This is an in-depth, radical analysis into the roots of global inequities.ġ) For Western audiences trapped in their domestic liberal vs. Main concept = class analysis of anti-colonial independence movements, revealing their short-term compromises that escalated into long-term crises. Prashad brings to life the side of history that is censored, the decolonization movements that shook 20th century power structures against all odds, their triumphs and their setbacks. So well-read, articulate, and with so much humanity. As in his lectures (highly recommended, see below), Vijay Prashad has such mastery of articulating overarching social issues, drilling down to give detailed examples before resurfacing to tie the ideas together. The Darker Nations restores to memory the vibrant though flawed idea of the Third World, whose demise, Prashad ultimately argues, has produced a much impoverished international political arena.Īn absolute favorite dive into censored history to reemerge with the present conditions, so I have to give a worthy review. A breakthrough book of cutting-edge scholarship, it includes vivid portraits of Third World giants like India’s Nehru, Egypt’s Nasser, and Indonesia’s Sukarno-as well as scores of extraordinary but now–forgotten intellectuals, artists, and freedom fighters. Spanning every continent of the global South, Vijay Prashad’s fascinating narrative takes us from the birth of postcolonial nations after World War II to the downfall and corruption of nationalist regimes.

The Darker Nations traces the intellectual origins and the political history of the twentieth century attempt to knit together the world’s impoverished countries in opposition to the United States and Soviet spheres of influence in the decades following World War II. Here, from a brilliant young writer, is a paradigm-shifting history of both a utopian concept and global movement-the idea of the Third World. A landmark study that offers an alternative history of the Cold War from the point of view of the world’s poor

The darker nations by vijay prashad