Author Lee Harris challenges the popular notion that there is a "right" side of history, arguing that this naive view of historical events is extremely dangerous after having been used repeatedly to justify the brutal treatment of those deemed to be on the "wrong" side.
It is both natural and inevitable that human beings should wonder what the future holds for mankind. In the nineteenth century, the default answer to this question was that the future would consist of endless progress toward a better world. Out of this optimism came the idea that there was a right side of history. Today, this idea has become the rallying cry of those who call themselves progressives, who claim to have a monopoly on the right side of history. Yet, while many have come to regard this view of history as so self-evident that it needed no justification, nothing could be further from the truth. Before the nineteenth century, the very idea of endless progress would have been shocking, if not incomprehensible. In
What's Wrong with the Right Side of History
, alternative views of the historical process before the advent of the idea of progress are explored. Furthermore, this book argues that progress is itself a highly ambiguous concept, noting that ideologies as diverse as Marxism, Social Darwinians, and Aryan supremacy have each claimed to stand for progress and to have been on the right side of history. The tragic fates of those who were deemed by such ideologies to be on the wrong side of history are closely examined. The purpose of the book is to provide a salutary warning that the Woke Revolution of our times threatens to become yet another destructive political movement dominated by fanatics convinced that they, alone, have a monopoly on the right side of history.