Vous voulez voir cette page en français ? Cliquez ici.

 

or
Sign in to turn on 1-Click ordering.
 
 
More Buying Choices
16 used & new from CDN$ 3.90

Have one to sell? Sell yours here
 
   
Left in Dark Times: A Stand Against the New Barbarism
 
See larger image
 

Left in Dark Times: A Stand Against the New Barbarism (Hardcover)

by Bernard-Henri Levy (Author)
4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
List Price: CDN$ 28.00
Price: CDN$ 17.64 & eligible for FREE Super Saver Shipping on orders over CDN$ 39. Details
You Save: CDN$ 10.36 (37%)
o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o
In Stock.
Ships from and sold by Amazon.ca. Gift-wrap available.

8 new from CDN$ 12.11 8 used from CDN$ 3.90

Frequently Bought Together

Left in Dark Times: A Stand Against the New Barbarism + The Ascent Of Money + Why Your World Is About to Get a Whole Lot Smaller
Total List Price: CDN$ 77.95
Price For All Three: CDN$ 45.61

Show availability and shipping details

  • This item: Left in Dark Times: A Stand Against the New Barbarism by Bernard-Henri Levy

    In Stock.
    Ships from and sold by Amazon.ca.
    Eligible for FREE Super Saver Shipping on orders over CDN$ 39. Details

  • The Ascent Of Money by Niall Ferguson

    In Stock.
    Ships from and sold by Amazon.ca.
    Eligible for FREE Super Saver Shipping on orders over CDN$ 39. Details

  • Why Your World Is About to Get a Whole Lot Smaller by Jeff Rubin

    In Stock.
    Ships from and sold by Amazon.ca.
    Eligible for FREE Super Saver Shipping on orders over CDN$ 39. Details


Customers Who Bought This Item Also Bought

Culture Of Narcissism

Culture Of Narcissism

by Christopher Lasch
4.1 out of 5 stars (9)  CDN$ 15.33
Animal Spirits: How Human Psychology Drives the Economy, and Why It Matters for Global Capitalism

Animal Spirits: How Human Psychology Drives the Economy, and Why It Matters for Global Capitalism

by George A. Akerlof
2.5 out of 5 stars (2)  CDN$ 18.15
Justice

Justice

by Michael Sandel
CDN$ 19.53
The Given Day: A Novel

The Given Day: A Novel

by Dennis Lehane
5.0 out of 5 stars (3)  CDN$ 14.59
American Vertigo: Traveling America in the Footsteps of Tocqueville

American Vertigo: Traveling America in the Footsteps of Tocqueville

by Bernard-Henri Levy
4.0 out of 5 stars (1)  CDN$ 14.56
Explore similar items

Product Details


Product Description

Review

“[Lévy’s] memories interlace with reflections on his long career of political activism . . . and are studded with passionately held positions on every issue current on the world stage. Whether or not you agree with him . . . you will be convinced of this: Ideas matter to him.”—New York Observer

“Lévy offers as fine a description as you’re likely to find anywhere of what the conventional international left . . . has adopted as its worldview. . . . [His] discussion of contemporary anti-Semitism is sophisticated, detailed and convincing.”—Los Angeles Times

“Continually asking himself as well as others to confront the hard questions, [Lévy] produces a text that . . . readers will find highly absorbing.”—New York Times Book Review

“Moving and inspiring . . . When political leaders commit atrocities, intellectuals remind the world of right and wrong. . . . Bernard-Henri Lévy, perhaps the most prominent intellectual in France today, seeks to revive this tradition of speaking truth to power.”—Boston Globe


From the Trade Paperback edition.


Product Description

In this unprecedented critique, Bernard-Henri Lévy, one of the world’s leading intellectuals revisits his political roots, scrutinizes the totalitarianisms of the past as well as those on the horizon, and argues powerfully for a new political and moral vision for our times. Are human rights Western or universal? Does anti-Semitism have a future, and, if so, what will it look like? And how is it that progressives themselves–those who in the past defended individual rights and fought fascism–have now become the breeding ground for new kinds of dangerous attitudes: an unthinking loathing of Israel; an obsessive anti-Americanism; an idea of “tolerance” that, in its justification of Islamic fanaticism, for example, could become the “cemetery of democracies”; and an indifference, masked by relativism, to the greatest human tragedies facing the world today? Illuminating these and other questions, Lévy also brings to life his own autobiography, highlighting the thinkers he has known and scrutinized and the ideological battles he has fought over thirty years–revealing their bearing on the present.

Above all, Lévy offers a powerful new vision for progressives everywhere, one based neither on the failed idealisms of the past neither nor on their current misguided, bigoted, and dangerously sentimental attachments but on an absolute commitment to combat evil in all its guises. The “new barbarism” Levy compellingly diagnoses is real and must be confronted. At a time of ideological and political transition in America, Left in Dark Times is a polemical, incendiary articulation of the threats we all face–in many cases without our even being aware of it–and a riveting, cogent stand against those threats. Surprising and sure to be controversial, wise and free of cynicism, it is one of the most important books yet written by one of the crucial voices of our time.

