This book argues that we can no longer envision a political system that might practically displace democracy or, more accurately, global democratic state capitalism. Democracy has become fundamental: It extends deeper and deeper into everyday life; it grounds and limits our political thought and values. That is the sense in which we do indeed live at history’s end. But this end is not a happy one, because the system that we now have does not satisfy tests that we can legitimately put to it.
In this situation, it is important to come to new terms with the fact that literature, at least until about 1945, was predominantly hostile to political democracy. Literature’s deep-seated conservative, counterdemocratic tendencies, along with its capacity to make important distinctions among political, cultural, and experiential democracies and its capacity to uncover hidden, nonpolitical democracies in everyday life, is now a resource not just for cultural conservatives but for all those who take a critical attitude toward the current political, cultural, and economic structures. Literature, and certain novelists in particular, helps us not so much to imagine social possibilities beyond democracy as to understand how life might be lived both in and outside democratic state capitalism.
Drawing on political theory, intellectual history, and the techniques of close reading, Against Democracy offers new accounts of the ethos of refusing democracy, of literary criticism’s contribution to that ethos, and of the history of conservatism, as well as innovative interpretations of a range of writers, including Tocqueville, Disraeli, George Eliot, E. M. Forster, and Saul Bellow.
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Book Description Hardcover. Condition: new. This item is printed on demand. Seller Inventory # 9780823242542
Book Description Condition: New. Seller Inventory # ABLING22Oct1916240264354
Book Description Condition: New. This book argues that political democracy has not fulfilled its promise and that we should therefore re-examine literature's long conservative hostility to it. It offers new accounts of the ethos of refusing political democracy, as well as innovative readings of writers including Tocqueville, Disraeli, George Eliot, E.M. Forster and Saul Bellow. Num Pages: 192 pages. BIC Classification: 1KBB; DSB; JPHV. Category: (G) General (US: Trade). Dimension: 3895 x 5830 x 18. Weight in Grams: 392. . 2012. Hardback. . . . . Seller Inventory # V9780823242542
Book Description Condition: New. This book argues that political democracy has not fulfilled its promise and that we should therefore re-examine literature's long conservative hostility to it. It offers new accounts of the ethos of refusing political democracy, as well as innovative readings of writers including Tocqueville, Disraeli, George Eliot, E.M. Forster and Saul Bellow. Num Pages: 192 pages. BIC Classification: 1KBB; DSB; JPHV. Category: (G) General (US: Trade). Dimension: 3895 x 5830 x 18. Weight in Grams: 392. . 2012. Hardback. . . . . Books ship from the US and Ireland. Seller Inventory # V9780823242542
Book Description Gebunden. Condition: New. This book argues that political democracy has not fulfilled its promise and that we should thereforere-examine literature s long conservative hostility to it. It offers new accounts of the ethos ofrefusing political democracy, as well as innovative readings. Seller Inventory # 867679483
Book Description Hardcover. Condition: new. Hardcover. This book argues that we can no longer envision a political system that might practically displace democracy or, more accurately, global democratic state capitalism. Democracy has become fundamental: It extends deeper and deeper into everyday life; it grounds and limits our political thought and values. That is the sense in which we do indeed live at historys end. But this end is not a happy one, because the system that we now have does not satisfy tests that we can legitimately put to it.In this situation, it is important to come to new terms with the fact that literature, at least until about 1945, was predominantly hostile to political democracy. Literatures deep-seated conservative, counterdemocratic tendencies, along with its capacity to make important distinctions among political, cultural, and experiential democracies and its capacity to uncover hidden, nonpolitical democracies in everyday life, is now a resource not just for cultural conservatives but for all those who take a critical attitude toward the current political, cultural, and economic structures. Literature, and certain novelists in particular, helps us not so much to imagine social possibilities beyond democracy as to understand how life might be lived both in and outside democratic state capitalism.Drawing on political theory, intellectual history, and the techniques of close reading, Against Democracy offers new accounts of the ethos of refusing democracy, of literary criticisms contribution to that ethos, and of the history of conservatism, as well as innovative interpretations of a range of writers, including Tocqueville, Disraeli, George Eliot, E. M. Forster, and Saul Bellow. This book argues that political democracy has not fulfilled its promise and that we should thereforere-examine literatures long conservative hostility to it. It offers new accounts of the ethos ofrefusing political democracy, as well as innovative readings of writers including Tocqueville,Disraeli, George Eliot, E.M. Forster and Saul Bellow. Shipping may be from our UK warehouse or from our Australian or US warehouses, depending on stock availability. Seller Inventory # 9780823242542