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With the Falling of the Dusk
A deeply powerful, poetic and compelling book on the challenges facing our world, from one of Australia's most experienced journalists and international commentators, Stan Grant.
History is turning.
In only a few short decades, we have come a long way from Francis Fukuyama's declaration of the 'end of history' and the triumph of liberal democracy in 1989. Now, with the inexorable rise of China, the ascendancy of authoritarianism and the retreat of democracy, the world stands at a moment of crisis. This is a time of momentous upheaval and enormous geopolitical shifts, compounded by the global pandemic, economic collapse and growing inequality, Islamist and far right terror, and a resurgent white supremacy. The world is in lockdown and the showdown with China is accelerating - and while the West has been at the forefront of history for 200 years, it must now adapt to a world it no longer dominates. At this moment, we stand on a precipice - what will become of us?
Stan Grant is one of our foremost observers and chroniclers of the world in crisis. Weaving his personal experiences of reporting from the front lines of the world's flashpoints, together with his deep understanding of politics, history and philosophy, he explores what is driving the world to crisis and how it might be averted. He fears the worst, but begins to chart the way forward. There is bitterness, anger and history here, but there is also the capacity for negotiation, forgiveness and hope. A powerful and incisive analysis of the state of our world, and our place within it.
History is turning.
In only a few short decades, we have come a long way from Francis Fukuyama's declaration of the 'end of history' and the triumph of liberal democracy in 1989. Now, with the inexorable rise of China, the ascendancy of authoritarianism and the retreat of democracy, the world stands at a moment of crisis. This is a time of momentous upheaval and enormous geopolitical shifts, compounded by the global pandemic, economic collapse and growing inequality, Islamist and far right terror, and a resurgent white supremacy. The world is in lockdown and the showdown with China is accelerating - and while the West has been at the forefront of history for 200 years, it must now adapt to a world it no longer dominates. At this moment, we stand on a precipice - what will become of us?
Stan Grant is one of our foremost observers and chroniclers of the world in crisis. Weaving his personal experiences of reporting from the front lines of the world's flashpoints, together with his deep understanding of politics, history and philosophy, he explores what is driving the world to crisis and how it might be averted. He fears the worst, but begins to chart the way forward. There is bitterness, anger and history here, but there is also the capacity for negotiation, forgiveness and hope. A powerful and incisive analysis of the state of our world, and our place within it.
336 pages, ebook
Published April 1, 2021
71 people are currently reading
642 people want to read
About the author
Stan Grant
30 books196 followersStan Grant is a journalist and the Charles Sturt University Vice- Chancellor’s Chair of Australian/Indigenous Belonging.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 51 reviews
April 25, 2021
I don't usually read non fiction but this is an unmissable one. It is easy to follow and deeply thought provoking. Writing about the west from an aboriginal point of view, looking to the east. He draws a frightening parallel between the current fall of liberalism in the west with the 1930s, heading towards the rise of the right, this time from the east - namely china, and a bloody war. The story he paints is best captured by John Adams' quote some 200 years ago
"Democracy has never been and never can be so durable as aristocracy or monarchy; but while it lasts, it is more bloody than either. … Remember, democracy never lasts long. It soon wastes, exhausts, and murders itself. There never was a democracy yet that did not commit suicide. "
Liberalism and democracy was slowly bleeding to death as the gap widens between rich and poor, meritocracy of the US a thin veil for oligarchy, the wound exposed by the global financial crisis and finally Covid 19 exposing the rotting frame of democracy holding up the fragile west, still thinking that history ended at the fall of communism in the 90s. Not realising the east, islam, and all the nations the west brutally colonised, despised and abused, are now rising to dominance through the power of vengeance and rage.
Highly recommended.
"Democracy has never been and never can be so durable as aristocracy or monarchy; but while it lasts, it is more bloody than either. … Remember, democracy never lasts long. It soon wastes, exhausts, and murders itself. There never was a democracy yet that did not commit suicide. "
Liberalism and democracy was slowly bleeding to death as the gap widens between rich and poor, meritocracy of the US a thin veil for oligarchy, the wound exposed by the global financial crisis and finally Covid 19 exposing the rotting frame of democracy holding up the fragile west, still thinking that history ended at the fall of communism in the 90s. Not realising the east, islam, and all the nations the west brutally colonised, despised and abused, are now rising to dominance through the power of vengeance and rage.
Highly recommended.
April 18, 2021
I relate to the sense of confusion and nihilism that Stan Grant is trying to speak to in this book. I really enjoyed reading it- it was a real page turner and I found it to be very insightful about China and international relations. 80% of the way through, I would have rated it a four star read. The ideas were structured clearly and easy to digest and the prose was eloquent.
Unfortunately though, I found myself getting frustrated at the author's refusal to nail his colours to the mast.
About 80% of the book could be interpreted as accounting for Grant's classical liberal cosmopolitanism in his adventures reporting around the world. However, Grant keeps coming back to the idea that liberalism is something that is imposed by the monolithic "west" and is therefore itself tainted, notwithstanding the fact that he seems to subscribe to its core principles.
