For the Sake of Argument: Essays and Minority Reports

721 Pages·2012·2.3 MB·English

by  Christopher Hitchens

FOR THE SAKE OF ARGUMENT
2
ALSO BY CHRISTOPHER HITCHENS
Books
Hostage to History: Cyprus from the Ottomans to Kissinger
Blood, Class, and Empire: The Enduring Anglo-American
Relationship
Imperial Spoils: The Curious Case of the Elgin Marbles
Why Orwell Matters
No One Left to Lie To: The Triangulations of William
Jefferson Clinton
Letters to a Young Contrarian
The Trial of Henry Kissinger
Thomas Jefferson: Author of America
Thomas Paine’s “Rights of Man”: A Biography
god Is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything
The Portable Atheist
3
Hitch-22: A Memoir
Mortality
Pamphlets
Karl Marx and the Paris Commune
The Monarchy: A Critique of Britain’s Favorite Fetish
The Missionary Position: Mother Teresa in Theory and
Practice
A Long Short War: The Liberation of Iraq
The Enemy
Essays
Prepared for the Worst: Essays and Minority Reports
For the Sake of Argument
Unacknowledged Legislation: Writers in the Public Sphere
Love, Poverty, and War: Journeys and Essays
Arguably
Collaborations
James Callaghan: The Road to Number Ten (with Peter
Kellner)
4
Blaming the Victims (edited with Edward Said)
When the Borders Bleed: The Struggle of the Kurds
(photographs by Ed Kash)
International Territory: The United Nations
(photographs by Adam Bartos)
Vanity Fair’s Hollywood (with Graydon Carter and David
Friend)
5
6
First published in 2000 by Verso
This edition published in Great Britain in 2014 by Atlantic
Books, an imprint of Atlantic Books Ltd.
Copyright © Christopher Hitchens, 2000
The moral right of Christopher Hitchens to be identified as
the author of this work has been asserted by him in
accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act of
1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be
reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any
form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying,
recording or otherwise, without the prior permission of both
the copyright owner and the above publisher of this book.
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the
British Library.
Trade Paperback ISBN: 978 1 78239 464 8
E-Book ISBN: 978 1 78239 497 6
Printed in Great Britain
7
Atlantic Books
An imprint of Atlantic Books Ltd
Ormond House
26–27 Boswell Street
London
WC1N 3JZ
www.atlantic-books.co.uk
8
Dedicated by permission
to my son, Alexander Hitchens,
and to my godsons
Jacob Amis and Henry Cockburn
9
CONTENTS
Introduction
1. Studies in Demoralization
Where Were You Standing?
On the Imagination of Conspiracy
Contempt for the Little Colony
The State Within the State
Voting in the Passive Voice
The Hate that Dare Not Speak Its Name
A Pundit Who Need Never Dine Alone
Hard on the Houseboy
New Orleans in a Brown Shirt
Rioting in Mount Pleasant
Billionaire Populism
The Clemency of Clinton
Clinton as Rhodesian
10