This is an eloquent and deeply felt memoir exploring the author's complex relationship with his Jewish identity. "If I Am Not Myself" is a passionate, thought-provoking exploration of what it means to be Jewish in the twenty-first century. It traces the author's upbringing in 1960s Jewish-American suburbia, his anti-war and pro-Palestinian activism on the British Left, and life as a Jew among Muslims in Pakistan, Morocco, and Britain. Interwoven with this are the experiences of his grandfather's life in Jewish New York of the 1930s and '40s, his struggles with anti-Semitism and the twists and turns that led him from anti-Fascism to Militant Zionism. In the course of this deeply personal story, Marqusee refutes the claims of Israel and Zionism on Jewish loyalty and laments their impact on the Jewish Diaspora. Rather, he argues for a richer, more multi-dimensional understanding of Jewish history and identity, and reclaims vital political and personal space for those castigated as self-haters by the Jewish establishment.

Product Description The oppositions and affinities of two key figures in the history of radical liberty.Furiously annotating a pamphlet attacking Thomas Paine’s Age of Reason, William Blake challenged Thomas Paine’s dismissal of miracles. “Is it a greater miracle to feed five thousand men with five loaves than to overthrow all the armies of Europe with a small pamphlet?” How could “Paine the worker of miracles” doubt their existence? As this anecdote illustrates, it is all too easy to organize our thinking about the high Enlightenment in ways that place Paine and Blake in stark opposition: Paine the debunker of Biblical fictions; Blake the ecstatic interlocutor of angels. Despite their differences, there was a profound level of sympathy between the two men. In a work that reveals their radical affinities, Marqusee shows how their writing, read together and in opposition, can enliven our understanding of war, revolution and those moments in which the horizon of the possible expands—epiphanies that were, for Blake, true miracles. Review “Both in the eloquence of his writing and the deep humanism of his vision, he stands shoulder to shoulder with the spirits of Isaac Deutscher and Edward Said.” (Mike Davis) About the Author Mike Marqusee’s books include Wicked Messenger: Bob Dylan and the 1960s, Redemption Song: Muhammad Ali and the Spirit of the Sixties, War Minus the Shooting, Anyone but England and If I Am Not for Myself. He is a regular contributor to the Guardian and writes a fortnightly column for the Indian newspaper The Hindu. He lives in London.

Combining personal reflection and social observation, this work paints a complex portrait of a sub-continent in ferment, set against the backdrop of the 1996 cricket World Cup, the most extravagant and controversial event in the long history of the gamebook delves into the dilemmas that dog modern cricket - ball-tampering, biased umpires, media moguls and sponsors, race and national identity, gambling syndicates, and more.