New Release Books by Tariq Ali

A coruscating portrait of Britain’s greatest imperialist The modern Churchill cult is out of control, closing down debate and encouraging support for twenty-first-century wars. The wartime leader has become a household god for many, preserving an antiquated vision of Britain still shared by all three parties. Yet, was he anything more than a plump carp happy to swim in the foulest of ponds to defend the Empire? Churchill himself never bothered to conceal his passionate defence of the British Empire or its attendant racism. On a more personal level, his complacent self-belief influenced his every step and frequently tripped him up. As the head of the British Navy during the First World War, he was responsible for a series of calamitous errors that cost thousands of lives. His attempt to crush the Irish nationalists left wounds that have yet to heal. His attacks on striking workers in Glasgow and Tonypandy, his posturing when calling in the army to burn two anarchists in London’s East End, his vicious propaganda during the General Strike were not forgotten or forgiven. Even during the war against Germany, the most revered period of his career, Churchill’s crimes abroad continued, including the brutal assault on the Greek Resistance, the Bengal Famine that cost over 3 million Indian lives, the all-out assault on civilians in Dresden and Hamburg, and the insistence on the use of nuclear weapons in Japan. Postwar, he continued to cause harm in Iran and Kenya. His is a terrible record, amply documented in Tariq Ali’s indictment.

The occupation of Afghanistan is over, and a balance sheet can be drawn. These essays on war and peace in the region reveal Tariq Ali at his sharpest and most prescient. Rarely has there been such an enthusiastic display of international unity as that which greeted the invasion of Afghanistan in 2001. Compared to Iraq, Afghanistan became the “good war.” But a stalemate ensued, and the Taliban waited out the NATO contingents. Today, with the collapse of the puppet regime in Kabul, what does the future hold for a traumatised Afghan people? Will China become the dominant influence in the country? Tariq Ali has been following the wars in Afghanistan for forty years. He opposed Soviet military interven- tion in 1979, predicting disaster. He was also a fierce critic of its NATO sequel, Operation Enduring Freedom. In a series of trenchant commentaries, he has described the tragedies inflicted on Afghanistan, as well as the semi-Talibanisation and militarisation of neighbouring Pakistan. Most of his predictions have proved accurate. The Forty-Year War in Afghanistan: A Chronicle Foretold brings together the best of his writings and includes a new introduction.

Oxford Assess and Progress: Clinical Dentistry features over 270 Single Best Answer questions. Written and peer-reviewed by clinicians working within each specialty and mapped to dental school curricula, this is an authoritative guide for dental students providing a wealth of revision. Organised by specialties, chapter introductions unlock difficult subjects with hints and tips. Each question is accompanied by detailed answers explaining the rationale behind right and wrong answers. Cross-references to the Oxford Handbook of Clinical Dentistry and further reading resources, expand your revision further. A four star rating system indicating question difficulty to monitor your progress as you learn. Key words also help highlight specific clues or words that can assist with recall. Oxford Assess and Progress: Clinical Dentistry is your prescription for exam succcess.

From 9/11 to the rubble of the Middle East, a masterly survey of the increased power of the American Empire from bestselling author Tariq Ali. We are living in the twilight of democracy. In the 15 years since 9/11, the world has become a place of increasing extremism, intolerance and permanent war. In every instance US imperial ambitions have exacerbated divisions, either with boots on the ground, remote drone strikes or economic manipulations that force open markets for the benefits of vulture capitalism. The Empire thrives on the global disorder, and goes from strength to strength. In his masterly survey of the present crisis, Tariq Ali looks at the points of conflict: the Middle East - from Israel-Palestine to the rise of ISIS out of the rubble of Iraq and Syria; the failed wars in Afghanistan; the endless aggression between Pakistan and India; the new Cold War in Europe and its fault lines that have shattered Ukraine; the attempts to establish alternative democracies in Latin America.

