In this new edition of his memoirs, Tariq Ali revisits his formative years as a young radical. It is a story that takes us from Paris and Prague to Hanoi and Bolivia, encountering along the way Malcolm X, Bertrand Russell, Marlon Brando, Henry Kissinger, and Mick Jagger.
Ali captures the mood and energy of those years as he tracks the growing significance of the nascent pro
In this new edition of his memoirs, Tariq Ali revisits his formative years as a young radical. It is a story that takes us from Paris and Prague to Hanoi and Bolivia, encountering along the way Malcolm X, Bertrand Russell, Marlon Brando, Henry Kissinger, and Mick Jagger.
Ali captures the mood and energy of those years as he tracks the growing significance of the nascent protest movement.
This edition includes a new introduction, as well as the famous interview conducted by Tariq Ali and Robin Blackburn with John Lennon and Yoko Ono in 1971.
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Paperback
,
403 pages
Published
May 17th 2005
by Verso
(first published 1987)
Tariq Ali's memoir is a great read. Ali, an international socialist activist/intellectual, includes photos which add flavor: among journalists with Chou-en-Lai in Lahore, with Malcolm X in Oxford, visiting Regis Debray imprisoned in Bolivia, with the War Crimes Tribunal in Vietnam, speaking during 1969 insurrection in Pakistan, walking in the streets with May 68er Daniel Cohn-Bendit, celebrating Belgian Marxist Ernest Mandel, posing with Derek Jarman on the Wittgenstein set, dinner with Edward S
Tariq Ali's memoir is a great read. Ali, an international socialist activist/intellectual, includes photos which add flavor: among journalists with Chou-en-Lai in Lahore, with Malcolm X in Oxford, visiting Regis Debray imprisoned in Bolivia, with the War Crimes Tribunal in Vietnam, speaking during 1969 insurrection in Pakistan, walking in the streets with May 68er Daniel Cohn-Bendit, celebrating Belgian Marxist Ernest Mandel, posing with Derek Jarman on the Wittgenstein set, dinner with Edward Said and Stuart Hall, marching with his daughter Aisha against the 2003 Iraq War. Plus, the interview with John Lennon and Yoko Ono.
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I have a lot of trouble with Tariq Ali, and I think this book embopdies the majority of it- take some misguided protest-politics, mix in a bit of cult of personality and reminiscences about the Good Old Days and here we are. As has become his habit, Ali glorifies an era which, ultimately collapsed into the decadence of the eighties- driven in large part by ex radicals who were just along for the ride.
Protest politics is a dead end, something which needs to be studied, not glorified, and certain
I have a lot of trouble with Tariq Ali, and I think this book embopdies the majority of it- take some misguided protest-politics, mix in a bit of cult of personality and reminiscences about the Good Old Days and here we are. As has become his habit, Ali glorifies an era which, ultimately collapsed into the decadence of the eighties- driven in large part by ex radicals who were just along for the ride.
Protest politics is a dead end, something which needs to be studied, not glorified, and certainly not repeated.
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Should have been great; unfortunately Ali writes like a tired political intellectual, and manages to drain nearly every bit of life, verve, and energy from one of the most exciting and dynamic periods in recent history.
Tariq Ali (Punjabi, Urdu: طارق علی) (born 21 October 1943) is a British-Pakistani historian, novelist, filmmaker, political campaigner, and commentator. He is a member of the editorial committee of the New Left Review and Sin Permiso, and regularly contributes to The Guardian, CounterPunch, and the London Review of Books.
He is the author of several books, including Can Pakistan Survive? The Death
Tariq Ali (Punjabi, Urdu: طارق علی) (born 21 October 1943) is a British-Pakistani historian, novelist, filmmaker, political campaigner, and commentator. He is a member of the editorial committee of the New Left Review and Sin Permiso, and regularly contributes to The Guardian, CounterPunch, and the London Review of Books.
He is the author of several books, including Can Pakistan Survive? The Death of a State (1991) , Pirates Of The Caribbean: Axis Of Hope (2006), Conversations with Edward Said (2005), Bush in Babylon (2003), and Clash of Fundamentalisms: Crusades, Jihads and Modernity (2002), A Banker for All Seasons (2007) and the recently published The Duel (2008).
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