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A review by boithorn
Age of Anger: A History of the Present by Pankaj Mishra
3.0
A really compelling and ambitious philosophical history of how the Enlightenment reverberated forward to the present day, leaving a wake of destruction and unrest behind.
Mishra's primary argument (as I understand it) is that Voltaire, in his promotion of a liberal and capitalist society with elites who are worthy of ruling because they are elites, rankled Jean-Jacques Rousseau, who believed that increased inequality and rootless cosmopolitanism would only result in greater ressentiment among those left out of the prosperity (while still having to witness it passing between elites). Voltaire and the societies that adopted a classically liberal model of rule did not have a viable answer to this, leading to anti-elite uprisings and increased authoritarian protection of their states throughout the 18th and 19th centuries, but Rousseau's doctrines were also taken in by many thinkers and political operatives who in turn inspired authoritarian and fascist rule.
I don't necessarily agree with every point that Mishra makes in this book (for instance: Mishra doesn't do much to distinguish between anti-colonial violent resistance in India and Algeria and the present day seemingly violence of ISIS, characterizations of Bakunin as the main figurehead of anarchist theory are really flat, the end of the book details the 'negative solidarity' produced by social media but doesn't acknowledge the possibility for 'positive solidarity'), and I don't think it's well-organized, but it's a page-to-page barnburner of a history. If you have a working knowledge of post-Enlightenment philosophy or you just want to learn more about how increased globalization has led to the viral dissemination of ideas, this is an interesting book to check out.
Mishra's primary argument (as I understand it) is that Voltaire, in his promotion of a liberal and capitalist society with elites who are worthy of ruling because they are elites, rankled Jean-Jacques Rousseau, who believed that increased inequality and rootless cosmopolitanism would only result in greater ressentiment among those left out of the prosperity (while still having to witness it passing between elites). Voltaire and the societies that adopted a classically liberal model of rule did not have a viable answer to this, leading to anti-elite uprisings and increased authoritarian protection of their states throughout the 18th and 19th centuries, but Rousseau's doctrines were also taken in by many thinkers and political operatives who in turn inspired authoritarian and fascist rule.
I don't necessarily agree with every point that Mishra makes in this book (for instance: Mishra doesn't do much to distinguish between anti-colonial violent resistance in India and Algeria and the present day seemingly violence of ISIS, characterizations of Bakunin as the main figurehead of anarchist theory are really flat, the end of the book details the 'negative solidarity' produced by social media but doesn't acknowledge the possibility for 'positive solidarity'), and I don't think it's well-organized, but it's a page-to-page barnburner of a history. If you have a working knowledge of post-Enlightenment philosophy or you just want to learn more about how increased globalization has led to the viral dissemination of ideas, this is an interesting book to check out.