The War on the West
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SUNDAY TIMES NUMBER ONE BESTSELLER 'The most important book of the year' Daily Mail The brilliant and provocative new book from one of the world's foremost political writers 'The anti-Western revisionists have been out in force in recent years. It is high time that we revise them in turn...' In The War on the West, international bestselling author Douglas Murray asks: if the history of humankind is one of slavery, conquest, prejudice, genocide and exploitation, why are only Western nations taking the blame for it? It's become perfectly acceptable to celebrate the contributions of non-Western cultures, but discussing their flaws and crimes is called hate speech. What's more it has become acceptable to discuss the flaws and crimes of Western culture, but celebrating their contributions is also called hate speech. Some of this is a much-needed reckoning; however, some is part of a larger international attack on reason, democracy, science, progress and the citizens of the West by dishonest scholars, hatemongers, hostile nations and human-rights abusers hoping to distract from their ongoing villainy. In The War on the West, Douglas Murray shows the ways in which many well-meaning people have been lured into polarisation by lies, and shows how far the world's most crucial political debates have been hijacked across Europe and America. Propelled by an incisive deconstruction of inconsistent arguments and hypocritical activism, The War on the West is an essential and urgent polemic that cements Murray's status as one of the world's foremost political writers.
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I gave this three stars - 4 for content, 2 for writing, which is bad. Sometimes it sounds like the author hurriedly dictated his comments and someone wrote them down. The chapter on Gratitude is the best.
I'm trying, really trying to see the points from multiple sides.
This book uses anecdotal and inflammatory language to rile up the reader and cause them to believe everything that he puts down on paper. On more than one occasion while reading, the author was making a point about a given topic and then made a logical leap that, as far as I could tell, had little to do with the point that he was originally making.
My primary complaint with this book is that he didn't actually give any solutions or thoughts on the actual premise. Why is the west worthy of being defended? Why shouldn't individuals look at historical figures or moments and critique them? Why is the United States not worthy of critique and criticism on its historical treatment of marginalized groups and people of color?
Does the author believe that these points or experiences of others don't exist and are not worth analyzing? Okay, that's fine. You don't want or believe that CRT is good. You think that we shouldn't disavow “the West”. It is the same complaint I have against other conservative ideas. So, you don't like [insert thing here]. However, your belief doesn't change what others are going through. There are people who are saying that they experience things differently... In my understanding, it comes down to not believing or not caring about the experiences of others, for if we did, maybe we wouldn't agree on how to solve the issues, however, we would talk and be more open to actually fixing the situation and making progress in some regard.
I want to learn more and I want to see the world from the other side, but I am struggling to get there.
A very well-written book that sets out its themes clearly and backs them up well with citations from other sources. The chapter on Culture was particularly enjoyable.
It will be interesting to look back at this period in history, and I would imagine that anyone who follows Douglas Murray will have similar hopes on how they (we) would like it to go.
