This is the first book to address the political-philosophical dimensions of Islamic fundamentalist terrorism and offer conclusions about how the West should respond. Author biog: Paul Berman is a political and cultural critic. His writings appear in The New Republic, The New York Times and Slate, among other publications.

Reviews

Berman puts his leftist credentials (he's a member of the editorial board of Dissent) on the line by critiquing the left while presenting a liberal rationale for the war on terror, joining a discourse that has been dominated by conservatives. The most original aspect of his analysis is to categorize Islamism as a totalitarian reaction against Western liberalism in a class with Nazism and communism; drawing on the ideas of Camus in The Rebel, Berman delineates how all three movements descended from utopian visions (in the case of Islamism, the restoration of a pure seventh-century Islam) into irrational cults of death. He illustrates this progression through a nuanced analysis of the writings of a leading Islamist thinker, Sayyid Qutb, ending with some chilling quotations from other Islamists, e.g., "History does not write its lines except with blood," the blood being that of Islam's martyrs (such as suicide bombers) as well as of their enemies, Zionists and Crusaders (i.e., Jews and Christians). Berman then launches into his most provocative chapter, and the one he will probably be most criticized for in politically correct journals: a scathing attack on leftist intellectuals, such as Noam Chomsky, who have applauded terrorism and tried to explain it as a rational response to oppression. Berman exhorts readers to accept that, on the contrary, Islamism is a "pathological mass political movement" that is "drunk on the idea of slaughter." A former MacArthur fellow and a contributing editor to the New Republic, Berman offers an argument that will be welcomed by disaffected progressives looking for a new analysis of today's world. (Apr.) Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information.

"This is the best book I have read on Muslim fundamentalism and what to do about it." George Walden, The Sunday Telegraph "A fluent and lucid essay by one of America's best exponents of recent intellectual history." - The Economist. "A compelling challenge to modern liberal attitudes..." - Martin Bright, The Observer "There is much to commend in this well written polemic, not least its analysis of Islamic fundamentalism and its concern about the myopia of many left-liberal thinkers in the west." - New Statesman "Those who opposed the second Gulf War should urgently read Terror and Liberalism." The Independent on Sunday "[Berman's] is an American, pro-Jewish perspective that knee-jerk European liberals would do well to read." - Robbie Hudson, The Sunday Times.

So new that at press time the publisher's sales reps had yet to hear about it, this work considers how liberals can respond to the threat of terrorism. Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information.