The modern "state" and especially the so-called "nation-state" are increasingly showing their dark underbelly - their potential for global catastrophe. Is there another path ahead, beyond myth and calculation? Dabashi's stunning text explores this crucial question.
Fred Dallmayr, author of Post-Liberalism
A tour de force, insightful and enjoyable. The Emperor is Naked is an elegant dress-down of the West's colonial legacy of fabrications and falsifications. Agree with him or not, Dabashi makes a strong case against the rationality and durability of Europe’s grand legacy, the nation-state. A seasoned intellectual, he emotes his readers like a grand maestro, summoning the voices and sounds of thinkers, poets and artists and elevating them into inspiring crescendos.
Marwan Bishara
In an illuminating argument that mixes personal narrative and classical fables with history and political analysis, Dabashi counters a series of common assumptions about how revolutions today must proceed, including the destructive myth that the postcolonial state is a necessary vehicle for liberation. Particularly important is his argument – against the standard narrative that casts recent insurrections as failures – that the seeds of the future will be found in those “open-ended revolutions.” A vital contribution for all interested in liberation struggles today.
Michael Hardt, co-author of Assembly