Review—From the Ruins of Empire: The Intellectuals Who Remade Asia

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Asian intellectuals fighting western colonialism in the 19th and early 20th centuries offer points that we can learn from today

Pankaj Mishra delivers a sweeping account of the intellectual history of anti-colonial thought in the early years of Western colonialism. He builds this narrative through mini-biographies of two lesser-known intellectuals: Jamāl al-Dīn al-Afghānī and Liang Qichao. These early thinkers diagnosed the challenge of Western imperialism…