Christopher Hitchens byl polemik a intelektuál, jehož psaní se vyznačovalo pronikavou analýzou a nekompromisním stylem. Zpočátku se hlásil k radikální levici, ale v průběhu života se jeho názory vyvíjely, což vedlo k překvapivým posunům v politických postojích. Byl známý svým obdivem k osvícenským hodnotám, jako je sekularismus, humanismus a rozum, a zároveň ostře kritizoval náboženské dogmata a politické postavy, které považoval za škodlivé. Jeho literární dílo je dodnes ceněno pro svou intelektuální hloubku a odvahu zpochybňovat zavedené pravdy.
Práva člověka jsou od té doby, co vyšla, obdivována, kritizována, ostouzena a potlačována, ale polemik a komentátor Christopher Hitchens v této knize obdivuje prozíravost onoho díla a baví se jeho svárlivostí. Především pak Hitchens ukazuje, jak kniha Thomase Paina utváří filozofický základní kámen první demokratické republiky.
O tom, jak náboženství všechno zničí
O tom, jak náboženství všechno ničí. V této polemice s věřícími předkládá základní argumenty proti náboženství (a ve prospěch sekulárnějšího přístupu k životu), a to formou podrobné a poučené interpretace stěžejních textů hlavních světových náboženství. Hitchens vypráví o vlastních nebezpečných zkušenostech s náboženstvím a popisuje svůj vývoj k sekulárnímu nazírání na svět, založenému na vědě a rozumu. Je to svět, ve kterém jsou „nebesa“ nahrazena záběry vesmíru získanými pomocí Hubbleova teleskopu, nad nimiž se nám tají dech, a Mojžíš s hořícím keřem ustupuje nádheře a symetrii dvojité šroubovice DNA. „Bůh nás nestvořil,“ píše autor. „To my jsme stvořili Boha.“ Náboženství, vysvětluje dále, nabízí zkreslenou představu o našem původu, o naší podstatě a o vesmíru. Tím, že je dětem vštěpujeme, jim škodíme – a ohrožujeme svůj vlastní svět. Vůbec nezáleží na tom, zda jste celý život věřící, nebo přesvědčení ateisté, či zda patříte k těm, kdo si o úloze náboženství v životě dosud neudělali jasno. Polemika předložená na stránkách knihy Bůh není veliký vás bezpochyby vyprovokuje k zamyšlení a možná i ke kritické revizi svých dosavadních životních hodnot.
'Vanity Fair Portraits' traces the cultural history of the 20th century and its leading personalities in the pages of a magazine that helped usher in the modern age and which has itself become a benchmark of modern achievement.
Ten years since the death of the world-renowned and controversial intellectual, this stylish edition is one of twelve commemorating Christopher Hitchens' most wry and provocative works.
Essayist Christopher Hitchens ruminates on why Charles Dickens was among the best of writers and the worst of men, the haunting science fiction of J.G. Ballard, the enduring legacies of Thomas Jefferson and George Orwell, the persistent agonies of anti-Semitism and jihad, the enduring relevance of Karl Marx, and how politics justifies itself by culture--and how the latter prompts the former.
@font-face { font-family: "Cambria"; }p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal { margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-size: 12pt; font-family: "Times New Roman"; }div.Section1 { page: Section1; } "All first-rate criticism first defines what we are confronting," the late, great jazz critic Whitney Balliett once wrote. By that measure, the essays of Christopher Hitchens are in the first tier. For nearly four decades, Hitchens has been telling us, in pitch-perfect prose, what we confront when we grapple with first principles-the principles of reason and tolerance and skepticism that define and inform the foundations of our civilization-principles that, to endure, must be defended anew by every generation. "A short list of the greatest living conversationalists in English," said The Economist, "would probably have to include Christopher Hitchens, Sir Patrick Leigh-Fermor, and Sir Tom Stoppard. Great brilliance, fantastic powers of recall, and quick wit are clearly valuable in sustaining conversation at these cosmic levels. Charm may be helpful, too." Hitchens-who staunchly declines all offers of knighthood-hereby invites you to take a seat at a democratic conversation, to be engaged, and to be reasoned with. His knowledge is formidable, an encyclopedic treasure, and yet one has the feeling, reading him, of hearing a person thinking out loud, following the inexorable logic of his thought, wherever it might lead, unafraid to expose fraudulence, denounce injustice, and excoriate hypocrisy. Legions of readers, admirers and detractors alike, have learned to read Hitchens with something approaching awe at his felicity of language, the oxygen in every sentence, the enviable wit and his readiness, even eagerness, to fight a foe or mount the ramparts. Here, he supplies fresh perceptions of such figures as varied as Charles Dickens, Karl Marx, Rebecca West, George Orwell, J.G. Ballard, and Philip Larkin are matched in brilliance by his pungent discussions and intrepid observations, gathered from a lifetime of traveling and reporting from such destinations as Iran, China, and Pakistan. Hitchens's directness, elegance, lightly carried erudition, critical and psychological insight, humor, and sympathy-applied as they are here to a dazzling variety of subjects-all set a standard for the essayist that has rarely been matched in our time. What emerges from this indispensable volume is an intellectual self-portrait of a writer with an exemplary steadiness of purpose and a love affair with the delights and seductions of the English language, a man anchored in a profound and humane vision of the human longing for reason and justice.
"Courageous, insightful and candid thoughts on malady and mortality from one of our most celebrated writers"--Provided by the publisher.
Over the course of his 60 years, Christopher Hitchens has been a citizen of both the United States and the United Kingdom. He has been both a socialist opposed to the war in Vietnam and a supporter of the U.S. war against Islamic extremism in Iraq. He has been both a foreign correspondent in some of the world's most dangerous places and a legendary bon vivant with an unquenchable thirst for alcohol and literature. He is a fervent atheist, raised as a Christian, by a mother whose Jewish heritage was not revealed to him until her suicide. In other words, Christopher Hitchens contains multitudes. He sees all sides of an argument. And he believes the personal is political. This is the story of his life, lived large.
Features three sections: 'Love', 'Poverty', and 'War'. 'Love' celebrates the work of Joyce, Proust and Borges. 'Poverty' includes a series of assessments of Michael Moore and the cult of the Kennedys. This book's final section, 'War', contains reportage from North Korea, Pakistan and Iraq.
Ten years since the death of the world-renowned and controversial intellectual, this stylish edition is one of twelve commemorating Christopher Hitchens' most wry and provocative works.
