| Description |
xxi, 440 pages : 1 map ; 24 cm |
| Contents |
Velvet revolutions, continued-. The strange toppling of Slobadan Milošević ; "The country summoned me" ; Orange Revolution in Ukraine ; The revolution that wasn't ; 1968 and 1989 ; 1989! ; Velvet Revolution in past and future -- Europe and other headaches. Ghosts in the machine ; Are there moral foundations of European power? ; The twins' new Poland ; Exchange of empires ; Why Britain is in Europe ; Europe's new story ; National anthems ; "O chink, where is thy wall?" ; The perfect EU member -- Islam, terror and freedom. La Alhambra ; Islam in Europe ; The invisible front line ; Against taboos ; Respect? ; Secularism or atheism? ; No if and no buts -- USA! USA!. Mr. President ; 9/11 ; Anti-Europeanism in America ; In defence of the fence ; Zorba the Bush ; Warsaw, Missouri ; Dancing with history ; Liberalism -- Beyond the West. Beauty and the beast in Burma ; Soldiers of the hidden Imam ; East meets West ; The brotherhood against Pharaoh ; Cities of no God ; Beyond race -- Writers and facts. The brown grass of memory ; The Stasi on our minds ; Orwell in our time ; Orwell's list ; Is "British intellectual" an oxymoron? ; "Ich bin ein Berliner" ; The literature of fact -- Envoi. Elephant, feet of clay ; Decivilization ; The mice in the organ |
| Summary |
The author is well known as an astute and penetrating observer of a dazzling array of subjects, not least through his many contributions to the New York Review of Books. This collection of his essays from the last decade reveals his knack for ferreting out exceptional insights into a troubled world, often on the basis of firsthand experience. Whether he is writing about how "liberalism" has become a dirty word in American political discourse, the problems of Muslim assimilation in Europe, Ukraine's Orange Revolution, Gunter Grass's membership in the Waffen-SS, or the angry youth of Iran, he combines a gimlet eye for detail with deep knowledge of the history of his chosen subjects. Running through this book is his insistence that, whatever some postmodernists might claim, there are indeed facts, and we have both a political and a moral duty to establish them |
| Notes |
Originally published: Atlantic Books, 2009 |
| Bibliography |
Includes bibliographical references (pages 415-426) and index |
| Subject |
Political science -- Philosophy.
|
|
World politics -- 21st century -- Philosophy.
|
| LC no. |
2010925059 |
| ISBN |
0300161174 |
|
9780300161175 |
|
