Confronting Empire

'Eqbal Ahmad was a shining example of what a true internationalist should be.' Kofi Annan, Secretary-General of the United Nations 'Ahmad was that rare thing, an intellectual unintimidated by power or authority ... Perhaps the shrewdest and most original anti-imperialist of Asia and Africa.' Edward W. Said 'Hearing Eqbal Ahmad's voice again, in these eloquent pages, renews one's sense of loss. But perhaps the voice can still unblock a mind or two, in this dull era of the parochial Left.' Christopher Hitchens Eqbal Ahmad was an influential political theorist, cultural critic, writer and academic. Born in India, he grew up in the last years of the British Raj, moving to Pakistan during the civil war that followed partition, and eventually settling in the United States as a political refugee, having been declared persona non grata by successive military governments in Pakistan. This book brings together Ahmads most influential writings on imperialism, terrorism and the Middle East. The volume also includes a series of themed interviews, conducted by David Barsamian specifically formulated to accompany, complement and develop Ahmads key themes and concerns. In the interviews, Ahmad recounts his work with the National Liberation Front and Frantz Fanon in Algeria, meeting Malcolm X, his role in the anti-Vietnam War protests and his activism on behalf of Palestine.