In Praise of Barbarians - Essays Against Empire
Essays Against Empire
Saturday, March 20, 2010
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'Mike Davis attacks the current fashion for empires and white men's burdens in this blistering collection of radical essays. He skewers such contemporary idols as Mel Gibson and Howard Dean, debates with Tom Frank about "what's the matter with America", unlocks some secret doors in the Pentagon and the California prison system, visits Star Wars in the Arctic and vigilantes on the US-Mexico border, predicts ethnic cleansing in New Orleans more than a year before Katrina, commemorates the anarchist avengers of the 1890s, remembers "Private Ivan" who defeated fascism, recalls the "teenybopper riots" on Sunset Strip, and looks at the future of global capitalism from the top of Hubbert's Peak '.
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In Praise of Barbarians
By Andrews, John at Aug 21, 2010 07:44 AM
Mike Davis uses the analogy of the fall of the Roman Empire in this collection of essays about the current US Empire.
I read Mike Davis' book 'Planet of Slums' a couple of years ago and whilst I thought it was extremely well researched and well written, I found it rather hard going - perhaps the subject matter was too narrow for me. In Praise of Barbarians is very different and I found it compelling and easy to read. The subject matter is varied but always linking back to empire and the fall of empire.
A great, informative book. Thank you, Mike Davis.
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