The Darker Nations: A People's History of the Third World (New Press People's History)

Here, from a brilliant young writer, is a paradigm-shifting history of both a utopian concept and global movement—the idea of the Third World. The Darker Nations traces the intellectual origins and the political history of the twentieth century attempt to knit together the world’s impoverished countries in opposition to the United States and Soviet spheres of influence in the decades following World War II. Spanning every continent of the global South, Vijay Prashad’s fascinating narrative takes us from the birth of postcolonial nations after World War II to the downfall and corruption of nationalist regimes. A breakthrough book of cutting-edge scholarship, it includes vivid portraits of Third World giants like India’s Nehru, Egypt’s Nasser, and Indonesia’s Sukarno—as well as scores of extraordinary but now-forgotten intellectuals, artists, and freedom fighters. The Darker Nations restores to memory the vibrant though flawed idea of the Third World, whose demise, Prashad ultimately argues, has produced a much impoverished international political arena. Here, from a brilliant young writer, is a paradigm-shifting history of both a utopian concept and global movement—the idea of the Third World. The Darker Nations traces the intellectual origins and the political history of the twentieth century attempt to knit together the world's impoverished countries in opposition to the United States and Soviet spheres of influence in the decades following World War II.

Spanning every continent of the global South, Vijay Prashad's fascinating narrative takes us from the birth of postcolonial nations after World War II to the downfall and corruption of nationalist regimes. A breakthrough book of cutting-edge scholarship, it includes vivid portraits of Third World giants like India's Nehru, Egypt's Nasser, and Indonesia's Sukarno—as well as scores of extraordinary but now-forgotten intellectuals, artists, and freedom fighters. The Darker Nations restores to memory the vibrant though flawed idea of the Third World, whose demise, Prashad ultimately argues, has produced a much impoverished international political arena. "The Darker Nations reconstructs the prehistory of the Third World, recalling the now-forgotten 1927 Brussels conclave of the League Against Imperialism, an international effort that brought Albert Einstein together with Jawaharlal, Nehru, Madame Sun Yat-Sen, and hundreds of other far-flung revolutionaries. The narrative then goes on to recount the 1955 conference in Bandung, Indonesia, where twenty-nine African and Asian countries launched the Third World project. Prashad traces the hopes of this decades-long global movement, and delineates its limitations and ultimate downfall in the 1980s."--Jacket An alternative history of the Cold War from the perspective of impoverished Third-World people includes coverage of such topics as the 1927 Brussels conclave of the League Against Imperialism and the launch of the Third World project during the 1955 conference in Indonesia. Reprint.