Book 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 beleagured administration seeks desperately to stave off discredit and disaster to the twilight of Stalinism in Prague, and from the Jewish quarter of Damascus in the aftermath of the Gulf War to the embattled barrios of Central America as a difficult peace was being negotiated with ruthless foes. Hitchen's account of Western 'realpolitik' in the Gulf or Indo China shows it to rest on delusion, as well as deception. The reader should find in these pages outstanding essays on political assassination in America, as well as a devastating indictment of the evisceration of politics by pollsters and spin doctors. Hitchens' knowledge of the tortuous history of revolutions in the 20th century helps him to explain both the New York intelligensia's flirtation with Trotskyism and the frailty of communist power structures in Eastern Europe. Hitchens provides re assessments of Grahame Greene, P.G. Woodhouse and C.L.R. James. His 'rogues' gallery' gives us portraits of 'Dr Kissinger', Mother Theresa, Paul Johnson and P.J. O'Rouke. 'For the Sake of Argument' collects together writings which appeared in a wide variety of journals, including 'Granta', 'The Nation', 'Harpers', 'Grand Street', 'Times Literary Supplement', 'The London Review of Books', 'Z' and 'The New Left Review'. The author supplies a new introduction.
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