Preview
  • How Hitchens Can Save the Left

  • Rediscovering Fearless Liberalism in an Age of Counter-Enlightenment
  • By: Matt Johnson
  • Narrated by: Mike Chamberlain
  • Length: 12 hrs and 38 mins
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars (11 ratings)

Prime logo Prime members: New to Audible?
Get 2 free audiobooks during trial.
Pick 1 audiobook a month from our unmatched collection.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, Originals, and podcasts.
Access exclusive sales and deals.
Premium Plus auto-renews for $14.95/mo after 30 days. Cancel anytime.

How Hitchens Can Save the Left

By: Matt Johnson
Narrated by: Mike Chamberlain
Try for $0.00

$14.95/month after 30 days. Cancel anytime.

Buy for $21.49

Buy for $21.49

Pay using card ending in
By confirming your purchase, you agree to Audible's Conditions of Use and Amazon's Privacy Notice. Taxes where applicable.

Publisher's summary

Christopher Hitchens was for many years considered one of the fiercest and most eloquent left-wing polemicists in the world. But on much of today's left, he's remembered as a defector, a warmonger, and a sellout—a supporter of the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq who traded his left-wing principles for neoconservatism after the September 11 attacks.

In How Hitchens Can Save the Left, Matt Johnson argues that this easy narrative gets Hitchens exactly wrong. Hitchens was a lifelong champion of free inquiry, humanism, and universal liberal values. He was an internationalist who believed all people should have the liberty to speak and write openly, to be free of authoritarian domination, and to escape the arbitrary constraints of tribe, faith, and nation. He was a figure of the Enlightenment and a man of the left until the very end, and his example has never been more important.

Across the democratic world, free speech, individual rights, and other basic liberal values are losing their power to inspire. Hitchens's case for universal Enlightenment principles won't just help genuine liberals mount a resistance to the emerging illiberal orthodoxies on the left and the right. It will also remind us how to think and speak fearlessly in defense of those principles.

©2023 Matt Johnson (P)2023 Kalorama
activate_Holiday_promo_in_buybox_DT_T2

What listeners say about How Hitchens Can Save the Left

Average customer ratings
Overall
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    7
  • 4 Stars
    2
  • 3 Stars
    2
  • 2 Stars
    0
  • 1 Stars
    0
Performance
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    7
  • 4 Stars
    4
  • 3 Stars
    0
  • 2 Stars
    0
  • 1 Stars
    0
Story
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    9
  • 4 Stars
    1
  • 3 Stars
    1
  • 2 Stars
    0
  • 1 Stars
    0

Reviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.

Sort by:
Filter by:
  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Miss you Hitch

A surprisingly well research examination of Hitch's life that was neither patronizing nor filled with clichés. The author gives a broad view of the man and makes a strong case for Hitch's consistent application of his principled opposition to totalitarianism of any stripe and his championing of the individual and universal. A classical liberal in every regard and ready these principles fully even as his political identification evolved or he made or lost friends. It is easy to move from review of this book to praise for Hitch, but this is no hagiography. It's successful thesis, that Hitch did not flip sides during the Iraq war and since and remained committed to his principles was made with broad references to his work and his critics. This was not a screed in any sense of the word, but a deliberate and well-researched and defended argument which captures the real Hitch and adds greatly to the early scholarship on a man who will be gradually thought of in whatever way people wish as more years pass and people learn about him who did not have the honor to live during his lifetime.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

very well written, topical piece

As a Hitchens fan missing his distinct voice and political commentary for the past 11 years, I thoroughly enjoyed and appreciated the arguments presented in this well researched and timely book.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

well done

Very well done. We all needed this book. Hitchens was one of the greatest minds ever.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    3 out of 5 stars

A nice review for those familiar with Hitchens

It's ok. If you have read Hitchens's work, there's nothing new in this book. Feels like half fan fiction --a rough imitation of Hitchens's own writing-- half literature review like what you'd find in a mediocre Master's thesis. The reading is good.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

1 person found this helpful