Biographical note:

Christopher Hitchens is a contributing editor to Vanity Fair and the author of the best-selling God Is Not Great. His books published by Verso include The Trial of Henry Kissinger, No One Left to Lie To, The Missionary Position, Unacknowledged Legislation, The Parthenon Marbles, Hostage to History, and more.

Country of final manufacture:

US

Main description:

The global turmoil of the last few years has severely tested every analyst and commentator. Few have written with such insight as Christopher Hitchens about the large events—or with such discernment and wit about the small tell-tale signs of a disordered culture.

For the Sake of Argument ranges from the political squalor of Washington, as a beleaguered Bush administration seeks desperately to stave off disaster and Clinton prepares for power; to the twilight of Stalinism in Prague; from the Jewish quarter of Damascus in the aftermath of the Gulf War to the embattled barrios of Central America and the imperishable resistance of Sarajevo, as a difficult peace is negotiated with ruthless foes. Hitchens’s unsparing account of Western realpolitik in the end shows it to rest on delusion as well as deception.

The reader will find in these pages outstanding essays on political assassination in America as well as a scathing review of the evisceration of politics by pollsters and spin-doctors. Hitchens’s knowledge of the tortuous history of revolutions in the twentieth century helps him explain both the New York intelligentsia’s flirtation with Trotskyism and the frailty of Communist power structures in Eastern Europe.

Hitchens’s pointed reassessments of Graham Greene, P. G. Wodehouse and C. L. R. James, or his riotous celebration of drinking and smoking, display an engaging enthusiasm and an acerbic wit. Equally entertaining is his unsparing rogues’ gallery, which gives us unforgettable portraits of the lugubrious “Dr.” Kissinger, the comprehensively reactionary “Mother” Teresa, the preposterous Paul Johnson and the predictable P. J. O’Rourke.

Review quote:

“Displays the intelligence, invective and stubborn common sense Mr Hitchens brings to his commentaries, be they about the political scene in Washington, the soap-opera travail of the British Royal family or a novel by George Eliot.”—New York Times

“Hitchens rejoices without inhibition in the pleasure of hating and knows that satire is murder by other means ... . A pen like this is more lethal than most swords.”—The Observer

“One easily forgets just how good Christopher Hitchens is ... multilingual, well-travelled, hyper-educated, pissed-off, always funny, he has no equal in American journalism, and this book proves it.”—Voice Literary Supplement

“The fiercely independent-minded Hitchens provides reams of fuel for intellectual conflagration, couched in the luxurious excess of humour ... progressive journalism as it was meant to be.”—The Nation

“The test of this kind of book is for the reader to be able to open it anywhere and be drawn into the argument; it’s a test that Hitchens passes time and time again ... . He can be devilishly funny, but he is also capable of writing with acid seriousness.”—Independent on Sunday