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Item Details
| Title:
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AGAINST THE MASSES
VARIETIES OF ANTI-DEMOCRATIC THOUGHT SINCE THE FRENCH REVOLUTION |
| By: |
Joseph V. Femia |
| Format: |
Hardback |
| List price:
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£132.50 |
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We currently do not stock this item, please contact the publisher directly for
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| ISBN 10: |
0198280637 |
| ISBN 13: |
9780198280637 |
| Publisher: |
OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS |
| Pub. date: |
2 August, 2001 |
| Pages: |
192 |
| Description: |
In this lively and provocative book, the author provides the first systematic and detailed analysis of the anti-democratic tradition in Western thought. His approach is both thematic and historical. The author highlights the fatalism and pessimism of anti-democratic thinkers and argues that they fail to understand the adaptability of democracy and its ability to co-exist with traditional and elitist values. At the same time, the author also acknowledges that some ofthe predictions and observations of anti-Democratic thinkers have been confirmed by history. |
| Synopsis: |
Given the almost universal assumption that democracy is a 'good thing', the goal of mankind, it is easy to forget that 'rule by the people' has been vehemently opposed by some of the most distinguished thinkers in the Western tradition. The author attempts to combat collective amnesia by systematically exploring and evaluating anti-democratic thought since the French Revolution. Using categories first introduced by A. O. Hirschman in The Rhetoric of Reaction, Femia examines the various arguments under the headings of 'perversity', 'futility', and 'jeopardy'. This classification scheme enables him to highlight the fatalism and pessimism of anti-democratic thinkers, their conviction that democratic reform would be either pointless or destructive. Femia shows how they failed to understand the adaptability of democracy, its ability to co-exist with the traditional and elitist values. But, controversially, he also argues that some of their predictions and observations have been confirmed by history. |
| Publication: |
UK |
| Imprint: |
Oxford University Press |
| Returns: |
Non-returnable |
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