Two excerpts from my collection on Orwell, Between the Bullet and the Lie, were posted online this week.
Toward Freedom ran the introduction, “Between the Bullet and the Lie: George Orwell in His Time, and Ours.” In it, I discuss what I see as Orwell’s enduring relevance and explain my approach to understanding his work.
Lithub ran a half-chapter titled “What George Orwell Wrote About the Dangers of Nationalism: On Facts, Fallacies, and Power.” In the excerpt, I sum up the argument from Orwell’s essay “Notes on Nationalism,” in which he describes the bad thinking that arises from “the habit of identifying oneself with a single nation or other unit, placing it beyond good and evil and recognizing no other duty than that of advancing its interests.” In the book, I go on to apply his analysis to our present political movements, left as well as right.
