New Releases by Christopher Hitchens

Bringing together 300 iconic portraits from "Vanity Fair''s" 95-year history in a remarkable book that captures the image of modern fame, authors Carter and Friend showcase the magic that happens when individual talent and beauty--and sometimes genius--is caught in the spotlight of popular curiosity and passion. Abrams

"Hitchens presents a George Orwell fit for the twenty-first century." --Boston Globe In this widely acclaimed biographical essay, the masterful polemicist Christopher Hitchens assesses the life, the achievements, and the myth of the great political writer and participant George Orwell. True to his contrarian style, Hitchens is both admiring and aggressive, sympathetic yet critical, taking true measure of his subject as hero and problem. Answering both the detractors and the false claimants, Hitchens tears down the façade of sainthood erected by the hagiographers and rebuts the critics point by point. He examines Orwell and his perspectives on fascism, empire, feminism, and Englishness, as well as his outlook on America, a country and culture toward which he exhibited much ambivalence. Whether thinking about empires or dictators, race or class, nationalism or popular culture, Orwell''s moral outlook remains indispensable in a world that has undergone vast changes in the seven decades since his death. Combining the best of Hitchens'' polemical punch and intellectual elegance in a tightly woven and subtle argument, this book addresses not only why Orwell matters today, but how he will continue to matter in a future, uncertain world.

"This debate appeared originally in Christianity today, and is re-printed in this format with permission"--T.p. verso.

Christopher Hitchens''s personally curated New York Times bestselling anthology of the most influential and important writings on atheism, including original pieces by Salman Rushdie and Ian McEwan From the #1 New York Times best-selling author of God Is Not Great, a provocative and entertaining guided tour of atheist and agnostic thought through the ages--with never-before-published pieces by Salman Rushdie, Ian McEwan, and Ayaan Hirsi Ali.Christopher Hitchens continues to make the case for a splendidly godless universe in this first-ever gathering of the influential voices--past and present--that have shaped his side of the current (and raging) God/no-god debate. With Hitchens as your erudite and witty guide, you''ll be led through a wealth of philosophy, literature, and scientific inquiry, including generous portions of the words of Lucretius, Benedict de Spinoza, Charles Darwin, Karl Marx, Mark Twain, George Eliot, Bertrand Russell, Emma Goldman, H. L. Mencken, Albert Einstein, Daniel Dennett, Sam Harris, Richard Dawkins, and many others well-known and lesser known. And they''re all set in context and commented upon as only Christopher Hitchens--"political and literary journalist extraordinaire" (Los Angeles Times)--can. Atheist? Believer? Uncertain? No matter: The Portable Atheist will speak to you and engage you every step of the way.

Whether you''re a lifelong believer, a devout atheist, or someone who remains uncertain about the role of religion in our lives, this insightful manifesto will engage you with its provocative ideas. With a close and studied reading of the major religious texts, Christopher Hitchens documents the ways in which religion is a man-made wish, a cause of dangerous sexual repression, and a distortion of our origins in the cosmos. With eloquent clarity, Hitchens frames the argument for a more secular life based on science and reason, in which hell is replaced by the Hubble Telescope''s awesome view of the universe, and Moses and the burning bush give way to the beauty and symmetry of the double helix. In the tradition of Bertrand Russell''s Why I Am Not a Christian and Sam Harris''s The End of Faith, Christopher Hitchens makes the ultimate case against religion.

In this unique biography of Thomas Jefferson, leading journalist and social critic Christopher Hitchens offers a startlingly new and provocative interpretation of our Founding Father. Situating Jefferson within the context of America''s evolution and tracing his legacy over the past two hundred years, Hitchens brings the character of Jefferson to life as a man of his time and also as a symbolic figure beyond it. Conflicted by power, Jefferson wrote the Declaration of Independence and acted as Minister to France yet yearned for a quieter career in the Virginia legislature. Predicting that slavery would shape the future of America''s development, this professed proponent of emancipation elided the issue in the Declaration and continued to own human property. An eloquent writer, he was an awkward public speaker; a reluctant candidate, he left an indelible presidential legacy. Jefferson''s statesmanship enabled him to negotiate the Louisiana Purchase with France, doubling the size of the nation, and he authorized the Lewis and Clark expedition, opening up the American frontier for exploration and settlement. Hitchens also analyzes Jefferson''s handling of the Barbary War, a lesser-known chapter of his political career, when his attempt to end the kidnapping and bribery of Americans by the Barbary states, and the subsequent war with Tripoli, led to the building of the U.S. navy and the fortification of America''s reputation regarding national defense. In the background of this sophisticated analysis is a large historical drama: the fledgling nation''s struggle for independence, formed in the crucible of the eighteenth-century Enlightenment, and, in its shadow, the deformation of that struggle in the excesses of the French Revolution. This artful portrait of a formative figure and a turbulent era poses a challenge to anyone interested in American history -- or in the ambiguities of human nature.

