The Empire and the Five Kings

“Often arresting, always heartfelt prose. This is a brave book . . . we need Mr. Lévy’s voice.”—Martin Peretz, The Wall Street Journal

“The Empire and the Five Kings is that rare book that few write anymore, and few even know how to. It is the product of a truly literate mind of the sort that has virtually gone extinct in this post-literate digital age.”—Robert D. Kaplan, author of The Return of Marco Polo’s World: War, Strategy, and American Interests in the Twenty-first Century

“Bernard-Henri Lévy puts his deep first-hand knowledge of the world together with his extraordinary gift for horizontal thinking—leaping easily from epoch to epoch and from one philosophical idea to the next—to offer a startling and persuasive picture of this moment of decisive historical transition.”—Adam Gopnik, author of Paris to the Moon and At the Strangers' Gate

“At the heart of Bernard-Henri Lévy’s passionate essay is his anger at the betrayal of the Kurds. He spirals out from there to offer a strongly felt portrait of our contemporary reality in which the ‘empire of nothing,’ the West that has lost its way, risks being superseded by new powers, the ‘five kings, pathetic yet daunting, cartoonish yet terrible.’ A challenging analysis, at once scholarly and readable.”—Salman Rushdie

“In this exquisite gem of a book, Bernard-Henri Levy offers a poetic plea for moral courage and clear thinking in these dark times. He is an international treasure.”—Robert Kagan, author of Of Paradise and Power and The Jungle Grows Back: America and Our Imperiled World

“An erudite and impassioned call for the West to retake the lead in championing liberty.”—Kirkus Reviews

“Striking . . . Lévy’s analysis of the internet landscape and its impact on truth is deeply insightful.”—Publishers Weekly