For the last seventy-five years, the Holocaust perpetrated by the Nazis has been understood in the West as the greatest atrocity – the ultimate demonstration of humankind’s capacity for evil. However, at the same time, for most people around the world – the ‘darker peoples’, in W.E.B. Du Bois’ words – the main historical memory is that of slavery and colonialism, and the central event of the twentieth century is decolonization – freedom from the white man’s world.

The World After Gaza interrogates the violence in the Middle East in the context of these two duelling and polarizing histories. Mishra reckons with the fundamental questions posed by our present crisis – how some lives are valued more than others, why the West supports Israel and why racist, far-right movements are surging in all major Western countries. He argues that at a moment when the world’s balance of power is shifting and a long-dominant Western minority has lost its sense of moral authority, it is critically important to enter the experiences and perspectives of the majority of the world’s population.