Overview

In this book Robert Fine reviews three great studies of modern political life: Hegel's ""Elements of the Philosophy of Right"", Marx's Capital"" and Hannah Arendt's ""Origins of Totalitarianism."" The book not only offers a reinterpretation of these individual texts, but shows what is revealed when these texts are freed from their intellectual isolation and read together as a living unity. In Fine's account all three emerge as ""critical texts"" which contrast the great promise of modern politics - freedom, equality, solidarity - with the grubbier reality of domination and violence. They are all revealed as ""empirical"" works which analyze the actual forms of political modernity; as ""scientific"" works which are not content merely with describing external appearances; as ""dynamic"" works concerned with the movement and trajectory of modern politics; and finally as ""unmasking texts"" which not only address the illusions of modern politics but also the illusion of unmasking itself.

Full Product Details

9780415239080

Table of Contents

Reviews

Author Information

Robert Fine is Convenor of the MA in Social and Political Thought and Director of the Centre for Social Theory at the University of Warwick. He is author of Democracy and the Rule of Law: Liberal Ideals and Marxist Critiques (Pluto) and Beyond Apartheid: Labour and Liberation in South Africa (Pluto). He is co-editor of Social Theory after the Holocaust (Liverpool University Press).

Tab Content 6

Countries Available