"I did not, I wish to state, become a journalist because there was no other ''profession'' that would have me. I became a journalist because I did not want to rely on newspapers for information." Love, Poverty and War: Journeys and Essays showcases America''s leading polemicist''s rejection of consensus and cliché whether he''s reporting from abroad in Indonesia, Kurdistan, Iraq, North Korea, or Cuba, or when his pen is targeted mercilessly at the likes of William Clinton, Mother Theresa ("a fanatic, a fundamentalist and a fraud"), the Dalai Lama, Noam Chomsky, Mel Gibson and Michael Bloomberg. Hitchens began the nineties as a "darling of the left" but has become more of an "unaffiliated radical" whose targets include those on the "left," who he accuses of "fudging" the issue of military intervention in the Balkans, Afghanistan and Iraq. Yet, as Hitchens shows in his reportage, cultural and literary criticism, and opinion essays from the last decade, he has not jumped ship and joined the right but is faithful to the internationalist, contrarian and democratic ideals that have always informed his work.

Hitchens examines the dynamics of the relationship between America and Britain--the political ties and its many cultural manifestations--and explains why it still persists.

Christopher Hitchens se dirige y alienta a futuras generaciones de radicales, inconformistas, rebeldes, disidentes y, en resumen, hombres y mujeres airados. En este libro explora la gama completa de ±posiciones opuestas e invoca a mentores que van desde Zola a Vaclav Havel. Hitchens subraya la importancia de discrepar tanto para la integridad personal como para el debate informado, el auténtico progreso y, finalmente, la propia democracia. Un libro cuyo faro son Cartas a un joven poeta de Rilke y que persigue la misma fecunda emulación.

''Thomas Carlyle wrote of his Cromwellthat he had had to drag him out from under a mound of dead dogs and offal before being able to set him up as a figure worthy of biography. This is not a biography, but I sometimes feel as if George Orwell requires extricating from under a pile of saccharine tablets and moist hankies . . .'' There can be few writers in the world today with a better claim to have inherited Orwell''s role than Christopher Hitchens with his unique ability to spot bullshit and enrage those in power. Orwell''s Victoryis a spectacularly written, aggressive, brilliant defence of one of the handful of modern writers whose view of the world has become if anything even more essential in the half century since his death.

One of our most respected and controversial liberal thinkers makes the case for war in Iraq. Written in his trademark contrarian voice, Untitled on Iraq is comprised of Hitchens'' essays on the justification for war in Iraq and other related issues written for Slate.com, The Wall Street Journal, The Nation, and more, as well as 25% new material on the war

Con la detención de Augusto Pinochet, y la intensa presión para proceder a la de Slobodan Milosevic, la posibilidad de una legislación internacional que actúe contra los tiranos en todo el mundo se perfila como una realidad. No obstante, como Christopher

" La plupart des gens cherchent avant tout la sécurité et l''approbation générale. Il ne faut ni s''en étonner ni juger leurs ambitions intrinsèquement condamnables. Cela dit, on a toujours vu surgir des personnalités qui, d''une manière ou d''une autre, se sentaient à part. Je ne crois pas exagérer en déclarant que l''humanité leur doit énormément, qu''elle soit prête ou non à reconnaître sa dette. Ne t''attends surtout pas à des remerciements. Personne ne prétend qu''une vie d''opposant soit de tout repos. " Sur le modèle des célèbres Lettres à un jeune poète, de Rainer Maria Rilke, Christopher Hitchens nous adresse ces dix-huit Lettres à un jeune rebelle. Un récit épistolaire à l''attention des jeunes générations pour qui la dissidence doit redevenir une vertu, une philosophie optimiste de la vie. L''esprit de contradiction, seul, est capable de faire progresser la démocratie contre les idées reçues. Preuves à l''appui, l''auteur de ces lettres explore avec brio le registre de l''anticonformisme et en salue les maîtres tels que Freud, Zola, Vaclav Havel, Salman Rushdie... Un essai sur le fil du rasoir. Nul autre que Christopher Hitchens, avec l''impertinence qui l''a rendu célèbre, ne pouvait mieux lancer la polémique !

