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From the Ruins of EmpireBook

by Pankaj Mishra

Who uses, recommends or left From the Ruins of Empire, in their own words: each a verbatim quote with a link to where it was said.

1 person

Ben Rhodes
Ben Rhodes is a New York Times Opinion contributing writer and a co-host of “Pod Save the World.” He served as a senior adviser to President Barack Obama and worked on the Iran nuclear deal.
recommended

I mean, on this last question, From the Ruins of Empire by Pankaj Mishra is a really excellent kind of intellectual history of for lack of a better way of putting it, you know, people global south or people in decolonized spaces um in the 20th century uh coming up with alternatives to Western hegemony.

Answering The Ezra Klein Show's closing question, three books to recommend, in “The Great Lie of War” (https://www.nytimes.com/2026/03/03/opinion/ezra-klein-podcast-ben-rhodes.html). Quoted from the episode's YouTube auto-captions.

2026-03-03·youtube.com ↗

Every entry is a verbatim quote and a link to the public post it came from. Nothing is paraphrased. If it is not on record somewhere public, it is not here.

The verdict is what they actually said: loved and liked are explicit; recommended means they told others to get it; uses means they only say they use it; read is a book on their public shelf with no verdict; mixed and disliked are kept too.

A dashed affiliate link, sponsored or their own label means the post disclosed a relationship. It is shown, never hidden.

The shading behind a date shows how dated a recommendation is for its kind of thing.

The shading behind a date shows how dated a recommendation is, for its kind of thing. Fully green is recent. It drains a quarter at a time as the post gets older, and is empty once it reads as dated.

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