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A review by tbr_the_unconquered
Age of Anger: A History of the Present by Pankaj Mishra
2.0
That's how it starts, sir. The fever, the rage, the feeling of powerlessness that turns good men... cruel.
While this may be too melodramatic for a work of non-fiction that talks about our present day society, the tone conveyed by this snippet of dialog is elaborated extensively by Pankaj Mishra. A voluminous work that spans most of western civilization’s history tells us why we have come to a deadly impasse of late across the world. Mishra highlights some key world leaders – Trump in the US, Putin in Russia, Modi in India and Tayyip Erdoğan in Turkey and asks us a question as to why have they come to power with such large majorities. This metaphorical question however is not the base of the book, it lies elsewhere in trying to seek answers to why there is an increase in rage, frustration and fear in the present day world and if this is an isolated phase of human history.
The answer to the last question according to the author was a no. Starting from the the time of the Industrial Revolution in Europe, Mishra points out instances as to how modernization, the clustering of wealth in the hand of a few individuals and social discrimination have led to the rise of disenchanted individuals and later groups. Starting with the Rousseau v/s Voltaire debate the two sides of the fence are introduced. With the inexorable march of history, Mishra also calls out the first call to a holy war in post-Christian world but ironically this call was from Prussia to fight against the French infidel, Napoleon. While these were pretty much interesting to read and comprehend, there then followed a barrage of information and thoughts from authors who I had no clue about. These included – Tocqueville, Herzen, Bakunin, Mazzini and Sorrel among others. As Mishra himself points out in the bibliographic essay, a fair amount of understanding about the works of these individuals would help you make more sense of what is being dissected here.
It is only in the last couple of chapters that the author discusses the nature of Islamic and Hindu fundamentalism. For the first he chooses to talk about ISIS while for the second he selects India’s current government. While I had read earlier about Mishra’s world view being leftist liberal, having read this first hand I got a fair understanding of why this could be. There are claims made here which have been dismissed time and again by courts for lack of evidence. However these points are not given as asides or remarks but put across as assertions. Having lived in the country through the said incidents and after seeing/hearing/reading the news it was pretty straightforward to distinguish conjencture from fact. What was interesting was how much Mishra had to talk about the current state of affairs in the nation but there is little or no mention of what he thinks the nation could do different to make things better.
To fully appreciate the scope of this book, you have to be very well read on a lot of varied aspects of history and its various epicycles. If not, like me you will be befuddled to a great extent.
While this may be too melodramatic for a work of non-fiction that talks about our present day society, the tone conveyed by this snippet of dialog is elaborated extensively by Pankaj Mishra. A voluminous work that spans most of western civilization’s history tells us why we have come to a deadly impasse of late across the world. Mishra highlights some key world leaders – Trump in the US, Putin in Russia, Modi in India and Tayyip Erdoğan in Turkey and asks us a question as to why have they come to power with such large majorities. This metaphorical question however is not the base of the book, it lies elsewhere in trying to seek answers to why there is an increase in rage, frustration and fear in the present day world and if this is an isolated phase of human history.
The answer to the last question according to the author was a no. Starting from the the time of the Industrial Revolution in Europe, Mishra points out instances as to how modernization, the clustering of wealth in the hand of a few individuals and social discrimination have led to the rise of disenchanted individuals and later groups. Starting with the Rousseau v/s Voltaire debate the two sides of the fence are introduced. With the inexorable march of history, Mishra also calls out the first call to a holy war in post-Christian world but ironically this call was from Prussia to fight against the French infidel, Napoleon. While these were pretty much interesting to read and comprehend, there then followed a barrage of information and thoughts from authors who I had no clue about. These included – Tocqueville, Herzen, Bakunin, Mazzini and Sorrel among others. As Mishra himself points out in the bibliographic essay, a fair amount of understanding about the works of these individuals would help you make more sense of what is being dissected here.
It is only in the last couple of chapters that the author discusses the nature of Islamic and Hindu fundamentalism. For the first he chooses to talk about ISIS while for the second he selects India’s current government. While I had read earlier about Mishra’s world view being leftist liberal, having read this first hand I got a fair understanding of why this could be. There are claims made here which have been dismissed time and again by courts for lack of evidence. However these points are not given as asides or remarks but put across as assertions. Having lived in the country through the said incidents and after seeing/hearing/reading the news it was pretty straightforward to distinguish conjencture from fact. What was interesting was how much Mishra had to talk about the current state of affairs in the nation but there is little or no mention of what he thinks the nation could do different to make things better.
To fully appreciate the scope of this book, you have to be very well read on a lot of varied aspects of history and its various epicycles. If not, like me you will be befuddled to a great extent.