The Age of Anger: A History of the Present

How can we explain the origins of the great wave of paranoid hatreds  that seem inescapable in our close-knit world - from American 'shooters'  and ISIS to Trump, from a rise in vengeful nationalism across the world  to racism and misogyny on social media? In Age of Anger, Pankaj Mishra answers our bewilderment by casting his gaze back to the eighteenth century, before leading us to the present.

 

He  shows that as the world became modern those who were unable to fulfil  its promises - freedom, stability and prosperity - were increasingly  susceptible to demagogues. It was  from among the ranks of the disaffected that the militants of the 19th  century arose - angry young men who became cultural nationalists in  Germany, messianic revolutionaries in Russia, bellicose chauvinists in  Italy, and anarchist terrorists internationally.

 

Today, just as  then, the wider embrace of mass politics, technology, and the pursuit of  wealth and individualism has cast many more billions adrift in a  literally demoralized world, uprooted from tradition but still far from  modernity - with the same terrible results. Making startling connections and comparisons, Age of Anger is a book of immense urgency and profound argument. It is a history of our present predicament unlike any other.