From the Ruins of Empire: The Intellectuals Who Remade Asia
Pankaj Mishra in conversation with Ian Buruma
Monday 24 September, 2012
7 - 8:30pm, $0/Rsvp
New School, Lang Community Center
55 West 13 Street, Arnhold Hall, Floor Two
Through a mix of history and biography, Mishra examines the Asian world's responses, in "the ruins of empire," to western modernity. He begins with Japan's stunning victory in the Russo-Japanese War of 1905, and looks at key intellectual figures -- in India, China, and the former Ottoman Empire -- who led the revolts against the West and aimed to create a post-colonial greater Asia. Mishra writes with equal acuity about East and West, the past and the present, the complexities of globalization, and the current emergence of Asian nations.
Pankaj Mishra, who lives in London and India, writes frequently for The New York Review of Books, The New Yorker, and Bloomberg View. His books include Butter Chicken in Ludhiana: Travels in Small Town India, and Temptations of the West: How to Be Modern in India, Pakistan and Beyond. Ian Buruma, the Henry R. Luce Professor of Human Rights and Journalism at BardCollege, was educated in Holland and Japan. He writes for The New York Review of Books, The New Yorker, The New York Times, Corriere della Sera, and NRC Handelsblad. His recent books include Taming the Gods: Religion and Democracy on Three Continents; Murder in Amsterdam: Liberal Europe, Islam, and the Limits of Tolerance; and Inventing Japan, 1853-1964.
Pankaj Mishra, who lives in London and India, writes frequently for The New York Review of Books, The New Yorker, and Bloomberg View. His books include Butter Chicken in Ludhiana: Travels in Small Town India, and Temptations of the West: How to Be Modern in India, Pakistan and Beyond. Ian Buruma, the Henry R. Luce Professor of Human Rights and Journalism at BardCollege, was educated in Holland and Japan. He writes for The New York Review of Books, The New Yorker, The New York Times, Corriere della Sera, and NRC Handelsblad. His recent books include Taming the Gods: Religion and Democracy on Three Continents; Murder in Amsterdam: Liberal Europe, Islam, and the Limits of Tolerance; and Inventing Japan, 1853-1964.