Books in the New Press People's History series

Here, from a brilliant young writer, is a paradigm-shifting history of both a utopian concept and global movementthe idea of the Third World. The Darker Nations traces the intellectual origins and the political history of the twentieth century attempt to knit together the worlds impoverished countries in opposition to the United States and Soviet spheres of influence in the decades following World War II.Spanning every continent of the global South, Vijay Prashads fascinating narrative takes us from the birth of postcolonial nations after World War II to the downfall and corruption of nationalist regimes. A breakthrough book of cutting-edge scholarship, it includes vivid portraits of Third World giants like Indias Nehru, Egypts Nasser, and Indonesias Sukarnoas well as scores of extraordinary but now-forgotten intellectuals, artists, and freedom fighters. The Darker Nations restores to memory the vibrant though flawed idea of the Third World, whose demise, Prashad ultimately argues, has produced a much impoverished international political arena.