“Accessible, mesmerizing, and compelling.” — New York Journal of Books
“A highly revealing study with global implications.” — Kirkus Reviews
“A powerful way to re-imagine the world. My biggest disappointment was that it needed to be longer.” — A reviewer on Amazon.com
“The best book I have read this year … A libertarian case for a strong central state … directly challenges what many libertarians currently believe.” — Arnold Kling, economist, askblog and Library of Economics and Liberty
Click here to read an excerpt.
To stream podcasts and public radio interviews:
- The Brian Lehrer Show on WNYC (New York) (here for the audio file)—12 minutes;
- The American Bar Association (Chicago) (here for the audio file)—15 minutes;
- “Think,” with Krys Boyd, on KERA (Dallas) (here for the audio file)—50 minutes;
- The Kathleen Dunn Show on WPR (Madison) (here for the audio file)—one hour;
- Central Standard, with Susan Wilson, on KCUR (Kansas City)—one hour;
Click here to read an interview with the blog Concurring Opinions.
Click here to watch an hour-long lecture about the book’s national security implications.
“Nuanced … an entertaining mix of anecdote & ethnography.” — Publisher’s Weekly
“Mark Weiner has raised the crucial yet neglected subject of tribal identity and loyalty in modern society. The sweep of his book and the depth of his analysis make it essential reading for anyone interested in connecting past to present in order to chart a felicitous path to the future.” — Amb. Akbar Ahmed, Ibn Khaldun Chair of Islamic Studies, American University
“The Rule of the Clan is a delight to read—an engaging tour of societies in which kinship groups have been the primary form of social organization, from Anglo-Saxon England to medieval Iceland to southern Sudan, modern India, the Philippines, and much more. It is also an insightful meditation on what proponents of individual freedom must grasp if they are to realize their aspirations in societies made up not of rational abstractions, but people like us.” — Rogers Smith, Christopher H. Browne Distinguished Professor of Political Science at the University of Pennsylvania
“The Rule of the Clan gives a fascinating glimpse into a world that few Westerners today understand: a world of honor, shame, collective responsibility, and violent feuds. This book tells us what we need to know if we really want to modernize the clan societies of the Middle East and central Asia—and if we want to save our own liberal democracies from descending into clannish chaos.”— Ian Morris, Jean and Rebecca Willard Professor of Classics and Professor of History, Stanford University, author of Why the West Rules—for Now
“A must read for anyone interested in understanding the complex relation between tribal identity, law, and custom, in seeking common ground between the Western and Islamic legal and political traditions, and in connecting the past to present in the service of legal reform.” — Abdullah Saeed, Sultan of Oman Professor of Arab and Islamic Studies at the University of Melbourne
“The Rule of the Clan confronts an uncomfortable but important reality. In the process it challenges the careless liberal assumption that national identity is an anachronism and a strong state a threat.” —Paul Collier, Director for the Center for the Study of African Economies at the University of Oxford, former director of the Development Research Group of the World Bank
“A nuanced view of clan-based societies … Weiner’s argument is a full-throated defense of the modern centralized state, which he sees as necessary to protect human rights: “In the face of well-intended but misguided criticism that the state is inimical to freedom, we must choose whether to maintain the state as our most basic political institution or to let it degrade.” An entertaining mix of anecdote and ethnography.” — Publishers Weekly
“Perhaps the least publicized obstacle to the development of the rule of law and respect for individual rights in the Middle East and elsewhere has been the persistence of clan-based systems of justice. Mark Weiner’s The Rule of the Clan underscores eloquently the historical role of the clan in societies as diverse as medieval Iceland and the present-day Palestinian Authority. But Professor Weiner’s book goes beyond historical exposition to raise, backed by copious research and cogent examples, the urgent question: how and whether the transition from clan-based systems of justice to systems based on the rule of law, which have in the past taken centuries, can be accomplished in our time, when the need for change is as apparent as the resistance to it is entrenched.” — John J. Farmer, Jr., Senior Counsel, 9/11 Commission; Dean, Rutgers-Newark School of Law
“Weiner … thinks the world’s proud individualists would be wise to recognize clan rule’s strengths (in both the merit and endurance senses of the word) as they work to spread liberal democracy.” — Stanford Magazine
Available for pre-order through Amazon (including in a Kindle edition), Barnes and Noble, Books-a-Million, IndieBound, Overstock, Powell’s, other on-line stores, and at a local bookseller near you.
Click here to see the cover on Vine!
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