Book talk with Christian Caryl

In Strange Rebels, veteran journalist Christian Caryl shows how the world we live in today -and the problems that plague it- began to take shape in this pivotal year. 1979, he explains, saw a series of counterrevolutions against the progressive consensus that had dominated the postwar era. The year's epic upheavals embodied a startling conservative challenge to communist and socialist systems around the globe, fundamentally transforming politics and economics worldwide. Strange Rebels is a groundbreaking account of how far-flung events and disparate actors and movements gave birth to our modern age.

The Economist: "A timely new book... Caryl tells this story with great skill. He moves effortlessly from one scene to another in this tumultuous year.... Anyone who wants to understand how this new world came into being needs to read Mr. Caryl's excellent book." 

Christian Caryl is an American journalist who is widely published in international politics and foreign affairs. He has reported from some 50 countries and has held top posts in Moscow, Berlin, Tokyo and Washington. He is a senior fellow at the Legatum Institute in London, a contributing editor at Foreign Policy magazine and a senior research affiliate at the Center for International Studies at MIT. He is a regular contributor to The New York Review of Books.