It is irrefutable that the present is contingent on the past. Nobody could dispute that we all have ancestors, we all live in places that existed before we were born and things happened there. Things still happen that are beyond our control and alien to or even independent of our sense of right and wrong. But where Grant writes of identity as a poison and grievance as a pathway to ruin, he also seems to identify as a holder of liberal beliefs from without, who has had liberalism forced upon him and seemingly resents it and yet prefers liberal ideas to alternatives. In the context of western liberal societies the grievances he refers to are almost always held by some of the wealthiest humans to ever have walked the earth. It is probably fair to say the source of that wealth is liberalism, it is probably fair to say that the voices have been elevated by liberalism and it is probably fair to say that the grievances are almost impossible to resolve, as they would be modified upon resolution because, as Grant laments, identity based grievances in 2021 are a powerful political tool much more than an ethical commitment to a better world. Separately, Grant doubts that liberal ideas will be able to maintain ascendancy in a world dominated by China. To be clear, I was annoyed by the former not the latter, the lack of idealistic conviction rather than the lack of realistic confidence.
It is a particular phenomenon I think that real liberals believe in debate and criticism and so can often be liberalism's harshest critics. That makes sense. But I think listening to and improving ideas through critique or a debate should be able to be reconciled with some courage in our convictions. Insofar as self awareness is a virtue I think indecisiveness is a vice and this book doesn't ultimately strike a healthy balance.
That tension might be a strength, it might be a grounding in complexity if complexity is to be insurmountable. Grant then concludes that humans are too pathologically tribal, that group identity and grievance are too malleable for political exploitation by forces of ill. Grant seems to be saying that liberalism is his preferred answer to this, but oh by the way liberalism itself is inherently tribal because it existed among humans who, believe it or not, fought, killed and suppressed each other while simultaneously introducing ideas to each other. The proposition seems to be that the moral claim of liberalism is tainted and that appeals to individuality, unity, agency and cosmopolitanism are blemished by it. By that standard, there can be no credible moral claim until utopia at which point there would be no need for one. And yet so much of Grant's thinking is complex argument in support of liberal ideas.
I think that tension goes unresolved in this book, making the last couple of chapters of it a bleak and nihilistic read as someone for whom that tension is hauntingly a familiar foe. My mistake was that I read this book hoping for guidance from someone I see as a leader. Perhaps I shouldn't have imposed so many of my hopes and aspirations onto a role model.
Unfortunately though, I found myself getting frustrated at the author's refusal to nail his colours to the mast.
About 80% of the book could be interpreted as accounting for Grant's classical liberal cosmopolitanism in his adventures reporting around the world. However, Grant keeps coming back to the idea that liberalism is something that is imposed by the monolithic "west" and is therefore itself tainted, notwithstanding the fact that he seems to subscribe to its core principles.
It is irrefutable that the present is contingent on the past. Nobody could dispute that we all have ancestors, we all live in places that existed before we were born and things happened there. Things still happen that are beyond our control and alien to or even independent of our sense of right and wrong. But where Grant writes of identity as a poison and grievance as a pathway to ruin, he also seems to identify as a holder of liberal beliefs from without, who has had liberalism forced upon him and seemingly resents it and yet prefers liberal ideas to alternatives. In the context of western liberal societies the grievances he refers to are almost always held by some of the wealthiest humans to ever have walked the earth. It is probably fair to say the source of that wealth is liberalism, it is probably fair to say that the voices have been elevated by liberalism and it is probably fair to say that the grievances are almost impossible to resolve, as they would be modified upon resolution because, as Grant laments, identity based grievances in 2021 are a powerful political tool much more than an ethical commitment to a better world. Separately, Grant doubts that liberal ideas will be able to maintain ascendancy in a world dominated by China. To be clear, I was annoyed by the former not the latter, the lack of idealistic conviction rather than the lack of realistic confidence.
It is a particular phenomenon I think that real liberals believe in debate and criticism and so can often be liberalism's harshest critics. That makes sense. But I think listening to and improving ideas through critique or a debate should be able to be reconciled with some courage in our convictions. Insofar as self awareness is a virtue I think indecisiveness is a vice and this book doesn't ultimately strike a healthy balance.
That tension might be a strength, it might be a grounding in complexity if complexity is to be insurmountable. Grant then concludes that humans are too pathologically tribal, that group identity and grievance are too malleable for political exploitation by forces of ill. Grant seems to be saying that liberalism is his preferred answer to this, but oh by the way liberalism itself is inherently tribal because it existed among humans who, believe it or not, fought, killed and suppressed each other while simultaneously introducing ideas to each other. The proposition seems to be that the moral claim of liberalism is tainted and that appeals to individuality, unity, agency and cosmopolitanism are blemished by it. By that standard, there can be no credible moral claim until utopia at which point there would be no need for one. And yet so much of Grant's thinking is complex argument in support of liberal ideas.
I think that tension goes unresolved in this book, making the last couple of chapters of it a bleak and nihilistic read as someone for whom that tension is hauntingly a familiar foe. My mistake was that I read this book hoping for guidance from someone I see as a leader. Perhaps I shouldn't have imposed so many of my hopes and aspirations onto a role model.
February 4, 2022
Stan Grant writes so beautifully in “With the falling of the dusk” about some very ugly things in our modern world. His reflections on the current world are informed through his work as a foreign correspondent and commentator on Aboriginal issues, as well as his own indigenous heritage. Many of the insights revealed come through his accounts of his work with CNN as a foreign correspondent and the relocation journey that he and his family on is used as aa path to explore what he was witness to.
