Placeholder text

Go to cart

The Shipwrecked Mind

By Mark Lilla

Product Image: The Shipwrecked Mind

The Shipwrecked Mind

Only 1 item left in stock
Description
We don't understand the reactionary mind. As a result, argues Mark Lilla in this timely book, the ideas and passions that shape today's political dramas are unintelligible to us. The reactionary is anything but a conservative. He is as radical and modern a figure as the revolutionary, someone shipwrecked in the rapidly changing present, and suffering from nostalgia for an idealized past and an apocalyptic fear that history is rushing toward catastrophe. And like the revolutionary his political engagements are motivated by highly developed ideas. Lilla begins with three twentieth-century philosophers-Franz Rosenzweig, Eric Voegelin, and Leo Strauss-who attributed the problems of modern society to a break in the history of ideas and promoted a return to earlier modes of thought. He then examines the enduring power of grand historical narratives of betrayal to shape political outlooks since the French Revolution, and shows how these narratives are employed in the writings of Europe's right-wing cultural pessimists and Maoist neocommunists, American theoconservatives fantasizing about the harmony of medieval Catholic society and radical Islamists seeking to restore a vanished Muslim caliphate. The revolutionary spirit that inspired political movements across the world for two centuries may have died out. But the spirit of reaction that rose to meet it has survived and is proving just as formidable a historical force. We live in an age when the tragicomic nostalgia of Don Quixote for a lost golden age has been transformed into a potent and sometimes deadly weapon. Mark Lilla helps us to understand why.
Product details
Binding:
Paperback
Number of Pages:
168
Release Date:
2016-09-06
Publication Date:
2016-09-06
Publisher:
New York Review of Books
Languages:
Original: English
ISBN10:
1590179021
ISBN13:
9781590179024
GPSR Manufacturer Reference:
[email protected]
Weight:
207 g
Height:
142 cm
Width:
208 cm
Thickness:
15 cm
Buy on Amazon

Condition

Show more

Show less
Good
The items bear minimal signs of past use, such as light scratches or memories in the form of markings. These signs of wear give the items a charming character and tell stories of their previous owners, while not affecting their functionality.
Available immediately
€7,79

Incl. VAT, plus shipping costs

PayPal
Visa
Mastercard
American Express
Only 1 item left in stock

Verified second-hand article

Verified second-hand item

Free shipping from 19€

€7,79