ISBN: 978-1844678617

Paperback: 384 pages
Publisher: Verso Books, 2012
Language: English
Product Dimensions: 13.7 x 3 x 20.9 cm

In this critical intervention against those liberal commentators who fervently beat the war drums – from Christopher Hitchens to Bernard-Henri Levy – Richard Seymour unearths the history of liberal justifications for empire. He shows how savage policies of conquest – including genocide and slavery – have been retailed as charitable missions and argues that the colonial tropes of ‘civilization’ and ‘progress’ still shape liberal pro-war discourse, and still conceal the same bloody realities. A new afterword assesses interventionism after the election of Obama, with the ongoing occupation of Afghanistan and NATO’s Libyan venture.