"The implied narrative of this collection is the journalist's background, the imperial myths that helped to shape him, the impulse to exile and his encounter with the Reagan era. The background, the myths and the impulse to exile form the first three sections of this book, whose overall architecture will, I hope, give some sense of the terms in which I have viewed my trade."-Alexander Cockburn, from the introduction

"Like Adorno, Cockburn's province is the consciousness of industry, and if, unlike Adorno, he isn't mournful, then so much the better ... He is one of the few journalists in America, given that most of them tend to report either each word or what is acceptable to policy-makers." - London Review of Books

"Probably the most gifted polemicist writing in English today." - Times Literary Supplement

"Never less than ferociously entertaining." - Publishers Weekly

"Outspoken, intellectual, uncompromising, combative, witty and incapable of hiding his contempt for the powers that be." - Utne Reader

"Snobbish, funny, brutal and nostalgic." - Los Angeles Times