To Fight Against This Age
On Fascism and Humanism
23 February 2018
Description
A poignant meditation on our modern predicament: the rise, once again, of barbarism in the midst of mass democracy.
Thomas Mann and Albert Camus understood something many political scientists still find difficult to fathom. Deprived of any coherent theory, fascism is characterised by its politics of resentment, stirring up of anger and fear, xenophobia, need for scapegoats, and by its hatred of the life of the mind. Combining history and philosophy, Rob Riemen eloquently explores the global return of fascism, disguised in the false promises of freedom and greatness.
Riemen’s response to the spiritual crisis of our age is a moving story about the universal meaning of European humanism, with its values of truth, justice, beauty and love for life as the origin of a democratic civilisation. To Fight Against This Age is for those who want to understand and change the world in which they live.
Reviews
"For Rob Riemen the term populism should be scrapped—fascism is fascism then and now... History is not a one-way street and democracy has turned authoritarian before. Can it happen again? Why not?" — Mark Mazower, Financial Times
"As long ago as 2010, the Dutch writer Rob Riemen argued that we should call movements that feed on fear, promote xenophobia and denigrate democratic institutions by an older name: 'fascist'. In his newest book, 'To Fight Against This Age', he argues that anything else is false: "The term populist is only one more way to cultivate the denial that the ghost of fascism is haunting our societies again"." — The Irish Independent
"Riemen’s dire warnings cannot help appearing prescient. American readers who are rightly worried about similarly distressing developments in the United States will feel fortified by the publication of To Fight Against This Age…establishes Riemen as an erudite, well-meaning and inspiring ally in the struggle to combat anti-liberal political trends." — Damon Linker, New York Times Book Review
"We are sleepwalking into catastrophe; Riemen wants to wake us up and he does with passion, wisdom, and eloquence." — Simon Schama