Here is a century’s worth of stars and moguls, parties and scandals, power and glamour, captured through the unrivaled lens and the inimitable prose of Vanity Fair. The definitive book of its kind, ''''Vanity Fair’s Hollywood'''' is a collection of classic photographs, essays, and caricatures. This national best-seller depicts a century of Hollywood power, glamour, myth, and mystery-directly from the pages of Vanity Fair, from 1914 to today. On the motion-picture front, no other publication of our age has achieved the stature of Vanity Fair. The magazine prides itself on assigning the world’s top photographers, writers, and illustrators to explore the brightest stars in the Hollywood firmament.

Inspiring a future generation of radicals, gadflies, mavericks, and dissidents, Hitchens presents a completely individual meditation on what it means to think, live, and be to the contrary.

For half a century, the United Nations building in New York has been the focus of international inspiration. Its podium has seen petitioners for peace, for independence, for justice. Its murals and statuary express the loftiest ideals. Born of World War II and the struggle against fascism, the UN has been the parent body of many small states, and an arena for the peaceful composition of disputes between the powers. Yet, under its flag, wars have been fought and imperfect compromises brokered. The high language of its universal declarations on human rights and dignities has become cheapened by cynicism. Its servants and institutions have been exposed to decay and corruption. Meanwhile, the filiations of power and alignment which created the world body have been radically altered, while the hierarchy of the UN itself has not. These and other ironies and contradictions are visible in the Headquarters Building on the East River of Manhattan.a building that enshrined the most optimistic elements of modernism in design and symbolized them in function but which was also, from the first, an occasion of dispute between the Rockefellers and Le Corbusier and thus, indirectly, between two conceptions of world order. In a series of photographs, Adam Bartos affirms the beauty of the UN.s modern architecture, while capturing the wear and tear of an idealism thwarted by decades of diplomatic compromise. The text, by Christopher Hitchens, explores the themes of utopia and the limits of governmental good intentions. In a striking series of colour photographs, Adam Bartos affirms the beauty of the UN.s modern architecture while capturing the wear and tear of an idealism thwarted by decades of diplomatic compromise. The accompanying text, written with characteristic wit and acuity by Christopher Hitchens, explores the themes of Utopia and the limits of governmental good intentions.

''For the sake of argument, one must never let a euphemism or a false consolation pass uncontested. The truth seldom lies, but when it does lie it lies somewhere in between.''. 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 with about the small tell-tale signs of a disordered culture. For the Sake of Argument ranges from the political squalor of Washington, as a beleaguered Bush administration seeks desperately to stave off disaster and Clinton prepares for power, to the twilight of Stalinism in Prague; from the Jewish quarter of Damascus in the aftermath of the Gulf War to the embattled barrios of Central America and the imperishable resistance of Saralevo, as a difficult peace is negotiated with ruthless foes. Hitchens'' unsparing account of Western realpolitik in the end shows it to rest on delusion as well as deception. The reader will find in these pages outstanding essays on political asassination in America as well as a scathing review of the evisceration of politics by pollsters and spin-doctors. Hitchens'' knowledge of the tortuous history of revolutions in the twentieth century helps him to explain both the New York intelligentsia''s flirtation with Trotskyism and the frailty of Communist power structures in Eastern Europe. Hitchens'' pointed reassessments of Graham Greene, P.G. Wodehouse and C.L.R. James, or his riotous celebration of drinkiny and smoking, display an engaging enthusiasm and an acerbic wit. Equally entertaining is his unsparing rogues'' gallery, which gives us unforgettable portraits of the lugubrious ''Dr''Kissinger, the comprehensively reactionary ''Mother'' Teresa, the preposterous Paul Johnson and the predictable P.J. O''Rourke.

Explores the special relationship between the United States and Great Britain

Traces the history of the Parthenon, explains how and why its sculptures and friezes were taken to Britain, and discusses the arguments for returning them

De politieke gebeurtenissen op Cyprus vooral rond de Turkse militaire invasie in 1974

The present report attempts to anatomize the social and economic predicament of Africans in Zimbabwe, in the context of an exceptionally (and unnecessarily) painful and prolonged transition from Rhodesia to Zimbabwe. Please note that the terminology in the fields of minority rights and indigenous peoples’ rights has changed over time. MRG strives to reflect these changes as well as respect the right to self-identification on the part of minorities and indigenous peoples. At the same time, after over 50 years’ work, we know that our archive is of considerable interest to activists and researchers. Therefore, we make available as much of our back catalogue as possible, while being aware that the language used may not reflect current thinking on these issues.