Pakistan 1968: the history of a revolution Even as they were taking place, the events that shook Pakistan in 1968–69 were underplayed in the Western media. Following a long period of tumult, a radical coalition—led by Zulfikar Ali Bhutto—brought down the military regime of Field Marshal Ayub Khan, just as it was celebrating its tenth “glorious” anniversary. Students, soon joined by workers and later by virtually every subaltern social stratum (including sex workers), took on the state apparatus of a corrupt and decaying military dictatorship created and backed by the United States. They were joined by workers, lawyers, white-collar employees, and, despite severe repression, they won. The fundamentalist party Jamaat-i-Islami opposed the movement and faced complete isolation. The most popular chants were “Socialism is on the way” and “Food, clothes, shelter.” Ayub was forced to resign. His weak-kneed successor had to permit the country’s first general election, probably the freest in its tormented history. In his riveting account, written in 1970 in the white heat of events, Tariq Ali offers an eyewitness perspective, showing that this powerful popular movement was the sole real victory of the 1960s revolutionary wave. The election cracked open all the contradictions of the old state, as Ali had predicted. The military and the West Pakistani ruling elite refused to accept the results and embarked on a civil war. The result was the birth of a new state, as East Pakistan broke away to become Bangladesh.

In this novel from esteemed political writer Tariq Ali, a father, Vlady, loses his job when he refuses to renounce socialist beliefs in the newly unified Germany--and as a result wants to explain to his alienated son what their family''s long and passionate involvement with communism has really meant. The story he tells is of Ludwik, a Polish secret agent and Gertrude, Vlady''s mother, whose desire for Ludwik is matched only by her devotion to the communist ideal. As the plot unfolds through the political upheavals of the twentieth century, Vlady describes the hopes aroused by the Bolshevik revolution and discovers the almost unbearable truth about the family''s betrayal. Written with deep political insight and sensitivity, Fear of Mirrors relates the extraordinary history of Central Europe from the perspective of those on the other side of the Cold War. "Ali folds his drama around the tight, cultlike atmosphere of Communist Party life, peopled by idealists who find their lives encumbered by betrayals, power grabs, and corruption and who, in the post-Communist era, must come to terms with their complicity with Stalinism. . . . This is a valuable book, especially for those interested in the current thinking of the European left."--Publishers Weekly, on the first edition

One of the world’s best-known radicals relives the early years of the protest movement What makes a young radical? Reissued to coincide with the fiftieth anniversary of 1968, Street Fighting Years captures the mood and energy of an era of hope and passion as Tariq Ali tracks the growing significance of the 1960s protest movement, as well as his own formation as a leading political activist. Through his personal story, he recounts a counter-history of a sixties rocked by the Prague Spring, student protests on the streets of Europe and America, the effects of the Vietnam war, and the aftermath of the revolutionary insurgencies led by Che Guevara. It is a story that takes us from Paris and Prague to Hanoi and Bolivia, encountering along the way Malcolm X, Bertrand Russell, Marlon Brando, Henry Kissinger, and Mick Jagger. This edition includes the famous interview conducted by Tariq Ali and Robin Blackburn with John Lennon and Yoko Ono In 1971.

Against the centre ground Since 1989, politics has been a contest to see who can best serve the needs of the market. In this urgent and wideranging case for the prosecution, Tariq Ali looks at the people and events that have informed this development across the world. It is an investigation that reaches its logical conclusion with the presidency of Donald Trump, the success of En Marche! in France, and the dominance of Merkel’s Germany throughout Europe. In this fully updated edition of The Extreme Centre, Ali considers recent events that suggest, despite everything, that there is room for hope. He finds promise in Latin America and at the edges of Europe. Emerging parties in Scotland, Greece, and Spain, formed out of the 2008 crisis, are offering new promise for democracy. Even in the UK, with the rise of Jeremy Corbyn, there are indications that the hegemony of the centre may be weaker than imagined.

During the late Seventies and Eighties a new logo began to jostle for space with the more traditional landmarks on high streets throughout Britain. It was the badge of a remarkable Third World Bank...the BCCI (Bank of Credit and Commerce International). BCCI soon become a global corporate empire with former US Presidents, ex-British Prime Ministers and a range of dictators on its payroll, all helping with promoting the company. Tariq Ali was the first public voice to warn that the Bank was not all it seemed to be. Indeed, many of its own employees called BCCI the "Bank of Crooks and Cheats Incorporated". Some political analysts also predicted the company ́s collapse. The Bank finally imploded amidst a welter of scandal. This revealing screenplay presents an account of the rise and fall of the Bank of Credit and Commerce International. Here, Ali reveals how BCCI lasted so long, how financial regulators failed to see what was going on and how BCCI pioneered a mode of operation that prepared the way for an even greater financial cataclysm, the fall of Enron.

