- This new book by celebrated Indian political essayist Pankaj Mishra is a masterpiece. It is so incredibly enlightening, thought-provoking and challenging. It's a reflection on Israel’s transition to a right wing, genocidal state over the decades.
- It's full of quotes from major Jewish activists, politicians, thinkers and writers wrestling with the challenges the Jews faced after the Holocaust. The writings of Primo Levi, Hannah Arendt, Jean Amery, James Baldwin and many others are examined in depth. They convey deep insights into the struggles and debates over the last century after the founding of Israel.
- The blurb on the dust jacket describes the book well:
The world after Gaza takes the war in the Middle East, and the bitterly polarised reaction to it within as well as outside the West, as the starting point for a broad re-evaluation of two competing narratives of the last century: the West's triumphant account of victory over Nazi and communist totalitarianism, and the spread of liberal capitalism, and the global majority's frequently thwarted vision of racial equality. At a moment when the world's balance of power is shifting and a long-dominant Western minority no longer commands the same authority and credibility, it is critically important to enter the experiences and perspectives of the majority of the world's population.
As old touchstones and landmarks crumble, only a new history with a sharply different emphasis can reorientate us to the world and worldviews now emerging into the light. In this concise, powerful and pointed treatise, Mishra reckons with the fundamental questions posed by our present crisis - about whether some lives matter more than others, why identity politics built around memories of suffering is being widely embraced and why racial antagonisms are intensifying amid a far-right surge in the West, threatening a global conflagration. The World After Gaza is an indispensable moral guide to our past, present and future.
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