For answers, best-selling authors Peter Collier and David Horowitz gathered together more than 20 of these so-called "second thoughters" for a conference where they came out of the political closet and looked back at the dream that died.

Second Thoughts is a riveting account of the conference in which participants discuss their long and winding political journeys. Black activist Julius Lester describes his moment of truth during a Black Panther trial; author and film critic Michael Medved reports on the radical chic in Hollywood that makes "airhead activists" out of brat pack stars and starlets; Robert Leiken tells of the McCarthyite attacks he suffered at the hands of the left as a reprisal for his criticisms of the Sandinistas; and on the lighter side, former National Lampoon editor P.J. O'Rourke divulges that his second thoughts began when a leftist gang stole his girlfriend.

Among the other contributors are Joshua Muravchik, Richard Neuhaus, Arturo Cruz, Jr., Jeffrey Heft, K. L. Billingsley, Doan Van Toai, and Barry Rubin. The perspectives of an earlier generation of "second thoughters", such as Martin Peretz, Norman Podhoretz, Hilton Kramer and Irving Kristol are also included.

This provocative book gives rare insight into the intersection between the personal and the political. It captures a unique moment when members of a radical generation talk about finally coming home again.