The secret life of the man who reshaped Russia Vladimir Ilyich Lenin, leader of the October 1917 uprising, is one of the most misunderstood leaders of the twentieth century. In his own time, there were many, even among his enemies, who acknowledged the full magnitude of his intellectual and political achievements. But his legacy has been lost in misinterpretation; he is worshipped but rarely read. On the centenary of the Russian Revolution, Tariq Ali explores the two major influences on Lenin’s thought—the turbulent history of Tsarist Russia and the birth of the international labour movement—and explains how Lenin confronted dilemmas that still cast a shadow over the present. Is terrorism ever a viable strategy? Is support for imperial wars ever justified? Can politics be made without a party? Was the seizure of power in 1917 morally justified? Should he have parted company from his wife and lived with his lover? In The Dilemmas of Lenin, Ali provides an insightful portrait of Lenin’s deepest preoccupations and underlines the clarity and vigour of his theoretical and political formulations. He concludes with an affecting account of Lenin’s last two years, when he realized that “we knew nothing” and insisted that the revolution had to be renewed lest it wither and die.

Edited by Denise Robinson, "Realities in raw motion" presents a selection of texts from the conference held on 23 - 25 November 2012at the Cyprus University of Technology.

Who killed Mrs Gandhi? We know the name of the assassins, but did they act alone? In this fictional filmscript, Tariq Ali suggests that larger forces were at work, exploiting genuine Sikh grievances to settle their own score with a prime minister who, whatever her faults, was fiercely independent of Washington and safeguarded Indian sovereignty with a zeal inherited from her father. Provocative and suggestive, this script planned as the second of a series was never completed. The Assassination is published here for the first time and completes Ali''s trilogy, with The Leopard and The Fox and A Banker For All Seasons.

Five nuanced and powerful historical novels depicting the clashes among Muslims, Christians, and Jews from the Crusades to twenty-first-century London. Celebrated British-Pakistani journalist and author Tariq Ali takes a mind-expanding journey through the ages with these five acclaimed works of fiction, available now in one collection. Shadows of the Pomegranate Tree: “Ali captures the humanity and splendor of Muslim Spain” in “an enthralling story, unraveled with thrift and verve” (The Independent). For the doomed Moors, the fall of Granada and the approaching forces of Christendom bring not peace but the sword. The Book of Saladin: After Saladin reclaims the holy city of Jerusalem from the Crusaders, he turns to a Jewish scribe to record his story, which Edward Said calls “a narrative for our time, haunted by distant events and characters who are closer to us than we had dreamed.” The Stone Woman: “Ali paints a vivid picture of a fading world,” proclaims the New York Times Book Review, as a distant descendant of an exiled Ottoman courtier suffers a stroke in Istanbul, and his family rushes to his side to hear his last stories. A Sultan in Palermo: In “a marvelously paced and boisterously told novel of intrigue, love, insurrection and manipulation,” cartographer Muhammad al-Idrisi is caught between his friendship with King Roger of Sicily and the resentments of his fellow Muslims (The Guardian). Night of the Golden Butterfly: A Lahore-born writer living in London is called back to his homeland by an old friend who, at seventy-five, has finally fallen in love. “If Pakistan is a land of untold stories,” writes the New Statesman, Ali is “the country’s finest historian and critic.”

“Tariq Ali captures the humanity and splendor of Muslim Spain . . . real history as well as fiction . . . a book to be relished and devoured” (The Independent). The savagery of the Reconquest tore apart the world of the Banu Hudayl family. For the doomed Muslims of late-fifteenth-century Spain, the approaching forces of Christendom bring not peace but the sword. Capturing the brutality of a war both military and cultural—and the price paid by the innocent—Tariq Ali opens his Islam Quintet with a harrowing and profound historical fiction.

The Islam Quintet concludes with a powerful portrait of life and loveTariq Ali’s epic quintet, which began on the streets of medieval Granada, culminates in present day with Night of the Golden Butterfly. The story darts between the past and present of Dara, a Lahore-born writer who now lives in London. Dara is called back to his homeland by an old friend, the hot-tempered and mysterious Plato, who, at seventy-five, has finally fallen in love. Dara is to help Plato’s newfound inamorata to write a book about his friend’s life. Dara retraces not only Plato’s steps but also his own, meeting old friends across the world as they retread the paths of their lives. Night of the Golden Butterfly is a gorgeous and lyrical capstone that finds heart and humor in the passage of time, the practice of reconciliation, and the irresistible draw of home.

