From the Ruins of Empire: The Revolt Against the West and the Remaking of Asia: Pankaj Mishra, Derek Perkins: 9781541455665: Amazon.com: Books

From the Ruins of Empire: The Revolt Against the West and the Remaking of Asia: Pankaj Mishra, Derek Perkins: 9781541455665: Amazon.com: Books




From the Ruins of Empire: The Revolt Against the West and the Remaking of Asia
by Pankaj Mishra (Author), Derek Perkins (Narrator)
4.5 out of 5 stars 61 ratings

A little more than a century ago, as the Japanese navy annihilated the giant Russian one at the Battle of Tsushima, original thinkers across Asia, working independently, sought to frame a distinctly Asian intellectual tradition that would inform and inspire the continent's anticipated rise to dominance.

Asian dominance did not come to pass, and those thinkers-Tagore, Gandhi, and later Nehru in India; Liang Qichao and Sun Yatsen in China; Jamal al-Din al-Afghani and Abdurreshi al Ibrahim in the ruins of the Ottoman Empire-are seen as outriders from the main anticolonial tradition. But Pankaj Mishra shows that it was otherwise in this stereotype-shattering book.

His enthralling group portrait of like minds scattered across a vast continent makes clear that modern Asia's revolt against the West is not the one led by faith-fired terrorists and thwarted peasants but one with deep roots in the work of thinkers who devised a view of life that was neither modern nor antimodern, neither colonialist nor anticolonialist.

In broad, deep, dramatic chapters, Mishra tells the stories of these figures, unpacks their philosophies, and reveals their shared goal of a greater Asia.

Editorial Reviews

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"Well-researched and crisply written, this scintillating work will help American readers understand the political and intellectual roots of Islamism and other non- and anti-Western thought in Asia today." ---Publishers Weekly Starred Review
About the Author


Pankaj Mishra is the author of Age of Anger and several other books. He is a columnist at Bloomberg View and the New York Times Book Review, 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.


Product details

Audio CD
Publisher: Tantor Audio; Unabridged edition (June 14, 2017)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 1541455665
ISBN-13: 978-1541455665
Product Dimensions: 5.3 x 0.6 x 7.4 inches
Shipping Weight: 3.8 ounces
Customer Reviews: 4.1 out of 5 stars 11 customer reviews
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Top Reviews

ProfZeb
5.0 out of 5 stars Brillian PerspectiveReviewed in the United States on August 1, 2014
Format: HardcoverVerified Purchase
Brilliant insight on the 20th Century as viewed through the eyes of colonial thinkers. I have worked on Chinese materials for years and the book is terrific on them, I leaned an enormous amount about the Arab world and the Indian empire. This book says more about the problems of 2014 than most contemporary analyses. Easy to read too.


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Satya Chari
4.0 out of 5 stars An exceptional point of view and outstanding piece of work on Asia.... an Asian perspectiveReviewed in the United States on March 26, 2014
Format: Kindle EditionVerified Purchase
This is a truly rewarding work for the reader by the author, an authentic and expansive perspective of Asia by Asians from their era of western / imperial times.

In my view, this is a must read to develop the required balance of view or a dimension away from the beaten path


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Geoffrey Freeman
5.0 out of 5 stars Understanding the other side.Reviewed in the United States on February 21, 2015
Format: Kindle EditionVerified Purchase
An all-too-rare and exceedingly well researched description of the way Asia and the Middle East regard the West. A must read for anybody seriously interested in global political, economic and strategic affairs today.


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Sudhir Desai
5.0 out of 5 stars Impressive marshalling of quotes from important leaders and writers from ...Reviewed in the United States on August 3, 2014
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Impressive marshalling of quotes from important leaders and writers from diverse cultures - Chinese, Indian, Islamic - spanning recent centuries in support of the subject matter. Engrossing, informative.


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Raj Tota
5.0 out of 5 stars Well researched productReviewed in the United States on January 7, 2013
Format: Kindle EditionVerified Purchase
A thought provoking insight into a balanced account of the recent history of the world, which basically highlights root cause for the ongoing geopolitical tensions.


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Ganesan
4.0 out of 5 stars ExcellentReviewed in the United States on February 23, 2013
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Excellent Asian perspective that gives detailed information. Should be made part of the school curriculum. Contains lots of interesting information.


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David Tirr
2.0 out of 5 stars Ruins of Empire doesn't say much about why more mature but but more in turned systems of governance failed.Reviewed in the United States on May 25, 2014
Format: Kindle EditionVerified Purchase
Very much a litany of Asian and Arab views of the evils of European colonialism and the "western" economic system.


