Book Review

Name of the Book       : Strange Rebels: 1979 and the Birth of the Twenty First Century

Author                         : Christian Caryl

Publisher                      : Basic Books, New York, 2013

Pages                           : 407   

A study of any new text is per se an interesting experience in the discourses of literature. It becomes more lucrative and extrapolates once a book is of contemporary relevance. The same is true with the Christian Caryl’s book Strange Rebels: 1979 and the Birth of the Twenty First Century. The fundamental sense of the Caryl’s book would be based on the argument that the twenty first century is born in 1979 which per see is premised on the fact that the existing ideological narratives and the “accelerative trust” on account of social, economic and geo-political, to which the todays world is engulfed in are directly or indirectly linked with the developments that took place during the year 1979.  

The author narrates the dying days of the 1978 and the beginning of the 1979 when two significant events took place in the two different socio-ideological composed societies quite far from each other. The first is about emergence of Deng Xiaoping in China who changed the Mao’s narrative of socio-economic development and put the China on new road whose main attributes were off ‘special economic zones’. The Deng’s liberalization of Chinese economy, though in Chinese context and ‘hide the capabilities’ made it a vibrant economic and political power in the twenty first century. A far away place from Beijing is London where in May 1979 elections put Margaret Thatcher as a new Prime Minister of the Great Britain. The Thatcher’s win was not important because she was a first women Prime Minister rather a significant aspect about it was what latter on came to known as “Thatcherism”. This new “ism” was based on restoration of a faith on the Adam Smith’s philosophy of market. The Deng and Thatcher’s emergence had common parlance in context of their full faith in the “values of entrepreneurship” with bit difference of degree.

The other dimension of the Caryl’s book is based on religion as a predetermining factor to the developments that took place during the 1970’s. The emergence of Iran as an Islamic Republic in 1979 redeveloped the quest for a sort of Pan-Islamism in the world particularly in the region of West Asia. The Iranian revolution is off multidimensional but one deconstruction of it would be based on a narrative that it questioned the US hegemony in the region and in its beyond. The other development was a new elected pope John Paul II who was not only non-Italian but also one of the staunch critiques of Soviet Communism.

These two developments one based on economy and other on religion in 1970’s not only altered the whole discourse but lashed on socio-political-cum-geostrategic dimensions of that era which eventually gave birth to present century in terms of its issues and developments.

The post Soviet intervention in the Afghanistan saw a repetition of religion as a reliable tool to confront geo-strategic challenges. The norm started by the pope John Paul II had vibrantly configured by the Western world headed by the United States particularly during the last days of the Cold war. The modern jihadism and AK47 was also invented during these days, which subsequently became a sort of convention for big powers to achieve their geo-political interests particularly in the third world countries.

The fall of Shah regime in the Iran put a significant strains in the US policy in the West Asian region and in its beyond. The Iran under Shah was a key alley to the US during the Cold War. The Iranian revolution put end to this alliance between the US and the Iran that subsequently gave birth to the present animosities and confrontation between the two countries. The Iran-Iraq war in 1980’s and some sectarian and ethnic conflicts prominently the Arab-Persian division on the basis of Shia-Sunni narrative gave birth to many proxies in the region to which the present Iran-Saudi Arabia cold War, ISIL, war in Yemen and Syria are the associated outcomes of the events celebrated in the 1970’s.

The Iranian revolution also created a sort of power vacuum in the West Asian region which also gave opportunity to the ex-Soviet Union to fish in the troubled waters of the region. A one fundamental sense of the US foreign Policy in the post cold war era has been around to put away Russian influence particularly in the two critical regions of West Asia and the Central Asia. The present Moscow-Washington confrontation from Syria to Ukraine are also some how linked to the developments of the decade of 1970’s.

Other than religious based conflicts, the environmental and the economic crisis are other critical areas of concern to the present world. The economic policies in the post ‘Thatcherism’ put excessive thrust on account of ‘market is rationale’, therefore, less role of state, private entrepreneurship, and over utilization of fossil fuels. The economic recession of 2008 engulfed the whole world is a product of same rationale. The emission of more greenhouse gases due to overutilization of fossil fuels and electronic gadgets are associated norms of modern life whose roots can be drawn from the same events of 1970’s. The Deng’s rationale of development makes today the China one of the leading polluter in the world. The “twin forces” of religion and market emerged in the 1970’s are substantively responsible factors to the present worries from Syria-Ukraine to economic recession and environment. Therefore, the Cayyl’s book is worth reading in order to understand the substantive perspective of the present challenges to which the world is confronted with.