Revolt

November 16, 2020
Almost everyone can find something to hate about the rise of global trade, migration, and cultural diffusion, according to this deeply reported yet inconclusive debut. Calling antiglobalism “a justified revolt... has mutated into a rejection of progress itself,” Israeli journalist Eyal explores the resulting discontents, documenting European rightists railing against Muslim immigrants, Syrian refugees hoping to start over in Europe, Greek anarchists writing anticapitalist manifestos and preparing Molotov cocktails, the 2008 jihadi terrorist attacks in Mumbai, starving African penguins that have to be force-fed by humans because overfishing has destroyed their food supply, and disillusioned Pennsylvania Democrats who voted for Trump in 2016. Eyal’s vivid reportage (“being surrounded by neo-Nazis is just like being surrounded by sharks, except that there’s no cage”) is supported by intriguing disquisitions on the history of trade and empire. However, his evidence that the revolt is driven by religious, nationalist, or ideological “fundamentalism” opposed to liberal values is less cogent, and maps haphazardly onto the grab bag of episodes—including Brexit, the Fukushima nuclear accident, and the Sandy Hook school shooting—he surveys. This unfocused treatise comes up short.

December 15, 2020
A prominent Israeli journalist traverses the globe, documenting the failures of twenty-first-century globalization. Having reported on refugees in Europe, environmental destruction in Sri Lanka, Islamic fundamentalism, Greek anarchism, the Great Recession, and the election of Donald Trump, Eyal declares that these disruptions (and more) are caused by global capitalism. As the postwar "age of responsibility" has melted away, he suggests, people everywhere are increasingly rejecting Enlightenment notions of progress. The author's interest in listening to the displaced and the discontented is laudable, and his anecdotes, including one about elephant herds being pushed out of their habitat by indigent farmers who are themselves being squeezed by economic pressures, are often poignant. He is particularly troubled by recent changes in the U.S. and its seeming inability to live up to its foreign and domestic promises. But Eyal puts little effort into demonstrating that the similarities of the "revolts" he describes outweigh their differences and prefers impressionistic assertions over nuanced analysis. The result, although timely, is less a coherent argument than a slide show of extremism and catastrophe.

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