AFTER SAVAGERY
Gaza, Genocide, and the Illusion of Western Civilization
Hamid Dabashi
Haymarket Books (17 August, 2025)
Trade paper • ISBN-13: 9798888904503 • US $14.95 • 5 in x 8 in • 244 pgs.
ABOUT THE BOOK:
Written at the time of a genocide, After Savagery reveals the ethical bankruptcy of “Western philosophy” and how it undergirds the erasure of the colonized.
The death toll in Gaza continues to rise―a cold, lifeless number representing entire communities crushed under the weight of settler colonialism. At a time of global outrage against a livestreamed genocide, politicians, well-respected scholars, and influential celebrities remain perplexed by the notion of Palestinian humanity.
With lyrical and lucid fury, Hamid Dabashi exposes the racist roots of Western philosophy, demanding that readers overcome its pernicious phantom of relevance. Rather than perceiving the West as giving a carte blanche to Israel to commit atrocities in Palestine, Dabashi insists that Israel must be understood as the “quintessence of the West.”
If Israel is the West and the West is Israel, then Palestine is the world and the world is Palestine. Holding on to glimmers from revolutionary works of literature and film, Dabashi argues, in grief and love, that the wretched of the earth need poetry after barbarism—and that Palestine is the site of a liberated imagination.
PRAISE:
“Reading Dabashi is like going for an extended coffee with a very smart friend.”
Vijay Prashad, author of The Poorer Nations
“The grand clash of civilizations and ideologies will increasingly take place in the West, with such writers and intellectuals as Dabashi.”
The Guardian
ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
Hamid Dabashi is Professor of Iranian Studies and Comparative Literature at Columbia University in New York City. He is the author of over twenty books.
RIGHTS INFORMATION:
Please contact subagents for the following languages and territories:
| Language/Territory | Subagent |
|---|---|
| China, Taiwan, Indonesia, Malaysia, and Vietnam | Big Apple Agency |
| Dutch | Sebes & Bisseling Literary Agency |
| English outside North America | David Grossman Literary Agency |
| French | Deborah Druba Agency |
| German | Paul & Peter Fritz AG Literatur Agentur |
| Greek | Read n' Right Agency |
| Hebrew | The Deborah Harris Agency |
| Italian | Berla & Griffini Rights Agency |
| Japanese | The English Agency (Japan) Ltd |
| Korean | BC Agency, or Korea Copyright Center |
| Portuguese | RIFF Agency |
| Russia/Baltics/Eastern Europe | Prava I Prevodi |
| Scandinavia | Sebes & Bisseling Literary Agency |
| Spanish in Latin America | MB Agencia Literaria |
| Spanish in Spain | MB Agencia Literaria |
| Turkish | Anatolialit Agency |
For all other languages/territories, please contact Roam Agency.