Left in Dark Times

In this unprecedented critique, Bernard-Henri Lévy revisits his political roots, scrutinizes the totalitarianisms of the past as well as those on the horizon, and argues powerfully for a new political and moral vision for our times. Are human rights Western or universal? Does anti-Semitism have a future, and, if so, what will it look like? And how is it that progressives themselves — those who in the past defended individual rights and fought fascism — have now become the breeding ground for new kinds of dangerous attitudes: an unthinking loathing of Israel; an obsessive anti-Americanism; an idea of “tolerance” that, in its justification of Islamic fanaticism, for example, could become the “cemetery of democracies”; and an indifference, masked by relativism, to the greatest human tragedies facing the world today?

‍

At a time of ideological and political transition in America, Left in Dark Times articulates the threats we all face — in many cases without our even being aware of it — and offers a powerful new vision for progressives everywhere.

‍

Random House Trade Paperbacks (October 13, 2009)