Jasanoff, M: Dawn Watch

SHORTLISTED FOR THE JAMES TAIT BLACK BIOGRAPHY PRIZE

‘Enlightening, compassionate, superb’ John le Carré

A visionary life and times of Joseph Conrad, and of our global world, from one of the best historians writing today.

Immigration, terrorism, the dangers of nationalism, the promise and peril of technologicalinnovation: these forces shaped the life and work of Joseph Conrad at the dawn of thetwentieth century. As Maya Jasanoff argues, Joseph Conrad described the beginnings ofglobalization as we recognize it today. As an immigrant from Poland to England, and intravels from Malaysia to the Congo to the Caribbean, Conrad traced an interconnectedworld and described it in a literary oeuvre of prophetic power. His life and work offer ahistory of globalization from the inside out, and powerfully reflect the aspirations and thechallenges of the modern world.

Joseph Conrad was born Jozef Teodor Konrad Korzeniowski in 1857, to Polish parents inthe Russian Empire. At sixteen he left the landlocked heart of Europe to become a sailor,and for the next twenty years travelled the world’s oceans before settling permanently inLondon as an author. He saw the surging, competitive ‘new imperialism’ that planted a flagin almost every populated part of the globe. He got a close look, too, at the places ‘beyondthe end of telegraph cables and mail-boat lines,’ and the hypocrisy of the west’s mostcherished ideals.

Through an expert blend of history, biography, literary criticism, and travelogue, MayaJasanoff traces the strands of Conrad’s experiences and the stories of his four greatestworks: ‘The Secret Agent’, ‘Lord Jim’, ‘Heart of Darkness’, and ‘Nostromo’. Thisspellbinding narrative casts new light on his age, and offers fresh insight into our own.

Genre-bending, intellectually thrilling, and deeply humane, ‘The Dawn Watch’ embarks ona bold expedition to the dark heart of Conrad and our global world.