result of a "proofreading error" and that he "care[s] about the girl; that's why [he] wrote the story."
Following his stint at Princeton, D'Souza moved to Washington, D.C., where he served for two years as an editor of Policy Review, an influential conservative journal now published by the Hoover Institution. Several of D'Souza's Policy Review articles generated national attention. In "The Bishops as Pawns", D'Souza wrote that U.S. Catholic bishops were being manipulated by American liberals in agreeing to oppose the U.S. military buildup and use of power abroad and actually knew very little about these subjects to which they were lending their religious credibility, writing:
<blockquote> Interviews with these bishops suggest that they know little or nothing about the ideas and proposals to which they are putting their signature and lending their religious authority. The bishops are unfamiliar with existing defense and economic programs, unable to identify even in general terms the Soviet military capability, ignorant of roughly how much of the budget currently goes to defense, unclear about how much should be reallocated to social programs, and innocent of the most basic concepts underlying the intelligent layman's discussion of these questions.[2] </blockquote>
In 1987 D'Souza left the magazine to serve as a policy advisor in Ronald Reagan's White House until 1988. He then joined the American Enterprise Institute, where he was the institute's John M. Olin fellow, before later joining the Hoover Institution.
D'Souza is a noted conservative, and defines conservatism in the American sense as "conserving the principles of the American Revolution". In Letters to a Young Conservative, written as an introduction to conservative ideas for youth, D'Souza argues that it is a blend of classical liberalism and ancient virtue, in particular, "the belief that there are moral standards in the universe and that living up to them is the best way to have a full and happy life." He also argues against what he calls the modern liberal belief that "human nature is intrinsically good," and thus that "the great conflicts in the world…arise out of terrible misunderstandings that can be corrected through ongoing conversation and through the mediation of the United Nations."
D'Souza challenges beliefs and projects such as affirmative action, and social welfare programs. In his book Illiberal Education he argued that many universities practiced intolerance of conservative views.
D'Souza has often stated his belief that idealizing the rebellion against slavery is a source of disability among some African Americans. He speculates that slaves, to preserve a sense of dignity, in the circumstances of slavery, would by nature tend to be defiant. This defiance would become the central heroic reference for African-American slaves, restoring a degree of pride and dignity to all. But, he continues, the price of this would be the habitually ingrained attitude of defiance that is ultimately self-destructive. These self-destructive habits still have a legacy today, D'Souza contends, and serve to explain, in a large part, the degree to which many slave descendants suffer from social and self-esteem issues.
D'Souza has attributed many modern social problems to what he calls the "cultural left". In his recent book The Enemy at Home: The Cultural Left and Its Responsibility for 9/11, he wrote that:
<blockquote> The cultural left in this country is responsible for causing 9/11 ... the cultural left and its allies in Congress, the media, Hollywood, the non-profit sector and the universities are the primary cause of the volcano of anger toward America that is erupting from the Islamic world. [2] </blockquote>
The theme of D'Souza's book What's So Great About America is that the freedoms of America offer too much to immigrants, which is why there have been so many. He argues that the success of immigrants historically is due to their assimilation of American values while keeping their heritage, i.e. the "melting pot".
D'Souza also criticised aspects of feminism in Letters to a Young Conservative, writing that:
<blockquote> The feminist error was to embrace the value of the workplace as greater than the value of the home. Feminism has endorsed the public sphere as inherently more constitutive of women’s worth than the private sphere. Feminists have established as their criterion of success and self-worth an equal representation with men at the top of the career ladder. The consequence of this feminist scale of values is a terrible and unjust devaluation of women who work at home. </blockquote>
D'Souza does not make many television appearances, but he has appeared a few times on CNN. [3] [4] Other media appearances include ABC's Nightline, CBS's Face the Nation, FOX News Channel's Hannity & Colmes, MSNBC's Hardball with Chris Matthews, Comedy Central's The Colbert Report, and CNBC's Dennis Miller.
In early 2007 D'Souza published "The Enemy at Home: The Cultural Left and its Responsibility for 9/11," in which he argues that the American left was in large part responsible for the Islamic anger that led to the September 11 attacks.
During an interview on The Colbert Report on January 16, 2007, while promoting his book, The Enemy At Home: The Cultural Left and Its Responsibility for 9/11, D'Souza blamed American liberals for provoking the September 11, 2001, attacks.
This thesis has been widely disputed by, among others, prominent conservatives such as Michelle Malkin and Hugh Hewitt, who contend that D'Souza openly sympathizes with Al Qaeda in The Enemy At Home, and who contend that his thesis that Muslim radicals would not hate the United States if not for cultural liberalism is a myth.
The book was almost universally criticized in major American newspapers and magazines and called, among other things, "the worst nonfiction book about terrorism published by a major house since 9/11."[4]
D'Souza's book caused a controversy in the conservative movement, invoking a barrage of attacks back and forth between D'Souza and his conservative critics who widely mocked the thesis of his book, that the cultural left was responsible for 9/11. In response to his critics, he posted a 6,500-word essay on National Review Online, and NRO subsequently published a litany of responses from conservative authors who accused D'Souza of character assassination, elitism and pseudointellectualism.[5]
D'Souza is of Indian origin. His parents come from the state of Goa in Western India (hence the Portuguese surname).
Prior to his marriage, D'Souza had relationships with two well-known female conservatives, Laura Ingraham, a nationally-syndicated radio commentator to whom he was engaged but never married, and best-selling conservative author and commentator Ann Coulter[6].
In 1992, D'Souza married Dixie D'Souza, whom he first met during his time in Washington, D.C. She is described by the San Diego Reader as: "blonde, petite, California-tanned, and effervescent about her husband...wearing a stylish pink plastic-leather rain jacket".[7] They have one daughter and reside in Fairbanks Ranch, California.
The April 14, 2005 article in the San Diego Reader also reported the wealth amassed by D'Souza from his best-selling books and speaking engagements:
<blockquote> Since Dartmouth, the conservative fray has been quite remunerative for D'Souza. Six years ago, he and his wife bought their home in Fairbanks Ranch. The nearly 8000-square-foot house has six bedrooms, seven and a half baths, and a four-car garage, where they keep their maroon 1992 Jaguar XJS. A circular drive fronts the French country stone house. The cathedral-like front room, with its full-length mirrors and tapestries, has an 18th-century French decor of (veneered) golden maple burl furniture. The slick floors echo like a museum as one walks through. In his office, there's wall-to-wall leopard-print carpet; floor-to-ceiling bookcases are stocked with titles in history, politics, and philosophy. The view out back features a bright blue pool and the arboretum-like landscape.*[8] </blockquote>
Books authored by Dinesh D'Souza include:
Articles written by Dinesh D’Souza include: