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Decades of violence and chaos have generated a political and intellectual hysteria-ranging from imperial atavism to paranoia about invading or hectically breeding Muslim hordes-that has affected even the most intelligent in Anglo-America. In Bland Fanatics, Pankaj Mishra examines this hysteria and its fantasists, taking on its arguments and the atmosphere in which it has festered and become influential. In essays that grapple with colonialism, human rights, and the doubling down of liberalism against a background of faltering economies and weakening Anglo-American hegemony, Mishra confronts writers from Jordan Peterson and Niall Ferguson to Salman Rushdie and Ayaan Hirsi Ali. With a newly written introduction, these essays provide a vantage point from which to look seriously at the current crisis. "Dazzling...an extraordinarly powerful argument, by a writer of powerful and perhaps even remorseless conviction, for the case that we need first to rethink our past in order to reshape our future." - ArtReview

"An important and illuminating critic of liberalism and globalisation" - Kenan Malik, Observer

"Compelling" - Edward Luce, Financial Times

"The Anglo-American commentariat is full of lofty egos. Pankaj Mishra has developed a reputation as their great deflater ... Mishra's analysis of Anglo-American barbarism is cutting" - Rebecca Liu, White Review

"Every sentence is assembled with meticulous thought ... What the English have often flattered themselves saying they did, Mishra, as an English writer, really does: his duty. His careful discipline shows him to stand clear of the crisis of the Anglo intellectual that he narrates." - Bookforum

"Lacerating ... Mishra artfully pummels liberalism's Grand Narrative." - Damon Linker, New York Times

"Mishra excels at calling out intellectual vapidities ... [he] invariably knows where the bodies are buried and how to use the incriminating detail to good effect." - Abhrajyoti Chakraborty, Guardian

Bland Fanatics: Liberals, Race and Empire