Christopher Hitchens was a polemicist and intellectual whose writing was characterized by incisive analysis and an uncompromising style. While initially aligned with the radical left, his views evolved over time, leading to notable shifts in his political stances. He championed Enlightenment values such as secularism, humanism, and reason, while fiercely critiquing religious dogma and political figures he deemed harmful. His literary output remains celebrated for its intellectual rigor and fearless examination of established truths.
This collection of essays spans Christopher Hitchens' career, showcasing his insights on politics, literature, and religion. Divided into sections like 'All American' and 'Foreign Quarrels', it reflects his defiance, wit, and mastery of short-form journalism, establishing him as a significant voice in contemporary discourse.
'Vanity Fair Portraits' traces the cultural history of the 20th century and its leading personalities in the pages of a magazine that helped usher in the modern age and which has itself become a benchmark of modern achievement.
Presents an eyewitness account of the 2003 war in Iraq while arguing that the war actually began in 1990 when Saddam Hussein invaded Kuwait, and discusses how the conflict has divided public opinion.
Essays by Christopher Hitchens
The first new book of essays by Christopher Hitchens since 2004, ARGUABLY offers an indispensable key to understanding the passionate and skeptical spirit of one of our most dazzling writers, widely admired for the clarity of his style, a result of his disciplined and candid thinking. Topics range from ruminations on why Charles Dickens was among the best of writers and the worst of men to the haunting science fiction of J.G. Ballard; from the enduring legacies of Thomas Jefferson and George Orwell to the persistent agonies of anti-Semitism and jihad. Hitchens even looks at the recent financial crisis and argues for arthe enduring relevance of Karl Marx. The book forms a bridge between the two parallel enterprises of culture and politics. It reveals how politics justifies itself by culture, and how the latter prompts the former. In this fashion, ARGUABLY burnishes Christopher Hitchens' credentials as-to quote Christopher Buckley-our "greatest living essayist in the English language."
During the US book tour for his memoir, the author collapsed in his New York hotel room to excoriating pain in his chest and thorax. Over the next year he underwent a gamut of modern cancer treatment, enduring catastrophic levels of suffering and eventually losing his voice. This book offers an honest account of the ravages of his disease.
Christopher Hitchens is widely recognised as having been one of the liveliest and most influential of contemporary political analysts. 'Prepared for the Worst' is a collection of the best of his essays of the 1980s published on both sides of the Atlantic.
Many see the encounter between literature & politics as fraught. This text offers a different approach, showing that whilst the engagement between writers & those in power isn't always smooth, it generally embodies a dialectic worth investigation.
The global turmoil of the late 1980s and early 1990s severely tested every analyst and commentator. Few wrote 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. First published in the early 90s, the writings in 'For the Sake of Argument' range from the political squalor of Washington 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.
This selection of interviews showcases the remarkable career of one of this generation’s greatest and most divisive thinkers—featuring a foreword by Stephen Fry. “ . . . pulls together some of Hitchens’s greatest dialogues, each sparkling with intelligence and wit.” —New York Times Book Review If someone says I’m doing this out of faith, I say, Why don’t you do it out of conviction? One of his generation’s greatest public intellectuals, and perhaps its fiercest, Christopher Hitchens was a brilliant interview subject. This collection—which spans from his early prominence as a hero of the Left to his controversial support for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan toward the end of his life—showcases Hitch’s trademark wit on subjects as diverse as his mistrust of the media, his love of literature, his dislike of the Clintons, and his condemnation of all things religious. Beginning with an introduction and tribute from his longtime friend Stephen Fry, this collection culminates in Hitchens’s fearless final interview with Richard Dawkins, which shows a man as unafraid of death as he was of everything in life.
Essayist Christopher Hitchens ruminates on why Charles Dickens was among the best of writers and the worst of men, the haunting science fiction of J.G. Ballard, the enduring legacies of Thomas Jefferson and George Orwell, the persistent agonies of anti-Semitism and jihad, the enduring relevance of Karl Marx, and how politics justifies itself by culture--and how the latter prompts the former.
