Revolt: The Worldwide Uprising Against Globalization

by Nadav Eyal

Overview

"A well-written and thought-provoking account of the current crisis of globalization. Not everyone will agree with Eyal's interpretation, but few will remain indifferent." —Yuval Noah Harari, author of Sapiens    

An eye-opening examination of nationalism’s spread around the world as the promise of globalism wanes

Revolt is an eloquent and provocative challenge to the prevailing wisdom about the rise of nationalism and populism. With a vibrant and informed voice, Nadav Eyal illustrates how modern globalization is not sustainable. He contends that the collapse of the current world order is not so much about the imbalance between technological achievement and social progress or the breakdown of liberal democracy as it is about a passion to upend and destroy power structures that have become hollow, corrupt. or simply unresponsive to urgent needs. Eyal illuminates the benign and malignant forces that have so rapidly transformed our economic, political, and cultural realities, shedding light not only on the economic and cultural revolution that has come to define our time but also on the counterrevolution waged by those it has marginalized and exploited.

With a mixture of journalistic narrative, penetrating vignettes, and original analysis, Revolt shows that the left and right have much in common. Eyal tells stories of distressed Pennsylvania coal miners, anarchist communes on the outskirts of Athens, a Japanese town with collapsing fertility rates, neo-Nazis in Germany, and Syrian refugee families whom he accompanied from the shores of Greece to their destination in Germany. Into these reports from the present Eyal weaves lessons from the past, from the opium wars in China to colonialist Haiti to the Marshall Plan. With these historical ties, he shows that the revolts’ roots have always been deep and strong, and that rather than seeing current uprisings as part of a passing phenomenon, we should recognize that revolt is the new status quo. 

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780062973351
Publisher:	HarperCollins
Publication date:	01/26/2021
Pages:	528
Sales rank:	1,124,414
Product dimensions:	6.30(w) x 9.00(h) x 1.90(d)

About the Author

Nadav Eyal is one of Israel’s most well-known journalists, and a winner of the Sokolov Prize, Israel’s Pulitzer. He is the chief international correspondent for Israel’s Reshet News, and an opinion writer for Yediot Aharont, Israel’s most circulated newspaper. In 2016, several months before the presidential elections, Eyal aired Trumpland, a series of short documentaries detailing the grievances haunting America, specifically the rust belt. These received much attention for presenting the prospect of a Trump victory. He holds an LLB from the Law Faculty at Hebrew University in Jerusalem and a master’s degree in global politics from the London School of Economics.

Table of Contents

Introduction The Death of an Age 1

Chapter 1 An Attack on a Newspaper 17

Chapter 2 Showering Twice a Month 37

Chapter 3 The Globalization Wars 57

Chapter 4 The Land of the Last Elephants 81

Chapter 5 "We Refuse to Die" 99

Chapter 6 The Rebellion's Harbingers 119

Chapter 7 Talking with Nationalists 145

Chapter 8 A Nazi Revival 165

Chapter 9 The Middle-Class Mutinies 181

Chapter 10 Anarchists with Ferraris 201

Chapter 11 Disappearing Children 221

Chapter 12 "Humankind Is the Titanic" 239

Chapter 13 Faces of Exodus 261

Chapter 14 An Experiment and Its Costs 277

Chapter 15 Rivers of Blood 297

Chapter 16 A Subject of the Empire Speaks 317

Chapter 17 "My Mother Was Murdered Here" 337

Chapter 18 The Anti-Globalizer 355

Chapter 19 The Implosion of Truth 377

Chapter 20 The Battle for Progress 403

Chapter 21 A New Story 427

Acknowledgments 441

Notes 443

Index 493

Editorial Reviews

11/16/2020

Almost everyone can find something to hate about the rise of global trade, migration, and cultural diffusion, according to this deeply reported yet inconclusive debut. Calling antiglobalism “a justified revolt... has mutated into a rejection of progress itself,” Israeli journalist Eyal explores the resulting discontents, documenting European rightists railing against Muslim immigrants, Syrian refugees hoping to start over in Europe, Greek anarchists writing anticapitalist manifestos and preparing Molotov cocktails, the 2008 jihadi terrorist attacks in Mumbai, starving African penguins that have to be force-fed by humans because overfishing has destroyed their food supply, and disillusioned Pennsylvania Democrats who voted for Trump in 2016. Eyal’s vivid reportage (“being surrounded by neo-Nazis is just like being surrounded by sharks, except that there’s no cage”) is supported by intriguing disquisitions on the history of trade and empire. However, his evidence that the revolt is driven by religious, nationalist, or ideological “fundamentalism” opposed to liberal values is less cogent, and maps haphazardly onto the grab bag of episodes—including Brexit, the Fukushima nuclear accident, and the Sandy Hook school shooting—he surveys. This unfocused treatise comes up short. (Jan.)

Publishers Weekly

With dispatches from around the globe, Nadav Eyal explores why so many people are rejecting interdependence, even at a time when we need each other more than ever. The message is clear that we need to redefine the terms of our interdependence—to minimize the dangers, spread the benefits more broadly, and build a global community capable of confronting our collective challenges together.”
— President Bill Clinton

"A well-written and thought-provoking account of the current crisis of globalization. Not everyone will agree with Eyal's interpretation, but few will remain indifferent." — Yuval Noah Harari, author of Sapiens

“In a world that is changing—politically, culturally, religiously, economically—more rapidly than we once imagined possible, Nadav Eyal’s Revolt offers a riveting and convincing argument that what is unfolding is an international revolt against globalization and the elites at its helm. At stake, he argues, is nothing less than progress itself. Revolt is the book we have long needed to spark a critically important conversation about the future of our freedom.” — Daniel Gordis, Koret Distinguished Fellow at Shalem College in Jerusalem and author of Israel: A Concise History of a Nation Reborn

From the Publisher

In a world that is changing—politically, culturally, religiously, economically—more rapidly than we once imagined possible, Nadav Eyal’s Revolt offers a riveting and convincing argument that what is unfolding is an international revolt against globalization and the elites at its helm. At stake, he argues, is nothing less than progress itself. Revolt is the book we have long needed to spark a critically important conversation about the future of our freedom.

Daniel Gordis

"A well-written and thought-provoking account of the current crisis of globalization. Not everyone will agree with Eyal's interpretation, but few will remain indifferent."

Yuval Noah Harari

With dispatches from around the globe, Nadav Eyal explores why so many people are rejecting interdependence, even at a time when we need each other more than ever. The message is clear that we need to redefine the terms of our interdependence—to minimize the dangers, spread the benefits more broadly, and build a global community capable of confronting our collective challenges together.”

President Bill Clinton