Stan Grant walks us through the end of history as we know it, the rise of meritocracy, entitlement, injustice, inequality, authoritarianism, populism, the end of the greater global good, and identity - “the scourge of our age”. He highlights a deepening sense of scepticism. He writes about the growth and rise of China and “the price authoritarians pay for power: they rule the people, but they must rule with an iron fist: they inspire fear, often loyalty and devotion too, but they can never rest.” He reveals his thoughts about the rise of Al-Qaeda and ISIS and visits to their visiting training camps and meeting with their leaders illustrate this. All with a unique and thoughtful connection to his own Indigenous history and personal life. He resonates with the fight for identity, oppression, dispossession and resilience that gives hope: "history does not bend to freedom; it bends to might.”
The writing is factual and poetic. There is a lot of compassion, wisdom and experience in Stan’s writing. One of my favourite moments in the book is where he talks about movement as meditation: “It is light that drew our ancestors to move forward to other lands. We have warmed ourselves by the light of fire and spun stories tat explain who we are and what has brought us here”. No different to how the world is continually moving and changing, since the beginning of time. A compelling book to read.
Stan Grant walks us through the end of history as we know it, the rise of meritocracy, entitlement, injustice, inequality, authoritarianism, populism, the end of the greater global good, and identity - “the scourge of our age”. He highlights a deepening sense of scepticism. He writes about the growth and rise of China and “the price authoritarians pay for power: they rule the people, but they must rule with an iron fist: they inspire fear, often loyalty and devotion too, but they can never rest.” He reveals his thoughts about the rise of Al-Qaeda and ISIS and visits to their visiting training camps and meeting with their leaders illustrate this. All with a unique and thoughtful connection to his own Indigenous history and personal life. He resonates with the fight for identity, oppression, dispossession and resilience that gives hope: "history does not bend to freedom; it bends to might.”
The writing is factual and poetic. There is a lot of compassion, wisdom and experience in Stan’s writing. One of my favourite moments in the book is where he talks about movement as meditation: “It is light that drew our ancestors to move forward to other lands. We have warmed ourselves by the light of fire and spun stories tat explain who we are and what has brought us here”. No different to how the world is continually moving and changing, since the beginning of time. A compelling book to read.
April 13, 2022
Grant is a Wiradjuri man who, as a boy, was a demon reader and who, against all the odds that were facing a young man of his background and time, became an outstanding journalist. I bought this book because I'm trying to educate myself about China and he was a frontline reporter for CNN in China and other parts of Asia - I was more than informed, I was fascinated. In the case of his reports from Afghanistan and Pakistan I was horrified.
Grant examines his experiences in the context of history and through the lens of the political philosophy of which he is an obsessive student. (Actually, I don't mind if he never mentions Hegel again). His predictions of the future for liberal democracy and the post WWII peace are ....sobering. I don't entirely share his pessimism and, if I've understood him correctly, I'm more enthusiastic about liberal democracy.
June 9, 2021
Stan is arguably my favourite Australian journalist. I have been following him for quite a while, reading his articles and watching his analysis on TV.
He is also, in my opinion, one of the few analysts from 'the West' that can to a large extent objectively analyse China. This is perhaps due to his identity, being a Wiradjuri and Kamilaroi man (aboriginal Australian man), instead of a typical 'white Westerner', makes his writing less condescending and judgmental. And he confirmed this in the book: he admitted that, although China's modern fervent nationalism at times feels so bizarre and so over the top, he knew where it came from. It came from history. He says that he understands the feelings when an invincible foreign civilisation suddenly came to your land, completely dismantled your society, erased your culture, and displaced your people. So it is kind of unavoidable for people who have suffered to find it hard to just 'let it go'.
But he then quickly proceeded to praise the West's attitudes toward history. He regards it the West's virtue, for it to let history just be 'stories' and something purely commemorative. Conversely, he suggests that China is using history to 'chain its people'. It is a means to enslave them and prevent them from forgetting the past humiliation and, when the time comes, seek revenge.
This is such an interesting argument and I have read the same ones numerous times from Western scholars' or reporters' writing on China. They all somehow claim, explicitly or implicitly, the West is tolerant in the sense that it does not hold historical resentment against anyone. Well, of course, they do not, because they do not have a history of being invaded, colonised, suppressed, and humiliated by foreign powers. They are the 'foreign powers' in other people's history. How can there possibly be any 'resentment' when you are the one inflicting paints on others? In fact, the West is no more tolerant than any non-Western country. If you look at American foreign policy, you find out that they often react with excessive and disproportionate forces when they think the 'rogue countries' are behaving badly or unfairly taking advantage of them.
I would argue that there is no difference between China and America, or any Western country in this regard. At least, this idea that 'the West' is somehow more tolerant is totally unprovable. That is a pure assumption.
Also, just taking a bit of issue with Stan's recount of the political scandal in China in 2012. That year, a top cop from China's Chongqing, Wang Lijun traveled to the U.S. consulate in the Chinese city Chengdu to seek refuge. This political earthquake rocked the whole country at that time. By referring to a book on this scandal written by an Australian author, Stan says that Wang dressed in woman's clothes when he stepped into the U.S. consulate. This widely circulated rumour is totally false. The then-American ambassador to China Gary Locke later confirmed in a U.S. podcast interview that Wang was dressing normally. Gary also ridiculed the rumour.
This small factual error should not be a big deal. However, it says something about China reporting in the West. It's no doubt that China runs an opaque system and accessing information inside China can be difficult. Thus, very often, sources are leaked from 'anonymous insiders'. And these insiders are often on the losing side of an internal political battle. This obvious conflict of interests has created a tricky situation: the quality and the truthfulness of these sources vary. But it seems few in the West appreciate this. Last week, ABC reported that Bob Hawke's speech in the aftermath of June 4th in 1989 contains some factual errors. This is exactly because the speech was largely based on sources from the 'insiders'.
