History is forged through the travel of ideas across continents--as well as by bombs. The Age of Globalization is an account of the unlikely connections that made up late nineteenth-century politics and culture, and in particular between militant anarchists in Europe and the Americas, and anti-imperialist uprisings in Cuba, China and Japan. Told through the complex intellectual interactions of two great Filipino writers--the political novelist José Rizal and the pioneering folklorist Isabelo de los Reyes--The Age of Globalization is a brilliantly original work on how global exchanges shaped the nationalist movements of the time.

The war in Afghanistan is over ten years old. It has cost countless lives and hundreds of billions of pounds. Politicians talk of progress, but the violence is worse than ever.   In this powerful and shocking exposé from the front lines in Helmand province, leading journalist and documentary-maker Ben Anderson (HBO, Panorama, and Dispatches) shows just how bad it has got. Detailing battles that last for days, only to be fought again weeks later, Anderson witnesses IED explosions and sniper fire, amid disturbing incompetence and corruption among the Afghan army and police. Also revealing the daily struggle to win over the long-suffering local population, who often express open support for the Taliban, No Worse Enemy is a heartbreaking insight into the chaos at the heart of the region.   Raising urgent questions about our supposed achievements and the politicians’ desire for a hasty exit, Anderson highlights the vast gulf that...

An intellectual memoir by the author of the acclaimed Imagined Communities Benedict Anderson is one of the leading historians of nationalism and Southeast Asia. His seminal book Imagined Communities has changed the way we think about the reason why people live, die and kill in the name of nationhood.Born in China, Anderson spent his childhood in California and Ireland, was educated in England and finally found a home at Cornell University, where he immersed himself in the growing field of Southeast Asian studies. After field work in Indonesia, Thailand and the Philippines, he was banned from Suharto's Indonesia for disputing the legitimacy of the 1965 coup. In his memoir, he brings to life the intellectual formation of a life spent open to the world, resisting the easy comforts of imagined homes: the joys of learning languages; the importance of field work; the influence of the New Left upon global think-ing; and the satisfactions of...