Description
Book SynopsisThis collection of columns written for openDemocracy between 2004 and 2009 is proof of a subtle worldview that continues to generate questions: what is the relation between religion, nationalism and progress? Is a new international order possible? When is intervention a force for progress?
Trade Review'Unlike many veterans of 1968, Fred Halliday never stopped listening and observing and thinking in the present tense. There are fresh insights and shafts of enlightenment on every page of this invigorating collection of essays. Whatever the subjects - from Auschwitz to Armenia, Beirut to Barcelona - Halliday's knowledge, imagination and intellectual independence illuminate them all.' Francis Wheen, author of How Mumbo Jumbo Conquered the World 'Fred Halliday's Political Journeys range over wide intellectual and political landscapes, with brilliant insights, absorbing narratives, lucid writing and subtle humour. The Middle East, the Cold War, Islamism, imperialism and international relations, the dilemmas of our time, are all illuminated with deep analyses coupled with passionate commitment to the universal values of justice and human rights.' Sami Zubaida, author of Beyond Islam: A New Understanding of the Middle East '[Fred] shaped the fields in which he worked through powerful insight, clarity of writing and a passionate commitment to his subjects ... He revelled in simplifying complexity, debunking myths and challenging conventional wisdoms.' The Times
Table of ContentsContents Preface Chapter One: Points of Departure Lessons from Ireland 1968: the global legacy The Lessons of Communism A lunch with Mario Soares The forward march of women halted? Feminism in the Middle East: two pioneers Chapter Two: Shadows of Cold War The Age of the Three Dustbins Looking back on Saddam Hussein Cold War Assassinations: Solved and Unsolved A Conversation in Havana Boadicea in the South Atlantic: The Legacies of Margaret Thatcher The Vagaries of 'Anti-imperialism': The Left and jihad The Dominican Republic: in search of a 'National Hero' Chapter Three: Challenges of the Middle East Crises of the Middle East: 1914, 1967, 2003 America and the Arab World after Saddam Al-Jazeera: a matchbox that roared Yemen: murder in Arabia Felix Navigating Mare Nostrum: The Barcelona Process after ten years In An Unholy Place: Letter from Jerusalem Lebanon, Israel, and the 'Greater West Asian Crisis' Maxime Rodinson: in praise of a 'marginal man' Chapter Four: Revolution in a 'Great Nation' Ahmadinejad as President: Iran's revolutionary spasm Miscalculation in Tehran Sunni, Shi'a and the 'Trotskyists of Islam' Iran's revolution in global history Reflections on the Counter-Revolution in Iran Chapter Five: Political Violence Terrorism in historical perspective In Western Europe's Two Terrorism Capitals A Visit to 'Ground Zero' A Lebanese fragment: two days with Hizbullah Reason amid Rockets: Morality in a time of War The Attorney-General comes to town On the Death of Benazir Bhutto Chapter Six: Profit and Power in the Lands of Islam A transnational umma: reality or myth? The Jamahiriyah at Forty Faith as Business: Islam, law and finance Finance in the Gulf: the Chimera of Sovereign Wealth Funds Chapter Seven: Universalism Imperilled A Crisis of Universalism: America and radical Islam after 9/11 In Euskadi Tibet, Palestine and the Politics of Post-colonial Sequestration The Miscalculations of Small Nations Mixed Messages in Yerevan In the Darkest Place: a morning in Auschwitz Conclusions: The World's Twelve Worst Ideas Revenge of Political Economy: Karl Polanyi, Susan Strange and the global financial crisis A Time in Barcelona Further References Index
