A brilliant new study of a highly relevant and important topic, by one of our greatest writers.

Is America the new world empire? Presidents from Lincoln to Bush may have denied it but, as Niall Ferguson's brilliant and provocative book shows, the US is the greatest military and economic colossus of all time.

In the first part of this book, Christopher Hitchens confronts the legacy of Kipling, Trotsky and Churchill, and celebrates the work of Joyce, Proust and Borges. In then turns to Hitchen's journeys around America and his moving assessment of the United States after 9/11.

This book demonstrates how the denial of truth about the Palestinians by governments and the media in the West has led to the current impasse in Middle East politics. The book attempts to redress a sustained crime against historical truth in order to make a more rational future possible.

Explores the encounter between writers and those in power. Norman Mailer and Gore Vidal's encounters with American revolution are scrutinized; and an appraisal of the fatwah issued against Salman Rushdie becomes a meditation on the West's misunderstood encounter with Islam.