©Ari Armstrong
Books by Christopher Hitchens
Christopher Hitchens (1949-2011) was a British-American journalist and prominent atheist. He wrote dozens of books about a variety of political, religious and cultural issues of the day, including The Trial of Henry Kissinger and The Missionary Position: Mother Teresa in Theory and Practice. In spite of the seriousness of many of the issues he wrote about, Hitchens was often also very, very funny.
“The reason I recommend Mortality to everyone is that one of the things that’s always asked about atheists – and I think it’s a fair question – is how you can survive the terrible things that life hands out, if you don’t believe in a life beyond death. Well I think this book, which are essays of his year-and-a-half of dying and living with cancer, are among the best things he wrote in his long and prolific career. They directly address what I believe is the main reason for the survival of religion, which is not a desire to live a better life, but our fear of death” Read more...
Susan Jacoby, Journalist
“This is a wonderful book and it deserves to be a classic. Christopher Hitchens has long been a hero of mine and this book is one of the reasons. It’s more than a book about how to be a contrarian; it’s a book about how to think politically. His style is gorgeous, with all his literary references. The book itself is written in an incredibly rich and enjoyable way, and it’s funny too. It’s about the transformative power of argument, and how how one thinks is almost more important than what one thinks.” Read more...
The best books on The Leaderless Revolution
Carne Ross, Political Commentator
Callaghan: The Road to Number Ten
by Christopher Hitchens & Peter Kellner
This book was published in 1976, just as British Labour Party leader James Callaghan became prime minister, so does not offer any assessment of his time in office. Callaghan would end up being prime minister from 1976 to 1979, when he lost to Margaret Thatcher in the general election. Co-written with UK polling expert Peter Kellner, Callaghan: The Road to Number Ten appears to have been Christopher Hitchens's first book.
The Four Horsemen: The Conversation That Sparked an Atheist Revolution
by Christopher Hitchens, Daniel Dennett, Richard Dawkins & Sam Harris
In The Four Horsemen, introduced by the always interesting and entertaining Stephen Fry, we can read the transcript of a 2007 discussion between four prominent atheists: Christopher Hitchens, Daniel Dennett, Sam Harris and Richard Dawkins, whose books you'll see recommended on Five Books time and time again. The conversation took place in Washington DC and the video of it, which you can see here, went viral.
Interviews where books by Christopher Hitchens were recommended
The best books on The Leaderless Revolution, recommended by Carne Ross
Our political and economic systems are inadequate and failing. But what can we do? The author of a new book on the subject tells us what inspired his involvement in the Occupy movement and how a leaderless revolution could work
The best books on Essential Reading for Reporters, recommended by Guy Raz
NPR host and former foreign correspondent offers practical and anecdotal guidance on reporting the news. Says, “I don’t buy this idea that there was a golden age in journalism”
The best books on Atheism, recommended by Susan Jacoby
The main reason for the survival of religion is not a desire to live a better life, but our fear of death, says atheist author and independent scholar Susan Jacoby. Here she recommends five books she considers essential to “understanding the merits of atheism.”
