The War on the West - by Douglas Murray (Hardcover)

About the Book

"A book on how Western nations are often blamed for history's atrocities, while all nations have tarnished histories. This is a thorough argument in the defense of Western values and history"--

Book Synopsis

An Instant New York Times Bestseller!

China has concentration camps now. Why do Westerners claim our sins are unique?

It is now in vogue to celebrate non-Western cultures and disparage Western ones. Some of this is a much-needed reckoning, but much of it fatally undermines the very things that created the greatest, most humane civilization in the world.

In The War on the West, Douglas Murray shows how many well-meaning people have been fooled by hypocritical and inconsistent anti-West rhetoric. After all, if we must discard the ideas of Kant, Hume, and Mill for their opinions on race, shouldn't we discard Marx, whose work is peppered with racial slurs and anti-Semitism? Embers of racism remain to be stamped out in America, but what about the raging racist inferno in the Middle East and Asia?

It's not just dishonest scholars who benefit from this intellectual fraud but hostile nations and human rights abusers hoping to distract from their own ongoing villainy. Dictators who slaughter their own people are happy to jump on the "America is a racist country" bandwagon and mimic the language of antiracism and "pro-justice" movements as PR while making authoritarian conquests.

If the West is to survive, it must be defended. The War on the West is not only an incisive takedown of foolish anti-Western arguments but also a rigorous new apologetic for civilization itself.

Review Quotes

"It's an alarm bell, and it should be ringing loud." - Jordan B. Peterson
"He gives an impassioned defense of Western culture, institutions, and politics, and why it should not be a thought crime to still believe in and indeed defend them. Read The War on the West. Do it to enlighten yourself, and do it to arm yourself with meaningful options when people spew nonsense in your presence or the presence of your children." - Megyn Kelly
"The War on the West is a compelling must-read for anyone who cares about our western culture and where it's headed." - Newt Gingrich
"Simply brilliant. Reading it to the end, I felt as though I'd just drawn my first full breath in years. At a moment of collective madness, there is nothing more refreshing - or, indeed, provocative - than sanity." - Sam Harris, author of five New York Times bestsellers and host of the Making Sense podcast, on The Madness of Crowds
"[Murray's] latest book is beyond brilliant and should be read, must be read, by everyone. He mercilessly exposes the hypocrisy and embarrassingly blatant contradictions that run rife through the current 'woke' vogue." - Richard Dawkins on The Madness of Crowds
"Whether one agrees with him or not, Douglas Murray is one of the most important public intellectuals today." - Bernard-Henri Lévy on The Madness of Crowds
"This is an author who specialises in expressing what everyone sort of knows already and is afraid to say . . . well argued, well supported and well observed." - Lionel Shriver, the Times, on The Madness of Crowds
"Murray is a superbly perceptive guide through the age of the social justice warrior" - Daily Telegraph on The Madness of Crowds
"As a compendium of the absurdities of our age, The War on the West would be hard to surpass." - National Review