A prophetic warning against the foolishness of crusades, John Gray''s Black Mass challenges our belief in human progress.
Our conventional view of history is wrong. It is founded on a pernicious myth of an achievable utopia that in the last century alone caused the murder of tens of millions.
In Black Mass John Gray tears down the religious, political and secular beliefs that we insist are fundamental to the human project, examines the interaction of terrorism, declining world resources, environmental change, human myths of redemption and a flawed belief in Western democracy, and shows us how a misplaced faith in our ability to improve the world has actually made it far worse.
''Brilliant, frightening, devastating''
John Banville, Guardian
''A brilliant polemic ... Gray''s most powerful argument yet''
J.G. Ballard, Guardian, Books of the Year
''Causes vertigo when it does n
