Christopher Hitchens

Christopher Eric Hitchens (born April 13, 1949) is an English-American author and journalist. His books ? the latest being God Is Not Great ? have made him a prominent public intellectual, and a staple of talk shows and lecture circuits. He has been a columnist and literary critic at Vanity Fair, Slate, The Atlantic, World Affairs, The Nation, Free Inquiry, and a variety of other media outlets.

As a political observer, polemicist and self styled radicalist, Hitchens rose to prominence as a fixture of the left-wing publications of both his native United Kingdom and United States. Hitchens' departure from the political left began in 1989 after what he called the "tepid reaction" of the European left following Ayatollah Khomeini's issue of a fatw? calling for the murder of Salman Rushdie. The September 11, 2001 attacks strengthened his embrace of an interventionist foreign policy, and his vociferous criticism of what he calls "fascism with an Islamic face." Hitchens' adoption of interventionist foreign policy, employment of the term "Islamofascist" and his notable support for the Iraq War have caused his critics to label him a "neoconservative". Hitchens, however, refuses to embrace this designation, insisting, "I'm not any kind of conservative".

Hitchens is often regarded as one of the most prominent exponents of modern atheism and is described as part of the "new atheism" movement. Hitchens and fellow atheists Richard Dawkins, Sam Harris and Daniel Dennett have often been referred to as "The Four Horsemen". He is a secular humanist and anti-theist, and describes himself as a believer in the philosophical values of the Age of Enlightenment. His main argument is that since the concept of God or a supreme being is a totalitarian belief that destroys individual freedom, free expression and scientific discovery should replace religion as a means of teaching ethics and defining human civilization.

Hitchens is known fo...