Age of Anger

A History of the Present

By: Pankaj Mishra

Narrated by: Derek Perkins

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 18th 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 19th 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.

©2017 Pankaj Mishra (P)2017 Tantor

Critic reviews

"In this urgent, profound and extraordinarily timely study, Pankaj Mishra follows the likes of Isaiah Berlin, John Gray, and Mark Lilla by delving into the past in order to throw light on our contemporary predicament, when the neglected and dispossessed of the world have suddenly risen up in Nietzschean ressentiment to transform the world we thought we knew." (John Banville)

Frightening and revealing

Explaining the polarization of our times and the seemingly recent spin of hyper-masculinity in the 2024 Trump campaign through an analysis of world history from the Enlightenment to the present explains what we seek to understand as depressing as it all is.

Extremely dense but absolutely worthwhile.

Brilliant analysis of historical roots of modern discontent. Narrator a bit over-erudite for the dense subject matter.

good and interesting but over my head

good performance, interesting topic, but the book was lacking Ina cohesive thrust, ideally a pointed thesis). instead it read like a mish-mash of collected writings and quotes from philosophers and I struggled to follow it on a directional level.

An excellent place to start

More an argument than necessarily a history, this book nevertheless accomplishes a complex feat by providing context and even occasional empathy for the sources and products of our angry present. While not comprehensive (but then, no history that dips so close to the present can be), it provides a far more satisfying argument to the state of the present than those I had before, and has inspired me to dig deeper

Much Needed Dialogue for our Times

I loved this book and highly recommend following Pankaj Mishra and his work. However, I found some chunks to be a bit boring at times and my lackluster enthusiasm for historical details might have had something to do with that. Even so, Enlightenment ideas has a lot to do with today's social malaise and this work beings that into light and can help turn the dialogue of dualism and false dichotomies into a consultation of mutual understanding.

Language and Ideas are Highbrow

The language and ideas are highbrow, but they are not always well connected for the reader or listener. Some interesting concepts that are global in scope and highly abstract, but are hard to connect to concrete world. It might be one of those books that are better read than listened to. One that you underline or write in the margins, so you can flip back to an earlier idea.

I'm not a historian . . .

Would you recommend this book to a friend? Why or why not?

No, I would not recommend this book. It is ponderous and it seems to be out of chronological sequence at times. Nor did I feel that I gained any great insights from it. I did learn a bit about the conditions leading to a rise in nationalism.

Would you ever listen to anything by Pankaj Mishra again?

I doubt it.

Have you listened to any of Derek Perkins’s other performances before? How does this one compare?

I haven't heard him before but he did a fine job.

Do you think Age of Anger needs a follow-up book? Why or why not?

I think the same premise about nationalism throughout history could be explored in a way that is more accessible to the mainstream, as opposed to this author.

Any additional comments?

The book had references throughout to historical events and people that were unfamiliar to me. Much of the time I just felt lost.

An important, difficult yet flawed book - deserves

What made the experience of listening to Age of Anger the most enjoyable?

Difficult book, topic - but very very important subject area - very good research - his thesis is clear - not much help with reference to prescriptions on "how to solve".

What did you like best about this story?

Background context and Misra "draws the line" from Revolutions and Industrial Revolution to today's Sense or Rage.

What about Derek Perkins’s performance did you like?

Attention to detail - pronunciation of names.

If you were to make a film of this book, what would the tag line be?

Where we are - how we got here

Any additional comments?

Age of Anger
A History of the Present
By Panbkaj Mishra
406 pp Farrar, Straus & Giroux.

Review:

This is an important but difficult book. The books’ main thesis is:

• “We’ve seen this before” – a global sense of rage – as a reaction to the “modernity” brought about by 18th century political revolutions and the impacts of the Industrial Revolution. Then, as now according to Mishra believes the individual “feels ressentiment” – which Mishra defines as “an existential resentment of other people’s being, caused by an intense mix of envy and sense of humiliation and powerlessness”. Mishra details the rise of assassinations of heads-of-state as a result of this ressentiment. One example is the assassination of Archduke Francis Ferdinand – thought by some to be one of the proximate causes of the First World War. Also, it is a short step from large scale ressentiment – to a population’s turning to a demagogue. Mishra uses Putin and Erdogan as examples.

• Pankaj Mishra goes into great deal of detail discussing both German and Russian philosophers to support his main thesis. Mishra details the work of Johann Fichte, Mikhail Bakunin and Pyotr Kropotkin and their intellectual contributions.

• There are emotional-social-cultural elements contributing to the global sense of rage – in addition the economic impacts. The emotional-social-cultural elements are just as (if not more important) than the economic impacts.

• Mishra also states that there are no “counter-narratives” as yet available against this ressentiment – using ISIS as an example. There appears to be no “counter narrative” against the revolutionary actions that ISIS is undertaking.

This is an important, flawed and disturbing book. Mishra points out this ‘problem’ (anger/ressentiment) – usually blames Neo Liberalism, Globalization and Capitalism systems – but offers few alternative economic/political models.

Mishra also seems to indicate that this ressentiment is an ongoing problem (at a slow boil) – and Mishra doesn’t offer a short-term estimate of “what will happen” – Mishra offers phrases such as a “continuing Global Civil War” for the reader’s consideration.

Mishra closes with view that (unspecified) “new thinking” will be required to address this issue – ressentiment – effects of modernity – a feeling that democracy/government is not working for the ‘average person’ and the narrative that detail the benefit of authoritarianism.

Bibliography:

The Age of Anger by Pankaj Mishra – review – Nick Fraser – the guardian – January 23, 2017.

Age of Anger – What America’s violent transition to modernity has in common with the rise of Islamic extremism. Laura Miller – The Slate Book Review – January 25, 2017.

Apocalypse Now: What’s Behind the Volatile Mood of Today’s American – and European – Voters – The Age of Anger – A History of the Present – Franklin Foer – The New York Times – February 13, 2017.

Carl Gallozzi
[e-mail]

Thank you Pankaj! A true masterpiece!

This book is an amazing piece of work. Everyone should read it. EVERYONE

Remarkable in its historical and geographic scope

from ISIS "madness" to the common resentment of dwindling middle-classes and disaffected youth and everything in between, this is a survey of global scope which shows the same process of infinite desire and rivalries shedding away all traditional inhibitions as well as meanings, political, cultural and religious", previously assigned to conflicts. Relevant readings of Hobbes, Rousseau and Tocqueville, the German romantics and Russian Novelists, just to name a few. if you saw the point of René Girard' s Battling to the End, this is in a way an extension of this book to a global dimension.