As soon as we abandon our own reason wrote Bertrand Russell and are content to rely upon authority there is no end to our troubles. For over forty years Christopher Hitchens has proclaimed truth where others have spun falsehood & written with passionate commitment on matters that others fear to broach. This volume of essays spans Hitchens whole career & encompasses his writing on politics literature & religion. It is the most comprehensive collection of the work of the finest English essayist since Orwell. Arguably contains all aspects of Hitchens wide repertoire as journalist polemicist & critic. Divided into sections such as: All American Eclectic Affinities & Foreign Quarrels Hitchens unfolds his views on subjects ranging from Clinton to Kissinger; Powell to Proust. Hitchens life has above all else been one of defiance & wit courage & humility: in an age of digital punditry & twenty-four hour hucksterism he has been a voice of reason amid the clamour making his indelible & brilliant mark on politics & literature on both sides of the Atlantic. While his many books exist as a formidable legacy it is his mastery of short-form journalism & criticism that constitute his lasting claim to greatness. Arguably is a unique anthology & the indispensible companion to the Anglospheres pre-eminent political writer.""