At a time when political writing and cultural criticism have come to be dominated by an insipid and unthinking moralism, David Rieff’s essays offer a bracing antidote. The writings collected in cover topics as diverse as censorship in contemporary publishing, the cultural ubiquity of the notion of trauma, and the future of democracy on a global level. They are all characterised, however, by an incisive intelligence and a refreshing lack of wishful thinking; together they confirm Rieff’s status as an indispensable writer and thinker.