Praise for Bernard-Henri Lévy’s American Vertigo

“An entertaining trip, as much in the tradition of Jack Kerouac as Tocqueville.”
The New York Times

“Perceptive, pugnacious, passionate [and] exquisitely written.”
The New York Observer

“It’s difficult to remember when a writer of any nationality so clearly and thoughtfully delineated both the good and bad in America. [Grade:] A.”
Entertainment Weekly (Editor’s Choice)

“Lévy is a true friend of the American experiment and a comrade in the American struggle against the barbarisms.”
The New Republic

“Lévy writes brilliantly. American Vertigo is filled with insights and goodwill.”
The Wall Street Journal

“Provocative . . . [Lévy is] a writer of enormous power and vitality.”
–San Francisco Chronicle

“Vigorous . . . impressive.”
–The Boston Globe

Tags Customers Associate with This Product

 (What's this?)
Click on a tag to find related items, discussions, and people.
 

Your tags: Add your first tag
 

What do customers ultimately buy after viewing this item?

Left in Dark Times: A Stand Against the New Barbarism
87% buy the item featured on this page:
Left in Dark Times: A Stand Against the New Barbarism 4.0 out of 5 stars (3)
CDN$ 17.64
United in Hate: The Left's Romance with Tyranny and Terror
7% buy
United in Hate: The Left's Romance with Tyranny and Terror 5.0 out of 5 stars (1)
CDN$ 17.27
The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society
3% buy
The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society 4.4 out of 5 stars (37)
CDN$ 11.55
The Given Day: A Novel
3% buy
The Given Day: A Novel 5.0 out of 5 stars (3)
CDN$ 14.59

 

Customer Reviews

3 Reviews
5 star:
 (1)
4 star:
 (1)
3 star:
 (1)
2 star:    (0)
1 star:    (0)
 
 
 
 
 
Average Customer Review
4.0 out of 5 stars (3 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
Share your thoughts with other customers:
Most helpful customer reviews

 
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars The Post New Left Leftists, Oct 8 2008
By Coach C (Canada) - See all my reviews
(TOP 50 REVIEWER)   
What does it mean to be a Leftist after the end of the 1960's New Left in this post Cold War era? That is the central question that Bernard-Henri Lévy (BHL) attempts to answer in this extended essay. Arguably, BHL is a humanist, against all forms of Totalitarianism or what he calls "Barbarism".

The book begins with BHL having a conversation with Nicolas Sarkozy whom BHL considers to be an old acquaintances. When BHL refuses to write a puff piece for his "friend" Sarkozy lashes out at BHL criticizing him for being "soft" after being discredited by his supposed "Leftist family". This prompts BHL to confront his past as a Leftist and to outline a pessimistic vision of the future of the Left in Europe.

What is great about the book is the text is translated in a very colloquial way. Sure, you'll need to have a little background on European intellectual history, but he doesn't muddle the text with too much academic jargon. I definitely recommend reading this book especially if you consider yourself a Leftist.
Was this review helpful to you? Yes No (Report this)



 
2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars Not an Easy Read, Nov 15 2008
By Steve S. (Los Angeles) - See all my reviews
(TOP 50 REVIEWER)   
I hate to admit it, by I had a very hard time reading this book, for at least two reasons. First, the author is completely incapable of limiting each sentence to a single thought. He interrupts nearly every thought to throw in another, then back to the first thought, then off to another.

In addition, the author keeps making references to European events and people, without any introduction or explanation. Much of the time, it seemed more like showing off than providing information. I felt like I was constantly fighting through the conversational-meets-stream-of-consciousness style to figure out what he was on about.

Putting aside the writing, there is some content here. The author explores the ways in which the Left has gone off tracks in recent years. Of course, he is writing about the European Left, not the American Left. I consider myself, and most of my friends, to be pretty far to the Left. And, if you read my blog, you'll see I am not at all shy about criticizing the United States. Yet, it never even occurred to me to think that the USSR was anything other than a totalitarian nightmare. I guess some on the Left in Europe fell into the trap of thinking that any country that said it was communist deserved our respect, but I sure don't remember anyone around here thinking that way. Furthermore, I am not sure anyone who does fall into that kind of trap was all that bright to begin with!


