The War on the West: How to Prevail in the Age of Unreason

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The anti-Western revisionists have been out in force in recent years. It is high time that we revise them in turn...' As I read The War on the West I thought of Thomas Sowell’s iconic Dismantling America and his observation that “ours may become the first civilization destroyed, not by the power of ur enemies, but by the ignorance of our teachers and the dangerous nonsense they are teaching our children.” Reading should be a pleasure, but the content in the book made me angry. And even angrier that such a book had to be written. Musical notation is considered to be changed because it's of Western legacy and upsets some people of color? Tate mural should disappear because it is racist? Kew Gardens should "decolonize"? Aristotle is considered "the granddaddy of all racial theorists?! And Shakespeare's works are "race plays" and contain "racialized dynamics"? And these are only mild examples. I do hope that these are just extremist opinions and they do not become the norm.

Some of the events of recent years have had me scratching my head, (such as Germaine Greer being no platformed). This book provides the intellectual lubrication necessary to un-grind my gears. Even the anti-slavery poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge came in for suspicion – for having a nephew who worked on slave estates in Barbados. You couldn’t make it up – but clearly you don’t need to. I am a newcomer to Douglas Murray, and have not read any of his previous works (although, after this book, that may well change), so this review is based on this single exposure to his works.

And if Murray had actually strived towards constructing an alternative to progressive discourse, this book might have been half interesting. Instead, Murray falters to the same tired, stereotypical tropes of the recently popular conservative and Liberal pop-critics. On more disputed territory Douglas seems a touch unaware. He thinks racism is on life support in the US which to me is extremely naïve.

To my mind, a lot of what’s going on today, such as corporations giving seminars on how utterly and completely toxic “whiteness” is, actually boils down to whether or not two wrongs ever make a right. Many of the current policies and attitudes which aim to correct said wrongs are openly racist and sexist. Which I believe is deplorable no matter which group(s) you’re targeting. But whether you agree with me or not, I’d urge you to simply do as Dawkins suggests and read this book with an open mind. Make up your own mind as to whether what Murray has to say has any validity or not. Because this is truly an impressively well-reasoned, evidence-supported, earnest attempt to examine the current m.o. and analyze its shortcomings in a sensible, rational manner.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 In The War on the West , international bestselling author Douglas Murray asks: if the history of humankind is one of slavery, conquest, prejudice, genocide and exploitation, why are only Western nations taking the blame for it? The Author of This Work’ takes us on a tour through the riots, protests and the cultural speak of the last few years; focusing almost exclusively on events in the UK and America. Counter to the media message being pumped out, ‘the west must collectively sigh in shame’; this book makes a counter statement that we should respect the achievements of our society and, where possible, build on them.