{"product_id":"desire-and-fate-david-rieff-9781967751594","title":"Desire and Fate","description":"\u003cp\u003e\"Ours is an ill-mannered society that wears those bad manners as a badge not just of its moral rectitude but of its millenarian ethical ambitions. At the same time, in no society in recent memory have people been so easily affronted.\" \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eAt a time when political writing and cultural criticism have come to be dominated by an insipid and unthinking moralism, David Rieff's essays offer a bracing antidote. As well as being one of the English-speaking world's most perceptive commentators on global politics, Rieff has in recent years been one of its most courageous and outspoken critics of the pathologies of identity politics--in particular, its grossly simplistic understanding of what it means to belong to a culture or a community, its fundamental failure to grasp the real value of the creative arts, and its increasing disregard for due process and freedom of expression. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eThe essays that appear in \u003ci\u003eDesire and Fate\u003c\/i\u003e serve both as a crucial record of and a fierce protest against these developments. Covering topics as diverse as censorship in contemporary publishing, the cultural ubiquity of the notion of trauma, and the future of democracy on a global level, they are all characterised by an incisive intelligence and a refreshing lack of wishful thinking. Together they confirm Rieff's status as an indispensable writer and thinker.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAuthor:\u003c\/b\u003e David Rieff\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN-10:\u003c\/b\u003e 1967751595\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN-13:\u003c\/b\u003e 9781967751594\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublisher:\u003c\/b\u003e Eris\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eLanguage:\u003c\/b\u003e English\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublished:\u003c\/b\u003e 09\/02\/2025\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePages:\u003c\/b\u003e 260\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eFormat:\u003c\/b\u003e Hardcover","brand":"David Rieff","offers":[{"title":"Hardcover","offer_id":47135449547007,"sku":"9781967751594","price":100.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0662\/2982\/9887\/files\/img_6c1a0e4c-dd6b-4f23-b748-894a64e8d28e.jpg?v=1755010189","url":"https:\/\/www.whiterainbookhouse.com\/products\/desire-and-fate-david-rieff-9781967751594","provider":"WR Book House","version":"1.0","type":"link"}