Confronting Empire
$20
Long out of print. Haymarket has published it now with a new forward by Pervez Hoodbhoy. Confronting Empire is probably Barsamian’s most influential interview book.
“Eqbal Ahmad, perhaps the shrewdest and most original anti-imperialist analyst of Asia and Africa, [was] a man of enormous charisma and incorruptible ideals. He had an almost instinctive attraction to movements of the oppressed and the persecuted [and] a formidable knowledge of history. Arabs, for example, learned more from him about the failures of Arab nationalism than from anyone else. Ahmad was that rare thing, an intellectual unintimidated by power or authority.” — Edward W. Said
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Chomsky says:
OTHER PRAISE FOR THE BOOK
“Fighting words, wise words, from one of the most powerful activist intellectuals of our time.” — Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak
“A dazzling intellectual encounter: thoughtful questions by a superb interviewer, David Barsamian—and brilliant responses by the extraordinary Eqbal Ahmad.” — Howard Zinn
“[Eqbal Ahmad] cared deeply and was willing to believe people could endure and be more brave and creative than they knew. He saw the big picture and still the value of individual stories. His incisive and lucid way of thinking and his voice are clear and sharp in these skillful interviews by David Barsamian.” — Pervez Hoodbhoy, from the Introduction
“For [those] who have missed Eqbal Ahmad in the year since he died, this book comes like rain during a drought.” — Radha Kumar, Council on Foreign Relations
“These interviews provide a wonderfully focused, yet wide-ranging compendium of Eqbal Ahmad’s worldview.” — Richard Falk, Princeton University
Authors
Eqbal Ahmad
Eqbal Ahmad was Professor Emeritus of International Relations and Middle Eastern Studies at Hampshire College in Amherst, Massachusetts. He had an extraordinary life. He was born in Irki, Bihar to an Indian Muslim landowning family. His father was murdered because he was parceling out land to peasants. Upon the partition of India in 1947 he went to Pakistan. He came to the U.S. to attend Princeton. He was in Algeria during the revolt against French rule. For many years he was managing editor of Race and Class. His articles and essays appeared in The Nation and other journals throughout the world. He wrote a weekly column for Dawn, Pakistan’s oldest English newspaper. He was one of the most original and influential anti-imperialist thinkers of his era. He was a leading figure in the anti-Vietnam War movement. He was a remarkable and persuasive orator. As a teacher, he was mentor and inspiration to many. He was a close ally of Edward Said, Noam Chomsky and Howard Zinn. Edward Said called him “an intellectual unintimidated by power or authority.” Confronting Empire and Terrorism Theirs & Ours are the two books he did with David Barsamian. Eqbal Ahmad died in Islamabad on May 11, 1999.
David Barsamian
One of America’s most tireless and wide-ranging investigative journalists, David Barsamian has altered the independent media landscape, both with his weekly radio program, Alternative Radio—airing since 1986— and his books with Noam Chomsky, Eqbal Ahmad, Howard Zinn, Tariq Ali, Richard Wolff, Arundhati Roy and Edward Said. His recent books are Culture and Resistance, Retargeting Iran, Chronicles of Dissent and Notes on Resistance. His latest book is with Arundhati Roy, The Architecture of Modern Empire. David lectures on world affairs, imperialism, capitalism, propaganda, the media and global rebellions.
John Cramer in Boulder –
I bought your book Eqbal Ahmad Confronting Empire when it first came out years ago. I have turned to it many times for inspiration. I find Ahmad right up there with Chomsky, Zinn and Arundhati Roy.
From Omid Safi, Colgate University, writing in 2002. –
I just finished reading your Confronting Empire book with Eqbal Ahmad. I was very moved by it. I’m a big fan of Chomsky and Said but there was something special about Eqbal in being able to communicate very complicated situations clearly to a wide audience.
I thank you for having preserved his work. In these dark and troubling times I do so miss people like Eqbal who would point out both the atrocities of the Israeli army and the hypocrisy of Arafat with equal passion. I suppose the challenge for us who have inherited this wonderful blasted world is to do something.
Kevin NM –
Thank you for signing my copy of your wonderful book with Eqbal Ahmad. It is a very important work. I am grateful to have read it.
Qalandar in Lahore –
It is a book that I keep with Black Jacobins, The Wretched of the Earth, and a few others I turn to it either in political impasse or heartbreak, or in moments of shared pedagogy. It’s a treasure. Thank you.
Noah –
Eqbal Ahmad was a pleasure to read. Great minds are so rare.