In 2017 the Indian Intellectual Pankaj Mishra published Age of Anger, a wide-ranging analysis of Islamic and Christian fundamentalism, nationalism, and a general sentiment of rage infesting society as a whole. This review attempts to place Mishra's ideas within a Marxist, class framework.
Pankaj Mishra's book is important for several reasons. First, because it systematically debunks the majority media and official government view of Islamic fundamentalism as being something alien to Western democratic societies, showing on the contrary how it shares roots with Trump or Brexit-style populism, or Indian and Chinese nationalism. It is especially valuable in that it opens up a much broader perspective than we are used to, spanning not just Europe since the Enlightenment but the Middle East, India, and China.
This review was originally written in 2018, but I have not had the occasion to publish it until today.
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201801-Age of Anger.pdf
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