Civilisation of Perpetual Movement: Nomads in the Modern World - Hardcover

McDonnell, Nick

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1849043981 ISBN 13: 9781849043984

Publisher: C Hurst & Co Publishers Ltd, 2016

Synopsis

From the Chinese Emperors to the Romans and the Byzantines, from British Foreign Office agents in the Great Game to today's hippies, backpackers and aid workers, a long line of 'civilized', sedentary peoples have again and again misunderstood nomads, and nomadism. Caricatured as backward herders, thieving pastoralists, or members of some vast and undifferentiated horde of humanity forever wandering the planet, nomads are usually perceived as anything but modern and almost always as on the verge of obsolescence. 'The Civilization of Perpetual Movement' is the first examination of nomadism as a vital global political practice. Nick McDonell - bestselling novelist and war correspondent - draws upon his years spent with and research into nomads on every continent to illuminate what is, and has always been, a most modern practice. In the lucid, evocative prose which earnt him comparisons with Graham Greene and John Le Carre in the New York Times, McDonell illuminates the ways nomads and states influence each other, historically and today - with surprising consequences, from the plains and mountains of Central Asia to the grasslands of the Rift Valley.Part literary meditation, part reflection on international relations, part original history, 'The Civilization of Perpetual Movement' is an instant and unclassifiable classic, in the tradition of iconoclastic thinkers from Bruce Chatwin to James Scott to T. E. Lawrence.

About this title

Review

'We are only now starting to come to terms with who nomads are and what they do. McDonel's fine book provides valuable help in this task.' --Times Literary Supplement

'This book is exceptional not only for the new perspectives it gives on nomads, but for the out-of-the-box thinking which Nick McDonell applies throughout the text ... reading this book is an exercise in critical thinking.' --The Jordan Times

In this interesting new book, Nick McDonell explains that nomads are often only seen as an economic group, existing through herding or trading. Their role fighting for their communities, interacting with their surrounding population and managing and using the landscape is ignored. Nomadism, he argues, is a form of political expression. --Socialist Review

From the Author

Nick McDonell was born in New York City in 1984. He is the author of the novels Twelve, The Third Brother, and An Expensive Education, and a book of reportage, The End of Major Combat Operations. McDonell is a graduate of Harvard and Oxford universities and has reported from Asia, Africa, and the Middle East for TIME, Harper's, and others.

About this edition

• Publisher: C Hurst & Co Publishers Ltd
• Publication date: 2016
• ISBN 10: 1849043981
• ISBN 13: 9781849043984
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 224