International bestselling author Douglas Murray asks: If the history of humankind is a history of slavery, conquest, prejudice, genocide, and exploitation, why are only Western nations taking the blame for it?
It’s become perfectly acceptable to celebrate the contributions of non-Western cultures, but discussing their flaws and crimes is called hate speech. It has become acceptable to discuss the flaws and crimes of Western culture, but celebrating their contributions is also called hate speech.
Some of this is a much-needed reckoning, a necessary step in moving forward together. However, some of it is part of a larger international attack on reason, democracy, science, progress, and the citizens of the West by dishonest scholars, hatemongers, hostile nations, and human rights abusers hoping to distract from their ongoing villainy.
In The War on the West, Douglas Murray shows how many well-meaning people have been lured into protests and polarization by lies and hypocrisy. If we must discard the ideas of Kant, Hume, and Mill for their opinions on race, shouldn’t we discard Marx for his far worse ones? If we are going to call the British slave trade genocide, shouldn’t we also focus on the Arab slave trade, which did more to end African races and for far longer? If we are to work hard to stamp out the embers of racism in America, shouldn’t we douse the roaring flames of it across the Middle East and Asia?
Murray carefully and methodically shows how far political discourse has strayed in Europe and America from its stated goals: justice and equality. Ranging from an incisive takedown of foolish arguments and activism to a clarion call for the defense of enlightenment values, this will be one of the most widely discussed books of the coming year.
