AL-QAEDA AND WHAT IT MEANS TO BE MODERN - Softcover

John Gray

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1565849876 ISBN 13: 9781565849877

Publisher: THE NEW PRESS, 2005

Synopsis

While many Americans view the September 11th terrorist attack as the act of an anachronistic and dangerous sect, one that champions medieval and outmoded ideals, John Gray here argues that in fact the ideology of Al Qaeda is both Western and modern, a by-product of globalization's transnational capital flows and open borders. Indeed, according to Gray, Al Qaeda's utopian zeal to remake the world in its own image descends from the same Enlightenment creed that informed both the disastrous Soviet experiment and the new neoliberal dream of a global free market.

In this "excellent short introduction to modern thought" (The Guardian), first published in 2003, Gray warns that the United States, once a champion of revolutionary economic and social change, must now understand its new foes. He also confronts some of the faults he perceives in Western ideology: the faith that global development will eradicate war and hunger, trust in technology to address the coming catastrophe of population explosion, and the belief that democracy is an infallible institution that can serve as political panacea for all.

About this title

Review:

"A biting critique of American-style capitalism as a one-size fits-all solution for the world's problems, destined to spread everywhere." --The Chronicle of Higher Education

"Chock-full of interesting observations and stimulating insights." --Danny Postel, The Nation

"Smart, learned, lucid." --Kirkus Review

"A useful and breakneck tour of the perils of modernity." --The Toronto Globe and Mail

Book Description:

Al Qaeda and What It Means to be Modern by John Gray is a powerful book, setting to rest the mistaken belief that we are all, more or less, becoming modern, and that as we become modern we will become more alike, more familiar and more reasonable. Nothing, Gray explains, could be further from the truth.

About this edition

• Publisher: THE NEW PRESS
• Publication date: 2005
• ISBN 10: 1565849876
• ISBN 13: 9781565849877
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 160