Desolation and Enlightenment Political Knowledge After Total War, Totalitarianism, and the Holocaust
Produktdetaljer
Biografisk notat
Ira Katznelson is interim provost, Ruggles Professor of Political Science and History, and deputy director of Columbia World Projects at Columbia University. He is the author of many acclaimed books, including When Affirmative Action Was White (2005) and Fear Itself: The New Deal and the Origins of Our Time (2013).In this masterful excursion into the history of ideas, Katznelson explores how a 'reconstructionist' generation of political scholars has since attempted to make sense of these dark times and rethink the bases of political theory and liberal community... Although the book was written largely before the attacks of September 11, 2001, it speaks powerfully to today's struggles to reconcile liberal values with a new threat of violence.
- G. John Ikenberry, Foreign Affairs
Katznelson's book remarkably (re)describes post-World War II American political studies... This is an important book.
- Maurice Meilleur, Antioch Review
[An] eloquent volume. . . . Timely and important.
Perspectives on Politics
<i>Desolation and Enlightenment</i> is a passionate call to arms.... [Katznelson's] book provides inspiration and considerable guidance for anyone who believes in the social responsibilities of intellectuals.
Ethics & International Affairs
Rich and thoughtful. . . . Contemporary political scientists have produced no better or more profound account of twentieth-century Western political theory.
International Studies Review
Katznelson's book is an excellent study of one episode in the history of social sciences, an episode that is by no means interesting only to historians. Historical institutionalism is still a very productive approach and <i>Desolation and Enlightenment</i> helps to identify the strengths and limitations of this approach that may be hidden to its contemporary advocates and critics... Katznelson's work shows how real the dilemmas of the political studies enlightenment group are to all of us.
European Journal of Social Theory
Katznelson's book is well written, a clear yet crystalline, multifaceted examination of the plight of Enlightenment thought.
Year's Work in Critical and Cultural Theory
In this major intellectual history, Ira Katznelson examines the works of Hannah Arendt, Robert Dahl, Richard Hofstadter, Harold Lasswell, Charles Lindblom, Karl Polanyi, and David Truman, detailing their engagement with the larger project of reclaiming the West’s moral bearing. In light of their epoch’s calamities, these intellectuals insisted that the tradition of Enlightenment thought required a new realism, a good deal of renovation, and much recommitment. This array of historians, political philosophers, and social scientists understood that a simple reassertion of liberal modernism had been made radically insufficient by the enormities and moral catastrophes of war, totalitarianism, and the Holocaust. Confronting dashed hopes for reason and knowledge, they asked not just whether the Enlightenment should define modernity but also which Enlightenment we should wish to have.
1. Beyond Common Measure
2. The Origins of Dark Times
3. A Seminar on the State
4. A New Objectivity
Index