num_pages: 233
description: In this unprecedented critique Bernard-Henri Lvy one of the worlds leading intellectuals revisits his political roots scrutinizes the totalitarianisms of the past as well as those on the horizon and argues powerfully for a new political and moral vision for our times. Are human rights Western or universal? Does anti-Semitism have a future and if so what will it look like? And how is it that progressives themselvesthose who in the past defended individual rights and fought fascismhave now become the breeding ground for new kinds of dangerous an unthinking loathing of Israel; an obsessive anti-Americanism; an idea of tolerance that in its justification of Islamic fanaticism for example could become the cemetery of democracies; and an indifference masked by relativism to the greatest human tragedies facing the world today? Illuminating these and other questions Lvy also brings to life his own autobiography highlighting the thinkers he has known and scrutinized and the ideological battles he has fought over thirty yearsrevealing their bearing on the present.Above all Lvy offers a powerful new vision for progressives everywhere one based neither on the failed idealisms of the past neither nor on their current misguided bigoted and dangerously sentimental attachments but on an absolute commitment to combat evil in all its guises. The new barbarism Levy compellingly diagnoses is real and must be confronted. At a time of ideological and political transition in America Left in Dark Times is a polemical incendiary articulation of the threats we all facein many cases without our even being aware of itand a riveting cogent stand against those threats. Surprising and sure to be controversial wise and free of cynicism it is one of the most important books yet written by one of the crucial voices of our time.Praise for Bernard-Henri Lvys American VertigoAn entertaining trip as much in the tradition of Jack Kerouac as Tocqueville. The New York TimesPerceptive pugnacious passionate [and] exquisitely written. The New York ObserverIts difficult to remember when a writer of any nationality so clearly and thoughtfully delineated both the good and bad in America. [] A. Entertainment Weekly (Editors Choice)Lvy is a true friend of the American experiment and a comrade in the American struggle against the barbarisms. The New RepublicLvy writes brilliantly. American Vertigo is filled with insights and goodwill. The Wall Street JournalProvocative . . . [Lvy is] a writer of enormous power and vitality.San Francisco ChronicleVigorous . . . impressive.The Boston Globe
language: English
title: Left in Dark Times: A Stand Against the New Barbarism
publisher: Random House