The Strange Death of Europe
{{Short description|2017 book by Douglas Murray}}
{{Infobox book
| image = File:The Strange Death of Europe.jpg
| caption = Cover of the first edition
| name = The Strange Death of Europe
| author = Douglas Murray
| country = United Kingdom
| language = English
| subjects = {{hlist|Politics|immigration|Islam}}
| publisher = Bloomsbury Publishing
| release_date = 4 May 2017
| media_type = Print (Hardcover and paperback)
| pages = 352
| isbn = 978-1-4729-4224-1
| oclc = 1027567742
| followed_by = The Madness of Crowds: Gender, Race and Identity
| preceded_by = Islamophilia: A Very Metropolitan Malady
| external_url = https://archive.org/download/the-strange-death-of-europe-immigration/The_strange_death_of_europe_immigration.pdf
| external_host = Internet Archive
}}
{{Conservatism UK|Works}}
The Strange Death of Europe: Immigration, Identity, Islam is a 2017 book by the British journalist and political commentator Douglas Murray. It was published in the United Kingdom in May 2017, and in June 2017 in the United States.
The book's title was inspired by George Dangerfield's classic of political history The Strange Death of Liberal England, published in 1935.{{Cite web|last=Azize|first=Joseph|title=The Strange Death of Europe|date=6 October 2017 |url=https://www.josephazize.com/2017/10/06/the-strange-death-of-europe/|access-date=2021-12-08|language=en-AU}}
Thesis
Murray contends that European civilization as it has historically existed will not survive. He explores two factors in explaining this: The first is the combination of mass migration of new peoples into Europe together with its low birth rates; the second is what Murray describes as "the fact that… at the same time Europe lost faith in its beliefs, traditions, and legitimacy".{{cite news|last1=Abrams|first1=Elliott|title=The Strange Death of Europe|url=https://www.cfr.org/blog-post/strange-death-europe-2|accessdate=13 July 2017|publisher=Council on Foreign Relations|date=12 July 2017}}
Reception
The Strange Death of Europe received a polarized reception among critics and commentators. Writing in the National Review, Michael Brendan Dougherty praised it as "informed by actual reporting across the Continent, and a quality of writing that manages to be spritely and elegiac at the same time. Murray's is also a truly liberal intellect, in that he is free from the power that taboo exerts over the European problem, but he doesn't betray the slightest hint of atavism or meanspiritedness".{{Cite web |last=Dougherty |first=Michael Brendan |date=2017-05-30 |title=The Manchester Attack and the Death of Europe |url=https://www.nationalreview.com/2017/05/douglas-murray-book-strange-death-europe-manchester-terror-attack/ |access-date= |website=National Review |language=en-US}} Rod Liddle of The Sunday Times called the book "a brilliant, important and profoundly depressing book".{{Cite news |last=Liddle |first=Rod |date=7 May 2017 |title=Books: The Strange Death of Europe by Douglas Murray |newspaper=The Sunday Times |url=https://www.thetimes.com/culture/article/books-the-strange-death-of-europeby-douglas-murray-z20l3qht0 |access-date= |issn=}} In The Daily Telegraph, Juliet Samuel summarised Murray's book by saying, "His overall thesis, that a guilt-driven and exhausted Europe is playing fast and loose with its precious modern values by embracing migration on such a scale, is hard to refute".{{cite news |last1=Samuel |first1=Juliet |date=6 May 2017 |title=Yanis Varoufakis and Douglas Murray: why Europe is weary |work=The Daily Telegraph |url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/books/what-to-read/yanis-varoufakis-douglas-murray-europe-falling-apart |accessdate=}} Conservative political commentator John O'Sullivan concluded in his review that "Europe is drifting towards Eurabia".{{cite news|url=https://claremontreviewofbooks.com/the-dream-and-the-nightmare/|title=The Dream and the Nightmare|work=Claremont Review of Books|date=Fall 2017}} Other commentators and writers who spoke positively of the book included Roger Scruton and Nick Cohen.{{cite book|title=The Strange Death of Europe: Immigration, Identity, Islam: 9781472958051: Murray, Douglas: Books|date=12 June 2018|isbn=978-1472958051 |quote="This is a vitally important book, the contents of which should be known to everyone who can influence the course of events, at this critical time in the history of Europe." - Sir Roger Scruton|last1=Murray |first1=Douglas |publisher=Bloomsbury USA }}{{cite book|title=The Strange Death of Europe: Immigration, Identity, Islam: 9781472958051: Murray, Douglas: Books|date=12 June 2018|isbn=978-1472958051 |quote="Douglas Murray glitters in the gloom. His pessimism about multiculturalism is so well constructed and written it is almost uplifting. Liberals will want to rebut him. I should warn them that they will need to argue harder than they have ever argued before." - Nick Cohen|last1=Murray |first1=Douglas |publisher=Bloomsbury USA }}