This reminds me of a popular narrative in a number of Western countries, which suggests that Chinese international students are so reliant on Chinese state-run media even overseas and so brainwashed that they do not appreciate the West's free press and freedom of expression. This view is flawed. Taking myself as an example, I am from China and I have been obsessively reading different Western media (from left-leaning ones to right-leaning ones, from Australia to America, from Germany to France) for at least 5-6 years now. And I rarely read Chinese media. But interestingly, to me, the Western media's credibility, at least on its China reporting, keeps tarnishing. Because there is just so much stuff that is distorted, misrepresented, and sometimes outright untrue. Does that mean I believe in Chinese state-run media? Not necessarily. I prefer to take views from both sides and analyse them by myself.
I guess I am straying a bit too far, so I might stop here. 'With the falling of the dusk' is a fascinating book and Stan is such a treasure. Definitely recommend.
He is also, in my opinion, one of the few analysts from 'the West' that can to a large extent objectively analyse China. This is perhaps due to his identity, being a Wiradjuri and Kamilaroi man (aboriginal Australian man), instead of a typical 'white Westerner', makes his writing less condescending and judgmental. And he confirmed this in the book: he admitted that, although China's modern fervent nationalism at times feels so bizarre and so over the top, he knew where it came from. It came from history. He says that he understands the feelings when an invincible foreign civilisation suddenly came to your land, completely dismantled your society, erased your culture, and displaced your people. So it is kind of unavoidable for people who have suffered to find it hard to just 'let it go'.
But he then quickly proceeded to praise the West's attitudes toward history. He regards it the West's virtue, for it to let history just be 'stories' and something purely commemorative. Conversely, he suggests that China is using history to 'chain its people'. It is a means to enslave them and prevent them from forgetting the past humiliation and, when the time comes, seek revenge.
This is such an interesting argument and I have read the same ones numerous times from Western scholars' or reporters' writing on China. They all somehow claim, explicitly or implicitly, the West is tolerant in the sense that it does not hold historical resentment against anyone. Well, of course, they do not, because they do not have a history of being invaded, colonised, suppressed, and humiliated by foreign powers. They are the 'foreign powers' in other people's history. How can there possibly be any 'resentment' when you are the one inflicting paints on others? In fact, the West is no more tolerant than any non-Western country. If you look at American foreign policy, you find out that they often react with excessive and disproportionate forces when they think the 'rogue countries' are behaving badly or unfairly taking advantage of them.
I would argue that there is no difference between China and America, or any Western country in this regard. At least, this idea that 'the West' is somehow more tolerant is totally unprovable. That is a pure assumption.
Also, just taking a bit of issue with Stan's recount of the political scandal in China in 2012. That year, a top cop from China's Chongqing, Wang Lijun traveled to the U.S. consulate in the Chinese city Chengdu to seek refuge. This political earthquake rocked the whole country at that time. By referring to a book on this scandal written by an Australian author, Stan says that Wang dressed in woman's clothes when he stepped into the U.S. consulate. This widely circulated rumour is totally false. The then-American ambassador to China Gary Locke later confirmed in a U.S. podcast interview that Wang was dressing normally. Gary also ridiculed the rumour.
This small factual error should not be a big deal. However, it says something about China reporting in the West. It's no doubt that China runs an opaque system and accessing information inside China can be difficult. Thus, very often, sources are leaked from 'anonymous insiders'. And these insiders are often on the losing side of an internal political battle. This obvious conflict of interests has created a tricky situation: the quality and the truthfulness of these sources vary. But it seems few in the West appreciate this. Last week, ABC reported that Bob Hawke's speech in the aftermath of June 4th in 1989 contains some factual errors. This is exactly because the speech was largely based on sources from the 'insiders'.
This reminds me of a popular narrative in a number of Western countries, which suggests that Chinese international students are so reliant on Chinese state-run media even overseas and so brainwashed that they do not appreciate the West's free press and freedom of expression. This view is flawed. Taking myself as an example, I am from China and I have been obsessively reading different Western media (from left-leaning ones to right-leaning ones, from Australia to America, from Germany to France) for at least 5-6 years now. And I rarely read Chinese media. But interestingly, to me, the Western media's credibility, at least on its China reporting, keeps tarnishing. Because there is just so much stuff that is distorted, misrepresented, and sometimes outright untrue. Does that mean I believe in Chinese state-run media? Not necessarily. I prefer to take views from both sides and analyse them by myself.
I guess I am straying a bit too far, so I might stop here. 'With the falling of the dusk' is a fascinating book and Stan is such a treasure. Definitely recommend.
July 17, 2021
As a well-known journalist and - increasingly - public intellectual, Stan Grant has been writing about himself, his indigenous/Irish heritage and themes of identity and Australianness for many years. I was interested to read this book because he steps beyond these themes to reflect on the present historical moment, informed both by his own experience as a foreign correspondent and as an indigenous commentator on identity and history. Subtitled 'A chronicle of the world in crisis', I must confess to being more interested in 'the world' rather than Stan Grant himself.
...
