[2 Vol. Set] The Dominant Ideas of the Nineteenth Century and Their Impact on the State, Volume 1: Diagnosis [and] Volume 2: Remedy

Hardcover. 8 3/4" X 5 3/4". 543pp; xiv, 612pp. Both volumes bound in dark navy cloth over boards, with spines lettered in gilt. Mild shelfwear to bindings, with faint wear to cloth boards. Binding are firm, tight, and sound. Pages are clean and unmarked. A very smart set, complete in two volumes, of this English translation of this critical political treatise by Hungarian statesman Baron József Eötvös (1813-1871), part of the series Eastern European Monographs No. CDLXIII & CDLXIV and Atlantic Studies on Society in Change No. 87 & 88. ABOUT THIS SET: This is the first English translation of a classic of nineteenth-century European liberal political thought. Its thesis is that since the French Revolution, the dominant ideas of liberty, equality and nationality, have been given a meaning quite different from liberal interpretations. Liberty, for instance, has been taken to mean that all power is nominally exercized by 'the people' ; this difference, according to Eotvos, is the cause of all the sufferings of the age. This work constitutes a devastating, prescient commentary on the twentieth century, and has been apotent influence in post-communist Hungary. The translator has supplied precise reference for Eotovos's quotations, a substantial introduction, and an index with short notes on proper names. (Publisher).