Was this review helpful to you? Yes No (Report this)



 
4 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars Night comes on, Nov 7 2008
By Pieter "Toypom" (Johannesburg) - See all my reviews
(TOP 10 REVIEWER)   
Part autobiography, part political essay & part ideological polemic, Left In Dark Times is a survey of this prominent leftwing French intellectual's political roots, a look at old & new varieties of authoritarianism and a plea for a fresh moral vision. Having observed the mindless and juvenile parroting of consensus ideas by the Stepford Left, he analyzed the development of Leftist thought, identifying the four pillars of its current manifestation as:

(a) Indifference to suffering using the excuse of relativism (b) A perverted notion of tolerance that excuses any type of barbarity perpetrated by non-Western cultures (c) Irrational & obsessive Anti-Americanism articulated in a juvenile & oddly uniform manner (d) Anti-Zionism which is the New Antisemitism, the favorite pastime of the parasites from the rubbish dumps of the planet that infest transnational bodies like the United Abominations.

Much of the book concerns French politics as Lévy struggles to justify his attachment to the term "left." I found this quest totally overwrought & pointless. He is attached to a certain romantic vision of this ideology but for most it brings to mind Stalin, Pol Pot and yes, the National SOCIALISTS of Germany - murderous collectivists all of them. He however redeems himself with unique insights & unusual perspectives on other issues.

Since the implosion of the Soviet Empire, the resentment of Western Leftists has consumed them to the point of rejecting Enlightenment values. The convenient scapegoats Israel & the USA are demonized as a matter of course whilst the most savage, cruel & barbaric regimes are excused merely because they oppose the West, or their atrocities utterly ignored. Amongst those he mentions is the mediocre playwright Harold Pinter who defended the butcher Slobodan Milosevic. Fur further evidence, check out The Resurgence of Anti-Semitism: Jews, Israel, and Liberal Opinion.

A very shrewd observation of his is that the collapse of Communism has obscured the evidence of its crimes, permitting certain apologists, predominantly academia's tenured termites in the humanities, to start nurturing that deadly dystopian dream again. Amongst these are also found the supporters of thugs like Chavez, Ahmadinejad, Putin and hardcore Islamists.

Lévy diagnoses European anti-Americanism as "power envy", resentment at having been liberated and protected by the USA plus the conspiracy theory of a Zionist cabal controlling the country - the latest version of the Protocols of the Elders of Zion. This is common to both the Left & Far Right, not only in Europe but in the USA too, lest we forget Patrick Buchanan & the grinning peanut Jimmy Carter.

Lévy shows how (his) Left's ideals of sympathy for the oppressed and striving for justice have been replaced by hatred; how its body is being consumed by pathogens that grow by devouring what little remains of the good. Its intellectual bankruptcy & practical failure everywhere have turned Leftism into the champion of nihilism. (There was nowhere left to go).

Leftists despise (Classical) Liberalism - here to be understood as individual freedom - and the Enlightenment that gave birth to it. That is why they embrace collectivists of all stripes, from Baathist Fascists like Saddam to Fanatical Jihadists like Ahmadinejad to terrorists like Hezbollah, as Mr Wormtongue himself, the Pol Pot fan Noam Chomsky has done. On the international stage the most visible manifestation is an emerging gas cartel which might encompass China, Russia, Belarus, the Turkic states of Central Asia, Venezuela, Iran and other Middle Eastern countries - a new Axis of Evil. More recently, in his book The New Anti-Semitism: The Globalisation of the Oldest Hatred Denis MacShane has suggested that antisemitism has become a component part of international politics, a global export industry with an impact on geopolitics which the West underestimates at its great peril.

Lévy proposes a new vision based on a commitment to fight the new barbarism which is spreading worldwide. His warnings and sentiments have already been raised by an array of respectable writers on that side of the political spectrum, for example in the book A Matter of Principle edited by Thomas Cushman. I am afraid Lévy will find no takers for his sensible proposals amongst the leftists at media like Le Monde, The Guardian, The New York Times or the BBC. Even just recognizing the link between terrorism and religion is avoided by these & similar media that cannot now reveal their vacuity in judgment as this will further undermine their credibility.

Robert Kagan's The Return of History and the End of Dreams paints a very foreboding picture of the future, one that neither the mass media nor the new US administration will face squarely. But facts stubbornly continue to exist despite being ignored. Left in Dark Times confirms much of what others have already exposed - a global sinisterist convergence between collectivists around the spectrum, united by their hatred of capitalism, individual freedom, Israel & the USA.

I found the author's style slightly jarring in places but that pales besides what he has to say. In 2003 Jean-François Revel raised many similar points to ponder in his witty book Anti-Americanism, arguing that the phenomenon is a squalid psychological need. Another French author that I very highly recommend is Chantal Delsol, in particular her two magnificent works Icarus Fallen and The Unlearned Lessons Of the Twentieth Century. She writes with great empathy and understanding.
Was this review helpful to you? Yes No (Report this)


Share your thoughts with other customers: Create your own review
 
 
Only search this product's reviews



Listmania!


Look for similar items by category


Look for similar items by subject


Feedback


Your Recent History

 (What's this?)

After viewing product detail pages or search results, look here to find an easy way to navigate back to pages you are interested in.