Age of Anger: A History of the Present

Pankaj Mishra

Feb 2017 · Tantor Media Inc · Narrated by Derek Perkins

About this audiobook

How can we explain the origins of the great wave of paranoid hatreds that seem inescapable in our close-knit world-from American shooters and ISIS to Donald Trump, from a rise in vengeful nationalism to racism and misogyny on social media? In Age of Anger, Pankaj Mishra answers our bewilderment by casting his gaze back to the eighteenth century before leading us to the present. As the world became modern, those who were unable to enjoy its promises of freedom, stability, and prosperity were increasingly susceptible to demagogues. It was from among the ranks of the disaffected that the militants of the nineteenth century arose-angry young men who became cultural nationalists in Germany, messianic revolutionaries in Russia, bellicose chauvinists in Italy, and anarchist terrorists internationally. Today, just as then, the embrace of mass politics and technology and the pursuit of wealth and individualism have cast many more billions adrift, uprooted from tradition but still far from modernity-with the same terrible results. Making startling connections and comparisons, Age of Anger is a book of immense urgency and profound argument. It is a history of our present predicament unlike any other.

About the author

Pankaj Mishra is the author of From the Ruins of Empire, Age of Anger, and several other books. He is a columnist for Bloomberg Opinion and writes regularly for the Guardian, the London Review of Books, and the New Yorker. A fellow of the Royal Society of Literature, he lives in London.

A native of the United Kingdom, Audie and AudioFile Earphones Award winner Derek Perkins's audiobook narration skills are augmented by a knowledge of three foreign languages and a facility with accents. He has narrated numerous titles in a wide range of fiction and nonfiction genres. He is a member of SAG-AFTRA.