Synopses & Reviews
The terrorist attacks of 9/11 and Bushs belligerent response fractured the American left—partly by putting pressure on little-noticed fissures that had appeared a decade earlier.
In a masterful survey of the post-9/11 landscape, renowned scholar Michael Bérubé revisits and reinterprets the major intellectual debates and key players of the last two decades, covering the terrain of left debates in the United States over foreign policy from the Balkans to 9/11 to Iraq, and over domestic policy from the culture wars of the 1990s to the question of what (if anything) is the matter with Kansas.
The Left at War brings the history of cultural studies to bear on the present crisis—a history now trivialized to the point at which few left intellectuals have any sense that merely "cultural" studies could have something substantial to offer to the world of international relations, debates over sovereignty and humanitarian intervention, matters of war and peace. The surprising results of Bérubés arguments reveal an American left that is overly fond of a form of "countercultural" politics in which popular success is understood as a sign of political failure and political marginality is understood as a sign of moral virtue. The Left at War insists that, in contrast to American countercultural traditions, the geopolitical history of cultural studies has much to teach us about internationalism—for "in order to think globally, we need to think culturally, and in order to understand cultural conflict, we need to think globally." At a time when America finds itself at a critical crossroads, The Left at War is an indispensable guide to the divisions that have created a left at war with itself.
Review
“Bérubé links progressives inability to control the conversation on national security during the Bush administration to cultural studies failure to deliver on its promise of a vibrant New Left. And in the process, he also tries to imagine a newer and better onea left that both knows what is worth fighting for and how to fight for it.”
- American Prospect
“Youll rejoice that theres such an intelligent and even-minded critic of the left who takes his principles seriously enough to challenge those who threaten to destroy them from within.”
- Bookforum
“Provides robust intellectual arguments for how to reshape leftist thought into a powerful, constructive and measurably successful political philosophy. . . . His effort not only identifies left-wing excesses and elevates its more viable and strategically sound currents, but puts critical thinking back into vogue on both sides of the political spectrum.”
- Publishers Weekly, symploke
“Indefatigably clear-minded and relentlessly researched, Bérubés The Left at War offers an invaluable excavation of just what has gone wrong, and occasionally right, with the academic/intellectual left in America. Anyone concerned with its future will be relying on this work for many years to come.”
- Eric Alterman, author of Why Were Liberals
“A rigorous, hard-hitting, and impressively detailed critique and account of the United States left during wartimeand at war with itself. It is far and away the most thoroughly reasoned and researched brief for a middle way between a predictably anti-imperialist left and a revoltingly hawkish liberalism, and in this it is immensely useful both as a guide to recent debates and as a sort of internationalist handbook. Rousing, engrossing, principled, and brave.”
- Eric Lott, author of The Disappearing Liberal Intellectual
Review
"If Berube succeeds in making leftists, from center-left politicians like Nancy Pelosi and Barney Frank all the way out to the most radical anarchists, ponder the question of violence seriously, he will have done an inestimable service. That he attempts to do just that makes
the most important book I have read in the past five years." "[E]ngaging and provocative. [Aims] to stimulate the Left through an injection of new ideas. To the extent that these ideas challenge what some see as core Leftist convictions, some on the Left - those who are content to stay the course and await the coming revolution - will not welcome them. But those who see the Left at a critical crossroads, who believe that its recent political failures have amplified the need for the Left to reinvent and revitalize itself, will certainly find these ideas worth consideration... [Berube has] done valuable work in clearing the way for a more intellectually innovative and politically effective Left." “The most important book I have read in the past fiver years.”
“Bérubé links progressives’ inability to control the conversation on national security during the Bush administration to cultural studies’ failure to deliver on its promise of a vibrant New Left. And in the process, he also tries to imagine a newer and better one—a left that both knows what is worth fighting for and how to fight for it.”
“You’ll rejoice that there’s such an intelligent and even-minded critic of the left who takes his principles seriously enough to challenge those who threaten to destroy them from within.”
Review
“If Berube succeeds in making leftists, from center-left politicians like Nancy Pelosi and Barney Frank all the way out to the most radical anarchists, ponder the question of violence seriously, he will have done an inestimable service. That he attempts to do just that makes the most important book I have read in the past five years.”-John McGowan in Symploke,
Review
"[E]ngaging and provocative. [Aims] to stimulate the Left through an injection of new ideas. To the extent that these ideas challenge what some see as core Leftist convictions, some on the Left - those who are content to stay the course and await the coming revolution - will not welcome them. But those who see the Left at a critical crossroads, who believe that its recent political failures have amplified the need for the Left to reinvent and revitalize itself, will certainly find these ideas worth consideration... [Berube has] done valuable work in clearing the way for a more intellectually innovative and politically effective Left."-Marx and Philosophy,
Review
“The most important book I have read in the past fiver years.”-John McGowan,
Review
“Indefatigably clear-minded and relentlessly researched, Bérubés The Left at War offers an invaluable excavation of just what has gone wrong, and occasionally right, with the academic/intellectual left in America. Anyone concerned with its future will be relying on this work for many years to come.”
-Eric Alterman,author of Why Were Liberals
Review
“A rigorous, hard-hitting, and impressively detailed critique and account of the United States left during wartime—and at war with itself. It is far and away the most thoroughly reasoned and researched brief for a middle way between a predictably anti-imperialist left and a revoltingly hawkish liberalism, and in this it is immensely useful both as a guide to recent debates and as a sort of internationalist handbook. Rousing, engrossing, principled, and brave.”
-Eric Lott,author of The Disappearing Liberal Intellectual
Review
“Bérubé is the kind of critic, and the kind of advocate, that the Left desperately needs. I sometimes disagree with him, and then I argue with him in my head. I strongly recommend this practice: read him, learn from him, argue with him. It is a wonderfully bracing experience.”
-Michael Walzer,editor, Dissent Magazine
Synopsis
Amidst the carnage of the First World War, Rosa Luxemburg posed a stark choice for humanity: socialism or barbarism.
Violence Today asks if current patterns mark a decent into the barbarism that Luxemburg feared and if a just society, one capable of transcending the endemic violence of the neoliberal order, is possible in the new century.
This powerful and provocative new collection explores the roots of violence military, terrorist, criminal, and casual in contemporary society. It analyzes the social context, history, and structure of modern violence, casting light on patterns and practices from America's inner cities and prisons to "failed states" like Afghanistan. Violence Today also gives special attention to debate within the Left about violence, including a controversial defense of armed struggle.
Contributors: John Berger, Leo Panitch and Colin Leys, Peter Thomas, Vivek Chibber, Christian Parenti, Ruth Wilson Gilmore, Georgi Derluguian, Sofiri Joab-Peterside, Ulrich Oslender, Achin Vanaik, Barabara Harriss-White, Lynne Segal, Joe Sim and Steve Tombs, Dennis Rodgers, Avishai Erlich, Philip Green, Garance Upham, Mary des Chenes and Stephen Mikesell, Samir Amin.
About the Author
Michael Bérubé is Paterno Family Professor in Literature at Pennsylvania State University, and the author of several books, including Whats Liberal about the Liberal Arts, The Employment of English, and Life As We Know It, which was a New York Times notable book and NPR book of the year. He is general editor of NYU Presss Cultural Front series, has contributed to numerous magazines and newspapers, and writes a popular blog, American Airspace, at michaelberube.com.