"[Gray's] is a calm, exacting voice, which does not rise above its measured tone even when he is relating the most egregious excesses of the past or delivering the direst predictions for the future. No Cassandra has ever spoken with such studied reserve, which makes his message all the more persuasive . . . Gray displays his accustomed mastery in the examples he adduces in support of his contentions . . . The New Leviathans is a sober and sobering reminder of what we lose when we abandon traditional liberalism in favor of new and exclusive certainties that are based on nothing certain." --John Banville, New York Review of Books

"Dense with provocative ideas--a solid choice for budding political philosophers." --Kirkus Reviews

"Gray is conscientiously illusionless, scrupulously refusing to believe in any of the ideals and comforting dreams that humans use to protect themselves against reality. This, perhaps, explains his popularity with my own much-disillusioned generation . . . Gray's philosophy is the thread that joins my friends of disparate political inclinations." --James Marriott, The Times

"An elegy for western liberalism . . . a bracing thinker." --Stuart Jeffries, Daily Telegraph