From The Ruins Of Empire

Product Description

Pankaj Mishra`s provocative account of how China, India & the Muslim World are remaking the world in their own image
- shortlisted for the Orwell Prize 2013. It is shortlisted for the Orwell prize 2013. Viewed in the West as a time of self-confident progress, the Victorian period was experienced by Asians as a catastrophe. As the British gunned down the last heirs to the Mughal Empire or burned down the Summer Palace in Beijing, it was clear that for Asia to recover a new way of thinking was needed. Pankaj Mishra re-tells the history of the past two centuries, showing how a remarkable, disparate group of thinkers, journalists, radicals & charismatics emerged from the ruins of empire to create an unstoppable Asian renaissance, one whose ideas lie behind everything from the Chinese Communist Party to the Muslim Brotherhood, & have made our world what it is today. Reviews: ” Arrestingly original.. .this penetrating & disquieting book should be on the reading list of anybody who wants to understand where we are today”. (John Gray, Independent). ”A riveting account that makes new & illuminating connections.. .deeply entertaining & deeply humane”. (Hisham Matar).” Fascinating.. .a rich & genuinely thought-provoking book”. (Noel Malcolm, Sunday Telegraph). ” Provocative, shaming & convincing”. (Michael Binyon, The Times). ” Lively.. .engaging.. .retains the power to shock”. (Mark Mazower, Financial Times). ” Subtle, erudite & entertaining”. (Economist, New Delhi). About the author: Pankaj Mishra is the author of Butter Chicken in Ludiana, The Romantics, An End to Suffering & Temptations of the West. He writes principally for the Guardian, The New York Times, London Review of Books & New York Review of Books. He lives in London, Shimla & New York.