Staff Pick
In this collection of previously published, thought-provoking essays, Mishra looks at, amongst other things, the flawed relationship between the West and the Global South — and especially at the unsound and faulty assumptions that have led to harmful policies. Pankaj Mishra is a Marxist critic. His essays are acerbic and illuminating and a joy to read. A definite must-read for anyone interested in the impact and effects of colonialism, imperialism, and globalization on the Global South. Recommended By Sheila N., Powells.com
Synopses & Reviews
A wide-ranging, controversial collection of critical essays on the political mania plaguing the West by one of the most important public intellectuals of our time.
Decades of violence and chaos have produced a political and intellectual hysteria ranging from imperial atavism to paranoia about an Islamic threat to Western civilization that has affected even the most liberal of American and British writers. In Bland Fanatics, Pankaj Mishra examines this hysteria and its fantasists, taking on its arguments and the atmosphere in which it has festered and become influential. In essays that grapple with colonialism, human rights, and the doubling down of liberalism against a background of faltering economies and weakening Anglo-American hegemony, Mishra confronts writers from Jordan Peterson to Ayaan Hirsi Ali. Featuring a newly written introduction, these essays provide a vantage point from which to look seriously at the current crisis.
Review
Mishra is a prolific author of thought-provoking essays...They are opinionated, provocative, and amusing. Mishra's subjects vary, but many feature the uneasy relationship between West and East, about which, he shows, Westerners know precious little. Booklist
Review
“Mishra dwells in the realm of ideas and emotions, which get short shrift in most accounts of global politics...A decent liberalism would read sharp critics like Mishra and learn.” Franklin Foer, The New York Times Book Review
About the Author
Pankaj Mishra is the author of From the Ruins of Empire, Age of Anger, and several other books. He is a columnist at Bloomberg View and writes regularly for The Guardian, London Review of Books, and The New Yorker. A fellow of the Royal Society of Literature, he lives in London.