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Desolation And Enlightenment: Political Knowledge After Total War, Totalitarianism, And The Holocaust
Author(s): Ira Katznelson (Author)
- Publisher: Columbia University Press
- Publication Date: 30 Sept. 2004
- Edition: Illustrated
- Language: English
- Print length: 208 pages
- ISBN-10: 0231111959
- ISBN-13: 9780231111959
Book Description
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 holocaust. Confronting their period's dashed hopes for reason and knowledge, they asked not just whether the Enlightenment should define modernity, but which Enlightenment we should wish to have. Decades later, in the midst of a new type of war and reanimated discussions of the concept of evil, we share no small stake in assessing their successes and limitations.
Editorial Reviews
Review
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 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
Desolation and Enlightenment 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.--Kamila Stullerova "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"
Katznelson's book remarkably (re)describes post-World War II American political studies... This is an important book.--Maurice Meilleur "Antioch Review"
