num_pages: 141
description: From bestselling author and provocateur Christopher Hitchens, the classic guide to the art of principled dissent and disagreementIn Letters to a Young Contrarian, bestselling author and world-class provocateur Christopher Hitchens inspires the radicals, gadflies, mavericks, rebels, and angry young (wo)men of tomorrow. Exploring the entire range of "contrary positions"—from noble dissident to gratuitous nag—Hitchens introduces the next generation to the minds and the misfits who influenced him, invoking such mentors as Emile Zola, Rosa Parks, and George Orwell. As is his trademark, Hitchens pointedly pitches himself in contrast to stagnant attitudes across the ideological spectrum. No other writer has matched Hitchens's understanding of the importance of disagreement—to personal integrity, to informed discussion, to true progress, to democracy itself.
language: English
title: Letters to a Young Contrarian
titlecomplete: Letters to a Young Contrarian
characters: George Orwell, Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, Nicholas Nickleby, Rainer Maria Rilke, Salman Rushdie, Noam Chomsky, Susan Sontag, E.P. Thompson, Émile Zola, Diana Frances Spencer, Princess of Wales, Smike, Ayn Rand, Christopher Hitchens, Thabo Mbeki, Henry Kissinger, Adam Michnik, Bertrand Russell, Ronald Ridenhour
genres: Biography, Essays, Atheism, History, Politics, Philosophy, Religion, Nonfiction, Journalism, Memoir
ratings_count: 11838
publisher: Basic Books