Age of Anger
A history of the present
Pankaj Mishra
Having read it
★★★★☆
A worthy read, but it did feel like it got bogged down in its own academic worthiness. It started well and was insightful about the age we live in and the inheritances societies and people in the ‘age of anger’ are dealing with. It’s epilogue was pretty good though but the book as a whole may have benefitted from better editing or, more likely, a better reader! Despite all this, I’ve given it 4 out of 5, rather than 3 out of 5, because it has plenty of meaning for society growing up and being more responsible!
A good passage
Modernisation, mostly along capitalist lines, became the universalist creed that glorified the autonomous rights-bearing individual and hailed his rational choice-making capacity as freedom. Economic growth was posited as the end-all of political life and the chief marker of progress worldwide, not to mention the gateway to happiness. Communism was totalitarian. Ergo its ideological opponent, American liberalism, represented freedom, which in turn was best advanced by moneymaking.
A second good passage
...cultural nationalism crystallised the desperate ambitions, drives, fantasies and confusions of generations of educated young men [and women?] everywhere, even as the Crystal Palace expanded around the world, making it more and more homogenous.