A review by cameronius
Bland Fanatics: Liberals, Race, and Empire by Pankaj Mishra

3.0

Pankaj Mishra's essays and reviews in the NYRB and LRB are some of my favorites. This collection of his greatest hits over the past few decades feels made just for me. Mishra is a gifted writer and a forceful critic of the West's hypocritical liberalism and racist imperialism. While I don't agree with all his views—perhaps not even most—I value that his polemics raise important and uncomfortable historical political questions rarely addressed by Western thinkers.