In this book, he gives a good overview of recent Chinese history, interwoven with his own biography. (Grant currently hosts a weekly program China Tonight on the ABC). He devotes several chapters to China: its history, Mao, the rise of Xi Jinping, and the rise of a China determined to reclaim its place after a century of humiliation. He then moves to other countries as his overseas postings lead him to North Korea, to Pakistan, Afghanistan. ... After travelling through these Asian and Middle Eastern countries, he closes the book by turning to America, and the flabby impotence of liberalism, "a timid faith, a tepid, bloodless idea but one with which white people have ruled the world." (p. 266) He despises Trump, but is equally damning of Obama and Clinton. He sees Biden as part of the same problem of meritocracy, entitlement and inequality. It's a bleak vision.
...
He may speak in the tones of the preacher, but there is no redemption in his final pages. Instead, he leaves us in the gloom of the dusk, and I could find little of the "capacity for negotiation, forgiveness and hope" mentioned in the blurb on the back cover.
...
Stan Grant is probably one of the best-known indigenous commentators in Australia's public life today. His politics do not fit into an easy right/left category, and I often feel uncomfortable with his opinions. I wanted to read this book precisely because Grant's questioning of identity and history are played out on a broader canvas than just Australia. But if the theme of NAIDOC this year was 'Heal Country', then there's little healing, comfort or hope on offer here.
Read my complete review at:
https://residentjudge.com/2021/07/17/...
...
In this book, he gives a good overview of recent Chinese history, interwoven with his own biography. (Grant currently hosts a weekly program China Tonight on the ABC). He devotes several chapters to China: its history, Mao, the rise of Xi Jinping, and the rise of a China determined to reclaim its place after a century of humiliation. He then moves to other countries as his overseas postings lead him to North Korea, to Pakistan, Afghanistan. ... After travelling through these Asian and Middle Eastern countries, he closes the book by turning to America, and the flabby impotence of liberalism, "a timid faith, a tepid, bloodless idea but one with which white people have ruled the world." (p. 266) He despises Trump, but is equally damning of Obama and Clinton. He sees Biden as part of the same problem of meritocracy, entitlement and inequality. It's a bleak vision.
...
He may speak in the tones of the preacher, but there is no redemption in his final pages. Instead, he leaves us in the gloom of the dusk, and I could find little of the "capacity for negotiation, forgiveness and hope" mentioned in the blurb on the back cover.
...
Stan Grant is probably one of the best-known indigenous commentators in Australia's public life today. His politics do not fit into an easy right/left category, and I often feel uncomfortable with his opinions. I wanted to read this book precisely because Grant's questioning of identity and history are played out on a broader canvas than just Australia. But if the theme of NAIDOC this year was 'Heal Country', then there's little healing, comfort or hope on offer here.
Read my complete review at:
https://residentjudge.com/2021/07/17/...
April 23, 2021
In some ways this book reminds me of a small child who has just been to school and has got all these new things to tell you about their day. That comment is not a criticism but how I felt about the massive volume of experience and information contained in this book. Stan Grant is an Australian indigenous man, he is also a very highly credentialed television journalist who has reported from many of the worlds' hot spots including South Africa, Afghanistan, Pakistan and China and his anecdotes on those experiences are worth the price of the book alone. He also must read books like a vacuum cleaner as it would take a year in a public library to track down all the books he quotes from and clearly many of them like Hegel have had a profound influence on him. I enjoyed this book enormously and recommend it to anyone who is interested in the world around them.
April 13, 2021
My head is exploding with the ideas – historical, political, social, philosophical – explored by Stan Grant as he analysed our present world in crisis. Using his vast experience as an international reporter for CNN and the ABC Australia, Grant moved through the decline of liberal democracy, extolled by the West (i.e. America) as the East, particularly China, rises to power and world domination. His is a sobering study that demands that we acknowledge the decline and admit that democracy has been “hijacked by demagogues who use it as a cover for tyranny.” Recurring references to philosopher Hegel and American political scientist Fukuyama are used to support his perspective, as well as a vast number of “selected sources” listed at the back. Most pointedly, Grant revealed the myth of America, which “intellectually, morally and spiritually has the meaningless ring of a hollow drum and the odour of slow death.”
Half of the text is devoted to an exploration of China’s rise to power and its solemn oath not to face “humiliation” as it had in its past, Then, he moved to North Korea and its quest for survival in a paranoid, authoritarian regime that is meant to keep the world unstable. His discussions of Iran, Iraq, Afghanistan, and Pakistan are meticulous in isolating the goals of each nation as it has been built upon an “us versus them” mentality, merging politics with religion and cultivating resentment/revenge for the “other”. In each discussion Grant zoomed in on an individual, an ordinary citizen whom he had met who represented perhaps the fervour of those entranced by belonging or the despair of those who had been failed by the empty promises and delusion of a perfect society.
This is a highly intelligent source to which I will refer countlessly in the future. His analysis is frightening, specifically because of the intentional blindness of the West to its diluted power in the world and to its own failure. His last chapters include a plea for us not to “turn away from despair”, as “the progressive unfolding of truth” can be an “engine of change”. Whether our world can make the changes that are necessary is to be seen.
Half of the text is devoted to an exploration of China’s rise to power and its solemn oath not to face “humiliation” as it had in its past, Then, he moved to North Korea and its quest for survival in a paranoid, authoritarian regime that is meant to keep the world unstable. His discussions of Iran, Iraq, Afghanistan, and Pakistan are meticulous in isolating the goals of each nation as it has been built upon an “us versus them” mentality, merging politics with religion and cultivating resentment/revenge for the “other”. In each discussion Grant zoomed in on an individual, an ordinary citizen whom he had met who represented perhaps the fervour of those entranced by belonging or the despair of those who had been failed by the empty promises and delusion of a perfect society.
