Loeb is an author and speaker; his expertise is "citizen engagement" and, in particular, the citizen engagement of college students. He is openly political, though, and -- in the greatest of surprises! -- aligned with the left.

The recent articles Loeb lists on his website include titles like "Wild Weather Creates Chances for Political Progress", "Letter to Hillary: Remember When McCain Slimed Your Daughter", and "How the Democrats Can Keep the Youth Vote". The topics are similarly predictable: global warming, the "audacity of the Bush administration", and issues of interest to "social justice activists", like how they could "reclaim courage and hope" in the difficult political time, i.e. under the Bush administration.

But the book, Soul of a Citizen, offers quotes that are equally revealing. Hidden among stories of community activists and platitudes about becoming involved and not worrying if you're imperfect, Loeb inserts little political landmines, guaranteed to alienate and discomfort conservative students.

Writes Loeb on page 232: "For example, when I look at the policies of the current Republican leadership I see mostly bullying and greed. But even among the most conservative people in Congress are some who've resisted being mere hired guns for the wealthy and powerful. I was infuriated by Orrin Hatch's dismissal of Anita Hill during the Clarence Thomas hearings. Yet as a staunch Mormon (a religion historically friendly to neither women nor blacks), Hatch has relentlessly challenged the tobacco industry and made unlikely alliances with people like Ted Kennedy and Tom Harkin to put more money into children's health care and support research into alternative medicine."

The Reagan-Bush administration, marked for its "subservience to greed", brought these horrors on page 244: "Yet by and large this once tremendously active group [Vietnam era activists] was doing little to shape the political culture of their time. Instead, they'd become political spectators, mournfully watching from the sidelines of public life, even as the Republican wrecking ball steadily demolished sixty years of social programs."

But even the non-Republicans are distasteful, as Loeb recounts on page 249: "Activists on the political right have been steadily organizing, often with backing from powerful economic interests; so, if the rest of us stay silent, their views will prevail, whether or not they represent a wise national course."