WAR ON THE WEST HB

The brilliant and provocative new book from one of the world’s foremost political writers.

‘The anti-Western revisionists have been out in force in recent years. It is high time that we revise them in turn…’

In The War on the West, international bestselling author Douglas Murray asks: if the history of humankind is one 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. What’s more 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; however, some 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 the ways in which many well-meaning people have been lured into polarisation by lies, and shows how far the world’s most crucial political debates have been hijacked across Europe and America. Propelled by an incisive deconstruction of inconsistent arguments and hypocritical activism, The War on the West is an essential and urgent polemic that cements Murray’s status as one of the world’s foremost political writers.

As reviewed by Stephen McQuoid, GLO General Director

"This would not be classed as a 'Christian book', but it does give the thinking Christian much to reflect on. Douglas Murray’s book looks at how the West is criticized by people all over the world, including by people who come from the West and who have benefitted by the freedoms that the West has provided. In essence much of what Murray describes and critiques are aspects of our so called ‘woke culture’. A relatively recent phenomena that masquerades as a kind of moral awakening, but in reality, is more of a Marxist inspired diatribe against contemporary Western life.

The particular areas that Murray identifies as being under attack in the West are race, history, religion and culture. He notes that movements like Black Lives Matter have seized upon genuine injustices, but have used them to unjustly infer that the West is irretrievably racist and needs to repent. He notes that slavery and colonialism has been practiced in other parts of the world with little by way of condemnation while the West, which has provided its citizens with freedom and prosperity, is vilified and the hypocrisy of the West’s cultural opponents is laid bare and their demands for reparations an argument in confusion.

Murray critiques academic disciplines like Critical Race Theory demonstrating that, as often communicated, is unbalanced, untruthful and deeply reactionary. He notes that Western icons such as Winston Churchill come under attack by people who neither appreciate his contribution nor critique him fairly, preferring icons such as Marx, who as Murray points out was far from a paragon of virtue. While at times Murray overstates his case, this is nevertheless an intelligent and powerful assessment of woke culture, which in turn is one of the biggest threats to honesty, balance and freedom of speech today."

Product details:
Publisher: HarperCollins (28 April 2022)
Hardcover : 320 pages
ISBN: 978-0008492496