Christopher Hitchens
A Nation Insulted
The Politics of Dispossession: The Struggle for Palestinian Self-Determination 1969-1993
By Edward W Said
Chatto & Windus 400pp £18 order from our bookshop
When Francis Fukuyama’s End of History was published a few years ago, it received some well-merited drubbings for its many theoretical shortcomings. It did, however, contain a piece of argument which was overlooked. Drawing on Hegel and Nietzsche, Fukuyama maintained that a prime motive for human struggle and political sacrifice was the need for recognition. Though it was obviously true that people would risk their lives for meat and potatoes, or for rights or territory, it was no less true that they would fight and die just for dignity and respect.
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