Christopher Hitchens
by Ben Burgis

Ten years after the death of Christopher Hitchens, it's time for the left to take another look at his complicated legacy.

While his post-9/11 turn to the right has defined Christopher Hitchens for the last two decades, we may now be in a position to rehabilitate his long pre-9/11 career as a left-wing polemicist. Burgis reminds readers about what was best in Hitchens's writings and helps us gain a better understanding of how someone whose whole political life was animated by the values of the socialist left could have ended up holding grotesque positions on Iraq and the War on Terror.

Burgis' book makes a case for the enduring importance of engaging with Hitchens' complicated legacy.

Reviews:
Burgis’ book is one of most interesting and informative books I’ve read in the last several years. His research ability, good faith, and concern for his readers provide us with what’s possibly the best tribute to a man who shared those same qualities. ~ Leon Garber, existentialcafe.blog

Christopher Hitchens: What He Got Right, How He Went Wrong, and Why He Still Matters is written in a style that one suspects Hitch would have admired: it is both a loving tribute, and a relentlessly unsentimental, frank account of what Burgis sees as Hitchens’ many character flaws and political missteps.

Burgis’ book is a well written and often very funny testament to a complicated leftist who was never anything less than fascinating, even when that meant being infuriating to friend and foe alike. We shall not look upon his like again—and it is a testament to Hitch’s legacy that reading Burgis’ book deeply impresses on us how tragic that is. ~ Matt McManus , Areo Magazine

Burgis peeks at the consistency rather than the dissonance between Hitchens’ earlier and later views. He stops no more than half a step away from what the premises entail: that Hitchens did not change as much as the world around him did.

One of the causes of tension with Noam Chomsky, for example, Burgis observes, was Hitchens’ recognition that the forces of anti-imperialism today are dissimilar to “Ho Chi Minh or the Sandinistas.” ~ Vahaken Mouradian, Merion West

“Burgis offers a fascinating and nuanced dive into the life, work, and political views of Christopher Hitchens. It’s rare to come across a book that manages to combine an enjoyable and informative mix of history, philosophy, religion, and biography. Burgis accomplishes this difficult task well, and also helps the reader to interpret today’s political climate.” ~ Ana Kasparian, host and executive producer, The Young Turks

"Ben Burgis has written a compelling account of the political and philosophical thought of Christopher Hitchens. Though many on the left would rather forget Hitchens, who in the last decade of his life made a decidedly imperialist turn, Burgis reveals that Hitchens remains an important thinker with whom anyone interested in the history of ideas should wrestle. An important book that will no doubt serve as a starting point for the many books likely to be written about Hitchens in coming years." ~ Daniel Bessner, Non-Resident Fellow at the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft

[Note: This one should definitely be on the cover.]

"Ben Burgis is invaluable to the socialist movement, not only because he has the ability to speak beyond the already converted, but because of his range and intellectual curiosity. His book on Hitchens shows this range, giving a fair analysis of a man who badly lost his bearings.” ~ Bhaskar Sunkara, Editor & Publisher, Jacobin Magazine

[Note: This should definitely be on the cover.]

"People who think Christopher Hitchens was god-like will be pissed. People who think Christopher Hitchens was nothing but a war-mongering scumbag will be pissed. For the rest of us, who loved Hitch but thought him deeply flawed, Christopher Hitchens: What He Got Right, How He Went Wrong, and Why He Still Matters is gold.” ~ Ed Buckner, President, American Atheists (2008-2010) and Executive Director, Council for Secular Humanism (2001-2003)

"This is a must read for anyone on the Left who admired Christopher Hitchens but wondered what the hell happened to him in the last decade or so of his life. With his characteristic rigor, clarity, and wit, Burgis offers a persuasive account of Hitch’s evolution from young Trotskyist to neocon.

"What is perhaps most impressive about this book—both its subject and its author—is the range on display. Burgis is happy to meet Hitchens on any field, whether it’s the invasion of Iraq, a materialist critique of Said’s Orientalism, or the intricacies of the Kalām cosmological argument for God’s existence." ~ Mark Warren, Assistant Professor of Philosophy, Daemen College

"Written in his trademark deliberative style, Ben Burgis’ book is an engaging and worthwhile excavation of a writer now largely known for the reactionary turn he took in the final decade of his life. With care and thoroughness, Burgis offers us a more complete portrait of Christopher Hitchens’ vast body of work — and mounts a compelling case that the best of it is still worth reading today." ~ Luke Savage, author, "The Dead Center"