If the civilisation which it explains survives then I suspect his book will have played as important a part as any piece of writing could in determining that outcome.'-Douglas Murray, Literary Review 'That Bruckner's talents defy classification might help to account for the relatively understated reception of his work on this side of the Atlantic. Pascal Bruckner's short book is one of the most vital published in recent years. With humour, depth, breadth, restraint and great insight Bruckner diagnoses an infuriating era. 'The Tyranny of Guilt is one of the landmark books of our time. This is a searing, provocative, and psychologically penetrating account of the crude thought and bad politics that arise from excessive bad conscience. Lamenting the vice of anti-Americanism that grips so many European intellectuals, Bruckner urges a renewed transatlantic alliance, and advises Americans not to let recent foreign-policy misadventures sap their own confidence. In this, Europeans should learn from Americans, who still have sufficient self-esteem to act decisively in a world of chaos and violence. The West should be proud-and ready to defend itself and its values. The West has no monopoly on evil, and has destroyed monsters as well as created them-leading in the abolition of slavery, renouncing colonialism, building peaceful and prosperous communities, and establishing rules and institutions that are models for the world. Bruckner, one of France's leading writers and public intellectuals, argues that obsessive guilt has obscured important realities. It has become a pathology, and even an obstacle to fighting today's atrocities. But Pascal Bruckner argues that guilt has now gone too far. And, indeed, since the Holocaust and the end of World War II, Europeans in particular have been consumed by remorse. Fascism, communism, genocide, slavery, racism, imperialism-the West has no shortage of reasons for guilt.

The Tyranny of Guilt by Pascal Bruckner