Conversely, other reviews were very negative. Writing in The Guardian, the political journalist Gaby Hinsliff described Strange Death as "gentrified xenophobia" and "Chapter after chapter circles around the same repetitive themes: migrants raping and murdering and terrorising; paeans to Christianity; long polemics about how Europe is too 'exhausted by history' and colonial guilt to face another battle, and is thus letting itself be rolled over by invaders fiercely confident in their own beliefs", while also pointing out that Murray offers little definition of the European culture he claims is under threat.{{cite news |last1=Hinsliff |first1=Gaby |date=6 May 2017 |title=The Strange Death of Europe by Douglas Murray review – gentrified xenophobia |work=The Guardian |url=https://www.theguardian.com/books/2017/may/06/strange-death-europe-immigration-xenophobia |accessdate=}} Pankaj Mishra's review in The New York Times described the book as "a handy digest of far-right clichés".{{Cite news |last=Mishra |first=Pankaj |date=14 September 2017 |title=How the New Immigration Is Shaking Old Europe to Its Core |language=en-US |work=The New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2017/09/14/books/review/crisis-of-multiculturalism-in-europe-rita-chin-immigration.html |access-date= |issn=0362-4331}} In The Intercept, Murtaza Hussain criticized the "relentlessly paranoid tenor" of Murray's work and said that its claims of mass crime perpetuated by immigrants were "blinkered to the point of being propaganda", while noting the book's appeal to the far right.{{Cite web |last=Hussain |first=Murtaza |date=25 December 2018 |title=The Far Right Is Obsessed With a Book About Muslims Destroying Europe. Here's What It Gets Wrong. |url=https://theintercept.com/2018/12/25/strange-death-of-europe-douglas-murray-review/ |access-date= |website=The Intercept |language=en}} In Middle East Eye, Georgetown professor Ian Almond called the book "a staggeringly one-sided flow of statistics, interviews and examples, reflecting a clear decision to make the book a rhetorical claim that Europe is doomed to self-destruction".{{cite web |last1=Almond |first1=Ian |date=11 August 2017 |title=Misrecognising the problem: Douglas Murray's The Strange Death of Europe |url=https://www.middleeasteye.net/big-story/misrecognising-problem-douglas-murrays-strange-death-europe |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201112020502/https://www.middleeasteye.net/big-story/misrecognising-problem-douglas-murrays-strange-death-europe |archive-date=12 November 2020 |access-date= |website=Middle East Eye}}
A more mixed review of the book in The Economist claimed it "hit on some unfortunate truths", but "shows an incomplete picture of Europe today." Furthermore, it said that "the book would benefit, however, from far more reporting" and claimed Murray often "lets fear trump analysis" and was "prone to exaggeration."{{cite news |date=17 June 2017 |title=Fearing the "suicide" of Europe |newspaper=The Economist |url=https://www.economist.com/books-and-arts/2017/06/17/fearing-the-suicide-of-europe |accessdate=}}
Editions
- {{Citation |last=Murray |first=Douglas |author-link=Douglas Murray (author) |date=2017-05-04 |title=The Strange Death of Europe: Immigration, Identity, Islam |publisher=Bloomsbury Continuum |location=London |edition=Hardcover |isbn=978-1-4729-4224-1}}
- {{Citation
|last=Murray
|first=Douglas
|date=2018-06-14
|title=The Strange Death of Europe: Immigration, Identity, Islam
|publisher=Bloomsbury Continuum
|location=London
|edition=Paperback
|isbn=978-1-4729-5800-6
}} - added Murray's Afterword on pp. 321–337 at April 2018.
- {{Citation
|last=Murray
|first=Douglas
|translator=Krisztina Koenen
|date=2018-03-12
|title=Der Selbstmord Europas: Immigration, Identität, Islam
|publisher=FinanzBuch Verlag
|location=München
|edition=EDITION TICHYS EINBLICK
|language=de
|isbn=978-3-95972-105-9
}}
- {{Citation
|last=Murray
|first=Douglas
|translator=Julien Funnaro
|date=2018-04-25
|title=L'étrange suicide de l'Europe: Immigration, identité, Islam
|publisher=L'artilleur
|location=Paris
|series=TOUC.ESSAIS
|language=fr
|isbn=978-2-81000-825-4
}}
- {{Citation
|last=Murray
|first=Douglas
|translator=Annamaria Biavasco e Valentina Guani
|date=2018-11-15
|title=La strana morte dell'Europa. Immigrazione, identità, Islam
|publisher=Neri Pozza Editore
|location=Vieenza
|language=it
|isbn=978-88-545-1701-1
}}
- {{Citation
|last=Murray
|first=Douglas
|translator=Atsuo Machida
|others=Takeshi Nakano (foreword)
|date=2018-12-14
|title=Seiyō no jishi: Imin, Aidentitī, Isuramu
|publisher=Toyo Keizai Inc.
|location=Tokyo
|language=ja
|isbn=978-4-492-44450-4
}}
== See also ==
- The Death of the West {{Smaller|(2001)}}
- Germany Abolishes Itself {{Smaller|(2010)}}
- Le Suicide français {{Smaller|(2014)}}