Description
A devastating war has just erupted in the heart of Europe, reviving the worst traumas of the past. The threat of nuclear catastrophe is constantly being raised, even though we thought it was definitively ruled out. There is a global confrontation, pitting the West against China and Russia. Clearly, there is a profound upheaval already affecting our way of life and calling into question the foundations of our civilization. Everyone is aware of this, yet no one has yet considered this crisis with the depth it deserves.
How did we get here? In this book, Amin Maalouf returns to the origins of this new confrontation between the West and its adversaries by tracing the journey of four great powers: first, Meiji-era Japan, the first Asian nation to challenge Western supremacy; the “white” nations, whose rapid modernization astonished all of humanity, especially other Eastern countries, which all dreamed of emulating it; then Soviet Russia, which for three-quarters of a century posed a formidable threat to the West, its system, and its values, before its collapse; Then there is China, which, in this 21st century, with its economic development, demographic weight, and the ideology of its leaders, represents the main challenge to Western supremacy; and finally, the United States, which has stood against all three “challengers” and which, through wars, has become the supreme guide of the West and the foremost superpower on the planet.
All these stories form a grand historical tapestry that sheds light, as never before, on the issues of current conflicts, the motivations of their protagonists, and the strange paradoxes of our age.
At the beginning of the book, the author quotes these very relevant words from Faulkner: “The past never dies. You shouldn’t even think that it’s over.”
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