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China Author Forum
5.0 out of 5 stars Three Asian Intellectuals Present Their Side of the StoryReviewed in the United States on August 10, 2012
Format: Paperback
"The West is becoming demoralized through being the exploiter, through tasting the fruits of exploitation. We must fight with our faith in the moral and spiritual power of men. We of the East have never reverenced death-dealing generals, nor lie-dealing diplomats, but spiritual leaders. Through them we shall be saved, or not at all. Physical power is not the strongest in the end... you are the most long lived race, because you have had centuries of wisdom nourished by your faith in goodness, not in mere strength." - Rabindranath Tagore, lecturing in Beijing in 1923

One of the ever-present scourges of expat life is arrogance. For many Westerners in Asian countries, even half a century after the collapse of colonialism, we retain a certain sense of moral superiority towards our hosts. We often feel their manners to be backwards; their habits of thought and social patterns keep them locked in a cycle of poverty; and that their own arrogance is holding them back from "truly" joining the modern (and by that we mean Western) world. Having lived nearly five years in Asia, I've often struggled to balance my own contrarian impulses, sympathy for Chinese (and other Asian) culture, and frustration with the less pleasant aspects of life here (as well as the ever-present temptation to make comparisons to my own place of origin) in the face of locals, both proud and self-hating, and other expatriates, both derisive and sympathetic. But until I read Pankaj Mishra's From the Ruins of Empire, I didn't realize just how deeply I'd failed to understand the Asian perspective on Western modernity, and just how that has skewed my entire outlook on the world.

Mishra's book isn't a piece of postcolonial critique, or an exploration of contemporary Asian thought on the role of Asia in the world today, but a gripping narrative of the life and thought of several prominent "Asian modernists" who foresaw a different path for their cultures than Westernization or traditionalism. The three characters that the book centers around- Jamal al-Din al-Afghani, Liang Qichao, and Rabindranath Tagore- are held up as representatives of the possibility for the development of "parallel modernities" in the Islamic, Confucian/Sinic, and Hindu civilizations, respectively. Around these three characters, many other figures emerge, some famous- Mohandas Gandhi, Sun Yatsen, Mao Zedong- some less well-known outside of their nations, and some who are understood quite differently in their home nations than they are outside (such as Aurobindo Ghose, better known as a spiritual guru and inspiration to new-age writers than an Indian nationalist, and Sayyed Qutb, a man unfairly - in Mishra's eyes - labeled as the intellectual godfather of global jihad.

(Visit iTV-Asia for the complete review)

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Top international reviews

And You May Find Yourself
4.0 out of 5 stars A useful correctiveReviewed in the United Kingdom on March 25, 2013
Format: HardcoverVerified Purchase

This is a book worth reading, if only because it allows us to see the history of imperialism as experienced by its victims.
Mishra is interested in analysing the intellectual response to Western dominance in the various forms it took from Japan to Egypt. In doing so he gives historical depth to modern day phenomena such as the Taliban, the Iranian revolution, Ataturk, the transformations of Chinese Communism etc. He sometimes understates the complexity of the situation inside the subjugated countries (e.g. I found him weak on the Ottoman Empire, which the Arabs did not see as an Islamic state but as alien rule, just as the people of the Balkans did.) Having reached a triumphalist conclusion about the "revenge of the East", however, he turns the tables on Asia, by pointing out that its liberation was achieved mostly by adopting Western ideas, and that Asia has so far failed to generate an alternative economic and social model - which is absolutely necessary in a world of finite resources.

12 people found this helpful

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AJ
2.0 out of 5 stars Wrongly titled bookReviewed in the United Kingdom on March 4, 2019
Format: Kindle EditionVerified Purchase

This book should be titled more accurately. It focussed mainly on Arab thinkers and Middle East colonial history, with a smattering of Indian and China. India is constantly bashed and belittled in this account. A hard read with no real flow. The author seems to want to use increasingly complicated wording and phrases for things which could be much more eloquently written. Will not likely read anything else from this author.

One person found this helpful

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Jasim
5.0 out of 5 stars The eye-openerReviewed in the United Kingdom on March 13, 2017
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The breadth of historical examples and narratives and the sheer colour of the history presented are about as enlightening as a book of history could be. It is the kind of book that changes world-views quite deeply, even for those who may already consider themselves well-read.

2 people found this helpful

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E.Dantes
5.0 out of 5 stars Astonishingly good bookReviewed in the United Kingdom on November 28, 2016
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Excellent book. Mishra writes with the prose of a novellist and the precision of a most learned scholar. I would recommend that anyone who has an interest in global history purchase this book.

One person found this helpful

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Yusuf Patel
5.0 out of 5 stars They absolutely loved it. Read it from start to finishReviewed in the United Kingdom on July 10, 2016
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I bought this as a gift for someone studying history. They absolutely loved it. Read it from start to finish. I reckon its a good buy for anyone who enjoys historical texts and specifically the Empires effects in India. It gives an interesting perspective to that point in history


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