Product Description

The global turmoil of the last few years has severely tested every analyst and commentator. Few have written with such insight as Christopher Hitchens about the large events - or with such discernment and wit about the small tell-tale signs of a disordered culture. "For the Sake of Argument" ranges from the political squalor of Washington - as a beleagured administration seeks desperately to stave off discredit and disaster - to the twilight of Stalinism in Prague, and from the Jewish quarter of Damascus in the aftermath of the Gulf War to the embattled barrios of Central America as a difficult peace was being negotiated with ruthless foes. Hitchen's account of Western "realpolitik" in the Gulf or Indo-China shows it to rest on delusion, as well as deception. The reader should find in these pages outstanding essays on political assassination in America, as well as a devastating indictment of the evisceration of politics by pollsters and spin doctors. Hitchens' knowledge of the tortuous history of revolutions in the 20th century helps him to explain both the New York intelligensia's flirtation with Trotskyism and the frailty of communist power structures in Eastern Europe. Hitchens provides re-assessments of Grahame Greene, P.G. Woodhouse and C.L.R. James. His "rogues' gallery" gives us portraits of "Dr Kissinger", Mother Theresa, Paul Johnson and P.J. O'Rouke. "For the Sake of Argument" collects together writings which appeared in a wide variety of journals, including "Granta", "The Nation", "Harpers", "Grand Street", "Times Literary Supplement", "The London Review of Books", "Z" and "The New Left Review". The author supplies a new introduction.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #12465 in Books
• Published on: 1994-07-25
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 368 pages

Review
"Displays the intelligence, invective and stubborn common sense Mr Hitchens brings to his commentaries, be they about the political scene in Washington, the soap-opera travail of the British Royal family or a novel by George Eliot." - New York Times "One easily forgets just how good Christopher Hitchens is ... multilingual, well-travelled, hyper-educated, pissed-off, always funny, he has no equal in American journalism, and this book proves it." - Voice Literary Supplement "The fiercely independent-minded Hitchens provides reams of fuel for intellectual conflagration, couched in the luxurious excess of humour ... progressive journalism as it was meant to be." - The Nation "The test of this kind of book is for the reader to be able to open it anywhere and be drawn into the argument; it's a test that Hitchens passes time and time again.... He can be devilishly funny, but he is also capable of writing with acid seriousness." - Independent on Sunday "Hitchens rejoices without inhibition in the pleasure of hating and knows that satire is murder by other means.... A pen like this is more lethal than most swords." - The Observer

About the Author
Christopher Hitchens is a journalist living in Washington. He writes the Cultural Elite column for Vanity Fair and the Minority Report column for The Nation. His other books are Hostage to History: Cyprus from the Ottomans to Kissinger; Prepared for the Worst; Blood, Class and Nostalgia: Anglo-American Ironies; and (with Adam Bartos) International Territory: Official Utopia and the United Nations.

Customer Reviews

How to survive 3 weeks in Canberra.
December 1995 - I have been sent to Australia's national capitol for 3 weeks to undertake testing of some new software for my employer. Any one who has been to Canberra knows that it is like any other purpose built national capitol - some stately buildings, a certain amount of intellectual grandeur about the place but otherwise a giant surburb infected by too much narcotic abuse.

It was in this environment I read this book and it saved my sanity (if not my life). I was loaned a paperback copy by my hostess's housemate after watching Hitchens perform brilliantly as part of a panel discussing Watergate which also included G Gordon Liddy - after sitting through a 5 minute tirade by Liddy, the interviewer (Australia's Kerry O'Brien) said "Christopher Hitchens" to which Hitchens responded as if just woken from sleep with the words "Err yes? Do you want me to plug my book?"

At that point I decided I must read (if not purchase) that book.

And the book - any writer who can work PG Wodehouse into a critique of the Gennifer Flowers phenomenon gets my stamp of approval.

Hitchens's critiques and analysis are taut, energetic and yet also built upon the relaxed auro of the supremely confident without (much) arrogance. And even if he does get a bit smug, it's still highly entertaining and more informative than any comparative writing.

Most impressive (on the "quality" side of things) is the breadth of subjects he covers - all the way from George Eliot (yeah, I know that one's on the blurb) to smokin' 'n' drinkin' via Nixon's mother.

And there are no half-arsed marsupial metaphors as in his piece on Robert Hughes in Vanity Fair.

Buy this book and become a better smart arse.

Best living political essayist in US/UK
Growing up in the 70s and 80s, I naturally learned a contempt for journalism as it is currently practiced. The great problem with journalists today, seems to me, is not their slavish conformity, their scandal-mongering, or even their sales-and-marketing obsession with the bottom line. It is their LACK OF IDEAS. They have little or no training in logic, history, aesthetics, or any of the other arts that are necessary if one is to continually shed light on the present.

Christopher Hitchens, by contrast, has all of these things. I bought this book three years ago and have read it through more times than I can remember. It makes intelligible sense of almost every major event that occurred during the late 80s and early 90s. To boot, it is witty and entertaining. If you feel suffocated by the evening news, NPR, the New York Times, and other demographically-tailored drivel, buy this book and everything else Hitchens has published.