About the Author

Christopher Hitchens is a contributing editor to Vanity Fair. His numerous books include Letters to a Young Contrarian and Why Orwell Matters.

Reviews

"Hitchens is expanding his influence, showing the next generation how to 'think independently'." - USA Today"

Perhaps best known for his indictment of ex-President Clinton in No One Left To Lie To, Hitchens, a columnist for Vanity Fair and the Nation, is usually thought of as an irritable, irreverent, sarcastic, witty, and intelligent champion of the Left with a penchant for transcending the party line. In this sense, his latest offering is surprising, not so much because of the content his sympathies are still decidedly leftist, even though he is critical of the Left's past failures but in tone and style. Debuting a book series modeled upon Rilke's Letters to a Young Poet, he offers advice and encouragement to any young person who feels compelled to lead a life of nonconformity and dissent. Instead of offering trenchant political criticism, he contemplates the implications of not blindly joining the herd, methods of argument and persuasion, and the need for disagreement in intellectual development. He is occasionally dismissive of ideologies that differ from his own (mainly religious), and he is unabashedly partisan an emphasis on such leftist ideals as universal equality and respect for human rights pervades the text. But, overall, his advice is thankfully nonpartisan, and his passionate call to embrace dialectic thinking and contentious debate is convincing and, well, correct. For undergraduate and larger public libraries. Heath Madom, "Library Journal" Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information.