The BBC commissioned Tariq Ali to write a three-part TV series on the circumstances leading to the overthrow, trial and execution of Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto, the first elected prime minister of Pakistan. As rehearsals were about to begin, the BBC hierarchy--under pressure from the Foreign Office--decided to cancel the project. Why? General Zia ul Haq, the dictator at the time, was leading the jihad against the Soviet Union in Afghanistan. He was backed by the USA. According to expert legal opinion, there was a possibility of a whole range of defamation suits from the head of state to judges involved in the case. In consequence, it was decided not to broadcast this hard-hitting and provocative play. The Leopard and the Fox presents both the script and the story of censorship.

The story of a dying man and a waning empireThe Stone Woman has stood on the Sea of Marmara near Istanbul for generations. The ancient pagan icon has become a confessor, allowing people to release their guilt without consequence. Close to the Stone Woman is the family home of Iskander Pasha, a distant descendant of an exiled Ottoman courtier. When the aged Iskander suffers a stroke, his family rushes to his side to hear his last stories. As the dying man revisits his life, a complex family drama emerges, tracing the labored final breaths of an empire in decline. Through the diverse Pasha clan, Tariq Ali reveals sexual intrigue, political unrest, and domestic tension simmering in the ashes of the Ottoman Empire. In the third book of his acclaimed Islam Quintet, Ali draws a nuanced and powerful portrait of the Muslim world.

“Whether depicting erotically charged harem intrigue or siege warfare, The Book of Saladin is an entertaining feat of revisionist storytelling” —The Sunday Times As victories mount and accolades are showered upon the great warrior Saladin, he is nearly deified. He conquers the infidel Franj, or Crusaders, and reclaims the holy city of Jerusalem while remaining true to his senses of honor, justice, and humor. When it comes time for Saladin to record his own story, he turns to a Jewish scribe. In the interlinking stories of The Book of Saladin, the mighty sultan deftly navigates the deep chasms separating Muslims, Christians, and Jews.

An ailing king attempts to unify the Christian and Muslim worlds of medieval Sicily in this “marvelously paced and boisterously told novel of intrigue” (The Guardian). Amid the chaos and misery of the Middle Ages, Sicily proved to be an island in more ways than one. Even after Christians reconquered the island, the citizens retained their Muslim culture. One ruler became a bridge between worlds, speaking Arabic fluently, maintaining a harem, and even taking on the dual titles of King Roger of Sicily and Sultan Rujari of Siqilliya. Aiding Rujari is the Muslim cartographer Muhammad al-Idrisi. As the Sicilian leader descends into old age and the island is pulled toward European values, al-Idrisi is caught between his friendship with Rujari and the plots of resistance brewing among his fellow Muslims. Pride and friendship collide with greed and lust in Tariq Ali’s rich novel of medieval Sicily.

These prominent filmmakers, “two of our most provocative and radical voices,” discuss American historical events that have been forgotten—or hidden (Katrina vanden Heuvel, editor of The Nation). In working together on two challenging documentaries—South of the Border and the Untold History of the United States series for Showtime—filmmaker Oliver Stone engaged with author and filmmaker Tariq Ali in a probing, hard-hitting conversation on the politics of history. Their dialogue brings to light a number of forgotten—or deliberately buried—episodes of American history, from the US intervention against the Russian Revolution to the dynamic radicalism of the Wobblies; to how Henry Wallace’s nomination for the vice presidency was deliberately thwarted by Democratic Party machine insiders; to the ongoing close connections between various US presidents and the Saudi royal family. For Stone, an Academy Award–winner, and Ali, an acclaimed novelist and journalist—two of our most insightful observers on history and popular culture—no topic is sacred, no orthodoxy goes unchallenged.

Kashmir is one of the most protracted and bloody occupations in the world—and one of the most ignored. Under an Indian military rule that, at half a million strong, exceeds the total number of US forces in Iraq and Afghanistan, freedom of speech is non-existent, and human- rights abuses and atrocities are routinely visited on its Muslim-majority population. In the last two decades alone, over seventy thousand people have died. Ignored by its own corrupt politicians, abandoned by Pakistan and the West, which refuses to bring pressure to bear on its regional ally, India, the Kashmiri people’s ongoing quest for justice and self- determination continues to be brutally suppressed. Exploring the causes and consequences of the occupation, Kashmir: The Case for Freedom is a passionate call for the end of occupation, and for the right of self- determination for the Kashmiri people.

