Praise for "Clash of Barbarisms"

Subscribers to the IIRE Notebooks for Study and Research received Gilbert Achcar's Clash of Barbarisms as NSR no. 33-34 - at a big savings, of course. The book has been widely praised since Monthly Review Press released it in fall 2002. Noam Chomsky says, "This inquiry into the probable shape of things to come is sober, uncompromising, deeply-informed, and full of provocative insights and judicious analyses. It should be read and pondered". Howard Zinn wrote in a letter to Achcar, "Thanks so much for Clash of Barbarisms. I read it on the flight back to Boston and was thoroughly taken by it. To talk about two barbarisms immediately overturns the traditional perspective, and opens up avenues of understanding.

Monthly Review magazine published the book's first chapter as the central article of their September 2002 issue. Along with the book's introduction, it is available on their website.

Below is an excerpt from the review of the original French edition that appeared in the June 2002 issue of Le Monde Diplomatique.

Chaos and Barbarism
The Contours of the American Empire

"The Clash of Barbarisms" [is] the title, both accurate and provocative, of Gilbert Achcar's new book. With an unusual comprehension of the facts of international politics - which are there for all to see, but often covered up by the prevailing conformism - he analyzes the sources and unfolding forms of this clash. First came the US's systematic exploitation throughout the Islamic world of religiously-inspired political and social forces, as part of the US struggle against supposed Soviet penetration. Then came the extraordinary story of these forces' turnabout, when some of them revolted against those who had been their paymasters. Achcar shows, cruelly but lucidly, how mistaken the superficial prophets of the decline of political Islam were, due to their failure to understand its origins: the failure of the original nationalist experiments, whether "socialist" or "capitalist", and the dramatic persistence of the Israeli-Arab conflict, which brought passions in the region to the boiling point. The result was September 11 and the ensuing "war". "Hatred, Barbarism, Asymmetry and Anomy" is the title of a chapter that absolutely must be read - this is the most resounding, most rigorous text that there is to read on this war.

(translated from the review in French by Paul-Marie de la Gorce)