Publishers Weekly
12/24/2018
French intellectual Lévy (The Genius of Judaism) melds history, theology, politics, philosophy, and personal experience in this striking but flawed book-length essay on the past and future of world politics. Lévy believes in universal history, the idea that the world’s history is one coherent story whose arc is a change in power from East to West. In this view, the U.S. is a continuation of Europe; it became a reluctant empire almost by default after WWII; and the nature of its imperialism is changing thanks to the apolitical monopoly of Google, Amazon, Facebook, and Apple. Drawing on Western philosophy (Bentham, Hegel, Heidegger) and the Bible, he lays out an explanation for the U.S.’s withdrawal from its role as global watchdog and assesses the strengths and weaknesses of the five kings—Iran, Russia, Turkey, China, and “those nostalgic for the caliphate”—that he sees lying in wait, eager to take its place. Surprisingly, after much buildup of the threat, the last chapter concludes that it would be difficult for any of the kingdoms to truly become an empire, and the book’s premise falls flat. Though Lévy’s analysis of the internet landscape and its impact on truth is deeply insightful, those who don’t share his belief in the West’s exceptionality and his despair at its loss of power will not connect with the analysis he constructs atop them. (Feb.)
From the Publisher
Often arresting, always heartfelt prose. This is a brave book . . . we need Mr. Lévy’s voice.” —Martin Peretz, The Wall Street Journal
“An erudite and impassioned call for the West to retake the lead in championing liberty.”—Kirkus Reviews
“Striking. . . Lévy’s analysis of the internet landscape and its impact on truth is deeply insightful.” —Publishers Weekly
“The Empire and the Five Kings is that rare book that few write anymore, and few even know how to. It is the product of a truly literate mind of the sort that has virtually gone extinct in this postliterate digital age.” —Robert D. Kaplan, author of The Return of Marco Polo’s World: War, Strategy, and American Interests in the Twenty-first Century
“Bernard-Henri Lévy puts his deep firsthand knowledge of the world together with his extraordinary gift for horizontal thinking—leaping easily from epoch to epoch and from one philosophical idea to the next—to offer a startling and persuasive picture of this moment of decisive historical transition.” —Adam Gopnik, author of Paris to the Moon and At the Strangers' Gate
“At the heart of Bernard-Henri Lévy’s passionate essay is his anger at the betrayal of the Kurds. He spirals out from there to offer a strongly felt portrait of our contemporary reality in which the ‘empire of nothing,’ the West that has lost its way, risks being superseded by new powers, the ‘five kings, pathetic yet daunting, cartoonish yet terrible.’ A challenging analysis, at once scholarly and readable.” —Salman Rushdie
“In this exquisite gem of a book, Bernard-Henri Levy offers a poetic plea for moral courage and clear thinking in these dark times. He is an international treasure.” —Robert Kagan, author of Of Paradise and Power and The Jungle Grows Back: America and Our Imperiled World
“A characteristically trenchant and poignant polemic that is part cri-de-coeur, part battle cry . . . The Empire and the Five Kings represents an important, learned assessment of the mounting challenges facing the United States in confronting an increasingly multipolar world order.” —The Federalist