This is a highly intelligent source to which I will refer countlessly in the future. His analysis is frightening, specifically because of the intentional blindness of the West to its diluted power in the world and to its own failure. His last chapters include a plea for us not to “turn away from despair”, as “the progressive unfolding of truth” can be an “engine of change”. Whether our world can make the changes that are necessary is to be seen.
November 4, 2025
Stan Grant has such an incredible voice, and this book brings with it the added bonus of incredible stories. It was less of a musing on the state of the world than I expected and perhaps more of a memoir, but nonetheless, it was riveting, and so well articulated.
Special note is made of the analysis of China and the interaction it has with the concept of the ‘Western world’. I think we’ve got a lot of movement in this space to see in the coming decades, so Grant’s observations seemed particularly pertinent in this sense.
Special note is made of the analysis of China and the interaction it has with the concept of the ‘Western world’. I think we’ve got a lot of movement in this space to see in the coming decades, so Grant’s observations seemed particularly pertinent in this sense.
March 27, 2023
Deeply moving and though provoking
I found this book to be a unique blend of personal testimony and cultural critique. Stan Grant's experiences of life as a journalist in China, North Korea, Afghanistan, Pakistan and more bring startling insight to the great changes that have occurred in those nations, and flowed beyond their borders. A genuinely paradigm shifting read.
I found this book to be a unique blend of personal testimony and cultural critique. Stan Grant's experiences of life as a journalist in China, North Korea, Afghanistan, Pakistan and more bring startling insight to the great changes that have occurred in those nations, and flowed beyond their borders. A genuinely paradigm shifting read.
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August 31, 2024Hoping @brydie rankin will see this…FINALLY got around to reading this gifted book from brydos - 10/10 thank you love you 🤩 😍
May 25, 2021
Grant doesn't advance our understanding of what's happened to the world in the last 30 or so years - or provide anything approaching answers - but his experience as a reporter make interesting reading.
May 11, 2021
An extension of Talking to my country, Grant reviews rising authoritarianism in countries over the world from his position as a CNN reporter. The Western misinterpretation of history is the running theme: we westerners are not the end of history as Fukuyama concluded at the fall of the Soviet Union. Through the rise of evil, “we pick at a festering wound that has not been allowed to heal.” He visits the past and present of China, N Korea, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Islam itself and the USA. China is still fighting the Opium Wars. The fall of the Qing dynasty meant the fall of th Middle Kingdom, an intolerable insult to the Chinese people that Mao held up to the people to stand up; Deng Xaoping building thr economy, and Xi Jin Ping is restoring the country to greatness and that is through harmony and unity, and that can only be attained through power: people would prefer to be rich and never hungry than to be free. Thanks to Britain’s gunboat diplomacy: Hong Kong had to be restored to China to right that massive wrong. He sees himself reflected in the eyes of the downtrodden, in the boys even trained to become suicide bombers. This book is the most moving description of the universality of humankind. “I chose to live away from Australia as it weighed upon me too hard”, as he explains in Talking to my Country. His relationships with others are often immediate and genuine except in Australia. “We cling to our tribes waging a blood feud to the end,” a very pessimistic conclusion. The sheer evil of so many leaders of the countries he describes – those and by implication Australia too, for what it did to an ancient culture, and its near destruction. Grant refers time and again to his personal experience, interwoven with these descriptions of bad places, he feels and thinks so sensitively, which goes to show what a terrible waste Australians have created by denying aboriginality. Grant’s way of thought links to others in ways that Westerners do not and it is perhaps only someone like him who could write such a book. On the USA, he sees Biden as trying to return to the mythical America that never existed: life liberty and pursuit of happiness, and democracy in America is its myth. “There are no red and blue states, only the United States” is palpably untrue. There are things Grant says that are difficult to comprehend: the restrictions imposed because of COVID mean our freedom is taken from us. Sure it is, but we don’t want COVID to spread. “Our faith in human reason since the Enlightenment may even be the source of our misery” The West is only 25% of the world yet we westerners see our values of freedom and democracy as universal values when clearly they are not. That is our egocentricity. His invocation of the Devil disguised as reason is a metaphor (I hope) for what seems to be his basic pessimism: we are doomed to fight and have our freedoms taken. Grant writes beautifully but his thinking is nonlinear and at times difficult to follow: “Time is not straight and history goes where it will.” I’d have to take his word for that. Very impressive though on his breadth and depth of scholarship.
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June 2, 2021Let’s start with a portrait. The year is 1993. The book is My Kind of People. Its author is Wayne Coolwell, a journalist. Who are Coolwell’s kind of people? Ernie Dingo, for one. Sandra Eades. Noel Pearson. Archie Roach. And there, sandwiched between opera singer Maroochy Barambah and dancer Linda Bonson is Stan Grant, aged thirty. Circa 1993, Grant is a breakthrough television presenter and journalist whose mother remembers him coming home to read the newspaper while the other kids went to play footy. ‘[T]here was a maturity and a sense of order about him,’ Coolwell writes. The order belies his parents’ life of ‘tin humpies, dirt floors, and usually only the one bed for all the kids in the family’. They are unable to afford a football (Grant relies on rolled-up socks). His sister, one of three siblings, sleeps on a fold-out table. In one house, they have to chase away a group of occupying emus before they can move in.
