Straw Dogs

A radical and thought-provoking philosophical challenge to the Western tradition's most cherished assumptions about human beings and their place in the world.

In the British bestseller Straw Dogs, John Gray sets out to question our deepest-held beliefs about what it means to be human. From Plato to Christianity, from the Enlightenment to Nietzsche and Marx, Gray argues that the Western tradition has been based on arrogant and erroneous beliefs about humankind and our destiny to transcend natural limits and conquer the Earth.

Philosophies such as liberalism and Marxism think of humans as a species whose fate is to rise above nature, but Gray explores how the world and human life look once this illusion is finally abandoned. The result is an exhilarating, sometimes disturbing book that leads the reader to question the very foundations of Western philosophy, politics, and sociology.

Hailed as "brilliant" by the Sunday Telegraph and named book of the year by Will Self in the New Statesman, Straw Dogs is a groundbreaking work that challenges our understanding of human nature and behavior within Western culture and society. "I read it once, I read it twice and took notes . . . I thought it that good," raved Self. Prepare to have your assumptions overturned and your mind expanded.