From the journalistic voice of Nick Cohen, both beloved and critical, comes a powerful and provocative analysis of the anxieties, follies, and compromises of prevailing liberal thought.

Nick Cohen comes from the Left. In his childhood, his mother searched supermarket shelves for politically reliable citrus fruits. At 13, when he discovered that his noble and loving teacher voted Conservative, he nearly fell off his chair: 'To be good, you had to be on the Left.'

Today he remains confused. After the invasion of Iraq, he sees a community of liberal leftists standing dispassionately. Why do apologies for the militarism of Islam come from a section of the Left? Following the U.S. and British wars in Bosnia and Kosovo, why did people of the Left deny the existence of Serbian concentration camps? Why is Palestine a cause for the liberal Left but not, for example, China, Sudan, Zimbabwe, or North Korea? Why can’t those who claim to support the Palestinian cause tell you what kind of Palestine they would like to see?

After the September 11 attacks in New York and Washington, why was it as likely to read that a shadowy conspiracy of Jews controls U.S. or British foreign policy in a liberal literary magazine as in a neo-Nazi one? It's easy to know what the Left raises against – the evils of Bush and corporations – but what and, more importantly, whom do they support?

As he tours the follies of the Left, Nick Cohen invites us to reconsider what it means to be liberal in these confused and subversive times. With the angry satire of Swift, he recognizes the values of democracy and solidarity that united the anti-fascist movement and asks: What is left of the Left?

Pages: 256, Dimensions: 12.9x12.9cm