The Darker Nations

'A global romp filled with revealing anecdotes ... [and] a handy alternative history of our planet in the post-World War II era'
—The Progressive

'Darker nations, brighter nations: this book helps to uncover the shining worlds hidden under official history'
—Eduardo Galeano

'Prashad is one of the great radical intellectuals of our times – essential reading'
—Irvin Jim, general secretary of the National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa 

'The first comprehensive political history of the Third World as a concept ... Essential for rethinking this history and constructing a viable political programme'
—Immanuel Wallerstein

'Wonderful, thoughtful and stimulating'
—Paul Gilroy

This is a landmark alternative history of the Cold War from the perspective of the Global South, reissued in paperback with a new introduction by the author.

The Darker Nations, praised by critics as a welcome antidote to apologists for empire, has defined for a generation of scholars, activists, and dreamers what it is to imagine a more just international order and continues to offer lessons for the radical political projects of today.

With the disastrous U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan and the rise of India and China on the global scene, this paradigm-shifting book of groundbreaking scholarship helps us envision the future of the Global South by restoring to memory the vibrant though flawed idea of the Third World whose demise, Prashad ultimately argues, has produced an impoverished and asymmetrical international political arena. No other book on the Third World—as a utopian idea and a global movement—can speak so effectively and engagingly to our troubled times.

Vijay Prashad is director of Tricontinental: Institute for Social Research, editor of LeftWord Books, and the chief correspondent for Globetrotter. He is the author of thirty books including Washington Bullets. The Darker Nations was chosen as a Best Nonfiction Book of the Year by the Asian American Writers’ Workshop and won the Muzaffar Ahmad Book Prize. He lives in Santiago, Chile.