Overview

In this masterful work of historical scholarship, Zeev Sternhell, an internationally renowned Israeli political scientist and historian, presents a controversial new view of the fall of democracy and the rise of radical nationalism in the twentieth century. Sternhell locates their origins in the eighteenth century with the advent of the Anti-Enlightenment, far earlier than most historians. The thinkers belonging to the Anti-Enlightenment (a movement originally identified by Friederich Nietzsche) represent a perspective that is antirational and that rejects the principles of natural law and the rights of man. Sternhell asserts that the Anti-Enlightenment was a development separate from the Enlightenment and sees the two traditions as evolving parallel to one another over time. He contends that J. G. Herder and Edmund Burke are among the real founders of the Anti-Enlightenment and shows how that school undermined the very foundations of modern liberalism, finally contributing to the development of fascism that culminated in the European catastrophes of the twentieth century.

Full Product Details

9780300135541

Table of Contents

Reviews

In this learned and impassioned book, Zeev Sternhell mounts a major offensive against thinkers--be they conservative or liberal, from Edmund Burke to Isaiah Berlin--that he considers as the enemies of Enlightenment values. Even readers who disagree with Sternhell's thesis will have to admire the scope and force of his argument. This book is a crowning achievement of his long and distinguished career. --Susan Suleiman, author of Crisis of Memory and the Second World War --Susan Suleiman

In his The Anti-Enlightenment Tradition, Professor Sternhell has provided us another work of impeccable scholarship and intellectual stimulation. It is recommended to all who are interested in the fate of our civilization. -A. James Gregor, University of California, Berkeley -- A. James Gregor

Author Information

Zeev Sternhell, who won the 2008 Israel Prize in political science, is Leon Blum Professor of Political Science, Hebrew University.

Tab Content 6

Customer Reviews

Recent Reviews

Countries Available