Books

Drawing on his renowned fictional works and his own life story, Xuemo presents what he sees as the path to meaning, fulfillment and self-determination. How should we live? How can we deal with loss? What, in the end, is truly important?

Xuemo’s adopted name means literally ‘Snow Desert’, reflecting the landscape of his native Gansu province of Western China. All of his works draw upon and reflect the culture of the people of this harsh and isolated environment, as well as upon his deep scholarship of the Confucian and Buddhist traditions. In The Way Forward he tries to answer the fundamental questions of how we should be in the world, how to make important life decisions, and how we should set our fundamental priorities. This is no glib self-help book, the answers it offers are by no means easy ones. Instead, Xuemo challenges us to reflect upon what we truly value and what we truly need in life, rejecting distractions and whatever is ultimately inconsequential.

As Foreign Secretary in Neville Chamberlain’s Cabinet in 1937, Eden didn’t believe in appeasing the German and Italian dictatorships or the militaristic Japanese regime. Instead, he wanted to confront their  aggression head on. Faced with growing Japanese assertiveness, including the launching of an undeclared war on China in July 1937, Eden appealed to the US for help. He believed sending an Anglo-American naval force to the Western Pacific would demonstrate that the democracies were not spineless, but were prepared to stand up for what they believed in. Was this a viable alternative to Chamberlain’s appeasement policy, now notorious for its failure in the face of fascism?

With eerie echoes of our own times, Murfett explores the challenges involved in both international diplomacy, and foreign and security policy. How standing up for principles and values can become compromised by the requirements of Realpolitik, and logistical constraints.