“We talk sometimes as if democracy were the natural human condition, as if any deviation from it is a crime to be punished or a disease to be cured. That is not true. Democracy, or what we call democracy nowadays, is the parochial custom of the English-speaking peoples for the conduct of their public affairs, which may or may not be suitable for others,”

cautions Bernard Lewis.

Ian Buruma reviews a new collection of a half-century of Lewis’ essays. (The New Yorker)