Anti-Imperialism: A Guide to the Movement

by Farah Reza (Editor), George Monbiot (Contributor), Tony Benn (Contributor)

A mass movement against war has swept across the globe. It has sparked new debates and questions about imperialism in the 21st century. Anti-Imperialism brings together some of the leading activists and writers in the anti-war movement to look at the issues, main players and regions most affected by imperialism past and present. This handbook is essential reading for activists everywhere

Genres: Politics

280 pages, Paperback

First published June 1, 2003

Reviews

[Finkster · Rating 3 out of 5]

Mostly read this just for the Tony Benn and Jeremy Corbyn "chapters", this book isn't a coherent guide or statement more of a collection of about 20 articles. Which if you are looking for that this book is great. But it really isn't any new nor groundbreaking theories just a rang of short overviews of issues.

It is obviously a little outdated coming from 2002 yet worth reading a few of the chapters; the new imperialism, rogue states, racism, Afghanistan then the whole 'players' section was enjoyable too.

[Beorn · Rating 2 out of 5]

As much as this would no doubt like to paint itself as a "guide...[to] anti imperialism" and some sort of incentivising, galvanising work to strengthen the activists cause or such like, it tends to get weighed down with it's own self importance at times.

Far from being one inter-connected work on analysing what the anti-imperialist and anti-capitalist protestors stand for, this book reads like an assortment of the kind of articles you would find at the back of The Guardian newspaper in their 'Comment Is Free' section.

It lacks the incendiary effect and incisive intellect of the works of say Subcommandante Marcos or John Pilger and seems to get rather bogged down in bombarding the reader with facts and diagnosis rather than providing any real insight into what motivates the movement's activists.

Add on top of this the fact that the book has dated remarkably since it's publication date - though that can't really be blamed too much on the publisher.