A formative experience follows the family’s move from Griffith to Canberra: Grant gives a speech to his English class on poet (and relative) Kevin Gilbert. The teacher adores it; the kids are confused. Grant does not fit the stereotype of what an Aboriginal should be. ‘He was not going to be pigeonholed,’ Coolwell writes. Thirty years before Sheila Heti, Grant’s audience found themselves confronting a question that would come to preoccupy the young man addressing them: how should a Wiradjuri and Kamilaroi person be?
Read on: https://www.australianbookreview.com....
A formative experience follows the family’s move from Griffith to Canberra: Grant gives a speech to his English class on poet (and relative) Kevin Gilbert. The teacher adores it; the kids are confused. Grant does not fit the stereotype of what an Aboriginal should be. ‘He was not going to be pigeonholed,’ Coolwell writes. Thirty years before Sheila Heti, Grant’s audience found themselves confronting a question that would come to preoccupy the young man addressing them: how should a Wiradjuri and Kamilaroi person be?
Read on: https://www.australianbookreview.com....
June 21, 2021
As you may already know, I am a big fan of Stan Grant. He is a true elder statesman of the Australian news media, his political analysis is engaging, and his philosophical reflection on the world around us is enlightening. His latest book is a memoir of his role as foreign correspondent in some of the toughest and most tyrannical places on earth, as well as a discussion of history, it's impact on the present, and it's future implications. Grant's writing is lyrical and poetic, making his work an engaging and satisfactory read; at no time does he dumb down ideas, rather he has a lovely way of explaining things to the reader without making them feel lacking. His exploration of current political climates is well researched and nuanced, and allows the reader to gain a background understanding of the highlighted governments, without overwhelming them. By interspersing his own experiences within the countries like China, North Korea and Afghanistan, what could be a dry and academic focused discussion about work geopolitical systems becomes instead a showcase of human nature, and the existence of humanity within the darkest evils. One of Grant's strengths in writing (and in general) is his ability to keep the human interest at the heart of his discussion. His work is credible, well sourced and balanced. An important read for current times, and another example of why Stan Grant is one of our greatest.
January 10, 2022
This is based on Grant’s career as a foreign correspondent in China and other countries, and the most powerful part consists of his reflections on the modern history of China, its relentless rise, and what could be its future place in the world. He also reflects on Pakistan, Afghanistan, North Korea, South Africa and other places where he has reported from as a CNN and ABC journalist. He is not simply content with this role but has a compulsive need to really understand what has led to the events he reports on. This book is far more profound in analysis and insights than expected. Grant has read a lot of philosophy, especially Hegel and his philosophy of history. His heritage as part Aboriginal gives him a perspective as an outsider from mainstream Australia and the “white West.” Reflecting on radical Islam, he concludes that it is very influenced by identity politics (“identity warriors”) and pushback against colonialism, though he notes that Islam entwines religion with politics and he doesn’t deny its militancy. It’s a dark but exhilarating book in which the fading of liberal democracy is taken for granted, and the rise of Chinese power is the story of our time. A shiver goes down the spine.
August 21, 2022
A confronting yet necessary book to read. Grant has seen the underbelly of society and many horrid things, that many of us will only see on a news story.
Grant has an engaging writing style that was both personal and informative, as he relates his experiences in very difficult situations and countries. I admire his courage. He helped me understand some of the core reasons why we are where we are as society, and the dynamics of international relations, which has stretched my thinking and questioning what is the responsibility of us as individual citizens – what can we do differently?
I did however find the book challenging to read, because Grant is jaded in his views - understandable given his experiences. I could not find any hope in his book, and it left me with an overall depression about us a human race. Maybe I was naively looking for a glimmer of hope? All I can do is go back to my belief that we are all accountable for our individual behaviour and if we actually stop and realise that the world doesn’t revolve around us as an individual but around all of us a human race, things may start to change.
Grant has an engaging writing style that was both personal and informative, as he relates his experiences in very difficult situations and countries. I admire his courage. He helped me understand some of the core reasons why we are where we are as society, and the dynamics of international relations, which has stretched my thinking and questioning what is the responsibility of us as individual citizens – what can we do differently?
I did however find the book challenging to read, because Grant is jaded in his views - understandable given his experiences. I could not find any hope in his book, and it left me with an overall depression about us a human race. Maybe I was naively looking for a glimmer of hope? All I can do is go back to my belief that we are all accountable for our individual behaviour and if we actually stop and realise that the world doesn’t revolve around us as an individual but around all of us a human race, things may start to change.
March 30, 2023
A book that is very critical of the West, how individualistic western society is and how this leads to focusing on differences rather than similarities and promote conflict. Also suggests that current democracy resembles an oligarchy run by the elite rich class, and no one actually is a democracy these days anyways? Was anyone ever a good democracy? Probably not, says Stan. Also, colonisation really messed everyone up (which it really did). And China/Asia in general is gonna be the big boss one of these days just you wait.
Stan's own stories about his time as a journalist in China, North Korea, Afghanistan, Pakistan etc. were intense and a really good read. Very sad too.
The last couple of chapters paints everything with a very big brush, it overgeneralises the complicated and fraught climate of American and international politics. Also too much metaphors about the devil which was kinda not a vibe.
Overall was an interesting read.
Stan's own stories about his time as a journalist in China, North Korea, Afghanistan, Pakistan etc. were intense and a really good read. Very sad too.
The last couple of chapters paints everything with a very big brush, it overgeneralises the complicated and fraught climate of American and international politics. Also too much metaphors about the devil which was kinda not a vibe.
