Heroic Failure
Brexit and the Politics of Pain
1st Edition
Published on 22. November 2018
304 pages
978-1-78954-100-7 (ISBN)
Description
'A wildly entertaining but uncomfortable read... Pitilessly brilliant' JONATHAN COE.
'There will not be much political writing in this or any other year that is carried off with such style' The Times.
A TIMES BOOK OF THE YEAR.
'A quite brilliant dissection of the cultural roots of the Brexit narrative' David Miliband.
'Hugely entertaining and engrossing' Roddy Doyle.
'Best book about the English that I've read for ages' Billy Bragg.
A fierce, mordantly funny and perceptive book about the act of national self-harm known as Brexit. A great democratic country tears itself apart, and engages in the dangerous pleasures of national masochism.
Trivial journalistic lies became far from trivial national obsessions; the pose of indifference to truth and historical fact came to define the style of an entire political elite; a country that once had colonies redefined itself as an oppressed nation requiring liberation.
Fintan O'Toole also discusses the fatal attraction of heroic failure, once a self-deprecating cult in a hugely successful empire that could well afford the occasional disaster. Now failure is no longer heroic - it is just failure, and its terrible costs will be paid by the most vulnerable of Brexit's supporters.
A new afterword lays out the essential reforms that are urgently needed if England is to have a truly democratic future and stable relations with its nearest neighbours.
'There will not be much political writing in this or any other year that is carried off with such style' The Times.
A TIMES BOOK OF THE YEAR.
'A quite brilliant dissection of the cultural roots of the Brexit narrative' David Miliband.
'Hugely entertaining and engrossing' Roddy Doyle.
'Best book about the English that I've read for ages' Billy Bragg.
A fierce, mordantly funny and perceptive book about the act of national self-harm known as Brexit. A great democratic country tears itself apart, and engages in the dangerous pleasures of national masochism.
Trivial journalistic lies became far from trivial national obsessions; the pose of indifference to truth and historical fact came to define the style of an entire political elite; a country that once had colonies redefined itself as an oppressed nation requiring liberation.
Fintan O'Toole also discusses the fatal attraction of heroic failure, once a self-deprecating cult in a hugely successful empire that could well afford the occasional disaster. Now failure is no longer heroic - it is just failure, and its terrible costs will be paid by the most vulnerable of Brexit's supporters.
A new afterword lays out the essential reforms that are urgently needed if England is to have a truly democratic future and stable relations with its nearest neighbours.
More details
Edition
1. Auflage
Language
English
Place of publication
London
United Kingdom
Publishing group
Head of Zeus
ISBN-13
978-1-78954-100-7 (9781789541007)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions
Book
09/2019
Apollo
€13.00
Available immediately
Person
Fintan O'Toole is a historian, biographer, literary critic and political commentator. His acclaimed columns on Brexit for the Irish Times, the Guardian and the New York Review of Books have been awarded both the Orwell Prize and the European Press Prize. His books include A Traitor's Kiss, his life of Richard Brinsley Sheridan, Judging Shaw and White Savage. His investigative, polemical books have all been bestsellers: Meanwhile Back at the Ranch, Ship of Fools and Enough is Enough. He is writing the authorised biography of Seamus Heaney and, for Head of Zeus, a history of Ireland in his own time.
Content
- Intro
- Welcome Page
- About Heroic Failure
- Contents
- Dedication
- Epigraph
- INTRODUCTION
- 1. THE PLEASURES OF SELF-PITY
- 2. SS-GB: Life in Occupied England
- 3. THE TRIUMPH OF THE LIGHT BRIGADE
- 4. A PINT OF BEER, A PACKET OF PRAWN COCKTAIL FLAVOUR CRISPS AND TWO OUNCES OF DOG SHIT, PLEASE
- 5. SADOPOPULISM
- 6. THE TWILIGHT OF THE GODS: ENGLISH DREAMTIME
- 7. THE SORE TOOTH AND THE BROKEN UMBRELLA
- POSTSCRIPT. AMITY ISLAND: THE UNSETTLING OF A NATION
- Notes
- 1. The Pleasures of Self-Pity
- 2. SS-GB: Life in Occupied England
- 3. The Triumph of the Light Brigade
- 4. A Pint of Beer, a Packet of Prawn Cocktail Flavour Crisps and Two Ounces of Dog Shit, Please
- 5. Sadopopulism
- 6. The Twilight of the Gods: English Dreamtime
- 7. The Sore Tooth and the Broken Umbrella
- Postscript. Amity Island: The Unsettling of a Nation
- About Fintan O'Toole
- An Invitation from the Publisher
- Copyright