Written early in 2010 and initially published in September 2010, The Obama Syndrome predicted the Obama administration’s historic midterm defeat. But unlike myriad commentators who have since pinned responsibility for that Democratic Party collapse on the “reform” president’s lack of firm resolve, Ali’s critique located the problem in Obama’s notion of reform itself. Barack Obama campaigned for the presidency by promising to escalate the war in Afghanistan, and his economic team brought the architects of the financial crisis into the White House. Small wonder then that the “War on Terror”—torture in Bagram, occupation in Iraq, appeasement in Israel, and escalation in Pakistan—continues. And that Wall Street and the country’s biggest corporations have all profited at the expense of America’s working class and poor. Now a thoroughly updated paperback continues the story through the midterms, including a trenchant analysis of the Tea Party, and Obama’s decision to continue with his predecessor’s tax cuts for the rich. Ali asks whether—in the absence of a progressive upheaval from below—US politics is permanently mired in moderate Republicanism. Already called “a comprehensive account” of the problems with Obama (The Huffington Post), this new edition is sure to provide a more “powerful boost to Obama dissenters on the left” (Pittsburgh Post-Gazette).

Baruch Spinoza (1632–77) is considered one of the great rationalist thinkers of the seventeenth century. His magnum opus, Ethics, in which he criticized the dualism of Descartes, solidified his reputation and greatly influenced the Enlightenment thinkers who would build from his work. Born in Amsterdam into a family of Sephardic Jews who had to take refuge there after they were expelled from Portugal, the precocious young scholar imbibed skepticism at an early age. By the time he was twenty-four, he had challenged what he called the “fairy tales” of the Old Testament and was excommunicated by the Synagogue. In this biographical play, Tariq Ali contextualizes Spinoza’s philosophy by linking it to the turbulent politics of the period, in which Spinoza was deeply involved. Ali originally wrote The Trials of Spinoza as part of a series on philosophy for British Channel Four television, and this publication also includes a DVD of that original television production. This work will be welcomed as a testament to the continuing interest in and relevance of Spinoza’s work and as an example of Ali’s eloquent and always politically engaged writing.

The final novel in the author''s Islam Quintet sheds light on Muslims living in the modern world, as the narrator, in order to pay a debt of honor, must write the life story of Plato, a gifted painter living in Pakistan where "human dignity has become a wreckage."

Examines the increasing violence and political turmoil affecting Pakistan, the only Islamic state in possession of nuclear weapons and America''s closest ally in its battle against terrorism, as well as prospects for peace and stability in the region in the wake of the assassination of Benazir Bhutto. 75,000 first printing.

Tariq Ali s latest play, "The New Adventures of DonQuixote," can be read as a homage to Brecht. It is a blend of past and present as the echoes of history refuse to fade away. The balance of good and bad in the world today indicates that the latter is by far the heavier. As DonQuixoteand Sancho Panza, mounted on their beasts of burden, Rocinante and the Mule, ride into the twenty-first century, they are confronted by old vices familiar to them: war, greed, ethnic and religious prejudices, disappointed love, economic crisis. The mode is satirical, sometimes viciously so. The songs are sad and angry. But there are odd moments of happiness for Quixote, when he imagines that a wounded woman US colonel is Dulcinea and allows himself to be seduced by her in a military hospital in Germany. Primarily interested in discovering the meaning of life and how it is moulded by the world in which we live, Ali s theatrical device in this play is the conversation between the two animals Rocinante the philosopher and Mule the everyman who questions her relentlessly. Accompanied by numerous colour performance stills of the play from its 2013 production in Germany, this volume is as intellectually stimulating as it is uproariously humorous. "

On July 7, 2005, the murderous mayhem that Blair’s war has sown in Iraq came home to London in a devastating series of suicide bombings. Two weeks later, with apparent impunity, security forces shot dead a young Brazilian electrician on his way to work. Rough Music is Tariq Ali’s riveting response to these events. He lays bare the vengeful platitudes of Blair’s war on civil liberties, mounts a scorching attack on the cozy falsehoods of the government’s “consensus” on what the threat amounts to and how to respond, and denounces the corruption of the political-media bubble which allows it to go unchallenged. Finally, invoking the perseverance and integrity of the great dissenters of the past, he calls for political resistance, within parliament and without.

In this passionate and provocative book, Ali provides a history of Iraqi resistance against empires old and new, and argues against the view that sees imperialist occupation as the only viable solution to bring about regime-change in corrupt and dictatorial states.