Overall was an interesting read.
July 20, 2021
The world isn’t flat and time isn’t linear. Grant uses his experience as a journalist to map the failings of Western triumphalism. He argues that the West have dominated from a place of ignorance in thinking the world would progress on human reason alone to some peaceful utopia. This arrogance has caused us to forget the lessons of history. That the enlightenment has also created Nazism, Maoism and Stalinism.
Basically history is circular and humans are tribal. We are drawn to hate and hate is easy to manipulate almost anyone with the promise of retribution imagined or not. Democracy has still led to Putin, Trump and even violent extremism to the left and right.
I was sceptical that anyone could pull this topic off in just 314 pages but Grant has an effective and accessible communication style.
Basically history is circular and humans are tribal. We are drawn to hate and hate is easy to manipulate almost anyone with the promise of retribution imagined or not. Democracy has still led to Putin, Trump and even violent extremism to the left and right.
I was sceptical that anyone could pull this topic off in just 314 pages but Grant has an effective and accessible communication style.
October 30, 2021
5 stars
Great read
Highly respected Australian reporter Stan Grant takes us on an absolutely fascinating journey through some of the major events he witnessed and covered over his extensive career. He is also a fantastic storyteller and his stories can lift you up and break you down.
It covers such a wide range of topics such as the rise of China, Bin Laden, North Korea and some amazing Insights into these places and people.
And all this told from the authors perspective as a proud Aboriginal man who has dealt with prejudice and racism and is often made to feel an outsider in a country on his traditional land. So so so wrong.
An insightful read and one that gives a fascinating look at the rise of China and the decline of the western world all told by an amazing journalist and storyteller.
Highly recommended
Great read
Highly respected Australian reporter Stan Grant takes us on an absolutely fascinating journey through some of the major events he witnessed and covered over his extensive career. He is also a fantastic storyteller and his stories can lift you up and break you down.
It covers such a wide range of topics such as the rise of China, Bin Laden, North Korea and some amazing Insights into these places and people.
And all this told from the authors perspective as a proud Aboriginal man who has dealt with prejudice and racism and is often made to feel an outsider in a country on his traditional land. So so so wrong.
An insightful read and one that gives a fascinating look at the rise of China and the decline of the western world all told by an amazing journalist and storyteller.
Highly recommended
May 30, 2021
A wide-ranging perspective on the rise of authoritarian China, the decline of the USA, and the subverting of liberal democracies in several countries. Stan Grant, a onetime noted international correspondent, bases his sobering, passionate and somewhat pessimistic assessment on his long personal and professional experience of events and conflicts in recent history. Stan weaves into his narration his knowledge of western philosophies as that of Hegel.
An engaging and disturbing read.
An engaging and disturbing read.
June 2, 2021
With the Falling of the Dusk
I have really loved reading this erudite book of our contemporary history.
Stan is brave when explaining his heritage and twinning it to evil historic events.
I have learned so much from reading this great book. Philosophers - ancient and modern - who are important to Stan Grant have me in my understanding as I read this important book.
It is an important ‘must read’.
I have really loved reading this erudite book of our contemporary history.
Stan is brave when explaining his heritage and twinning it to evil historic events.
I have learned so much from reading this great book. Philosophers - ancient and modern - who are important to Stan Grant have me in my understanding as I read this important book.
It is an important ‘must read’.
February 13, 2022
"We have been witnessing the slow death of that which should be most precious to us: democracy." After a whistle-stop tour of twentieth century history that Grant has experienced first hand, it's clear we are now living in the most dangerous times since the 1930s. The West has not heeded the lessons of its mistakes. Even Obama preached hope but bequeathed despair... the moral arc of history does not bend towards justice.
June 4, 2021
A powerful and sharp analysis of the state of our world today. Filled with a lot of significant historical events having shaped the world we live in right now.
Stan Gran has made a fascinating book worth reading.
Stan Gran has made a fascinating book worth reading.
September 26, 2021
"We are hard wired for hate"
"The West cannot shake itself its belief in destiny"
"History does not bend to freedom; it bends to might"
"The truth does not always set you free: the truth can handcuff us to a history we cannot change "
"The West cannot shake itself its belief in destiny"
"History does not bend to freedom; it bends to might"
"The truth does not always set you free: the truth can handcuff us to a history we cannot change "
February 19, 2022
A considered, critical and strikingly poignant analysis of how ideology has shaped our modern world. Grant is a master of story-telling, weaving theory into the personal, juxtaposing horrors with the mundane, and bringing history into the present.
March 17, 2022
this book is written through his eyes as a foreign correspondent and his bias is clearly present. Some good information within the book, however, you should read more widely in an effort to gain a better perspective.
April 15, 2023
Stan Grant writes with an understanding of the world that we currently inhabit and the way that the dusk of the West is happening now. A great book for those looking to not only understand the world that we live in currently but some of the history about how we have gotten here.
July 3, 2023
Excellent
Another outstanding work by Stan Grant. An interesting mix of storytelling about his travels as a journalist, and a contextualised analysis of current events in light of philosophy.
Another outstanding work by Stan Grant. An interesting mix of storytelling about his travels as a journalist, and a contextualised analysis of current events in light of philosophy.
January 19, 2024
I thought this was beautifully written. Stan shares his stories in a poetic and vivid way which makes the reality of them startling. It is honest and alarming, but I appreciate his challenge to think about the world and where it’s headed.
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