Equality
The history of an elusive idea
Published on 6. February 2025
Book
Paperback/Softback
528 pages
978-1-80418-685-5 (ISBN)
Description
'This fascinating and refreshing book is more necessary than ever. A must-read' Thomas Piketty
'Fascinating' - New York Times
WINNER OF THE 2024 JACQUES BARZUN PRIZE IN CULTURAL HISTORY
Equality is in crisis. Our world is filled with soaring inequalities, spanning wealth, race, identity, and nationality. Yet how can we strive for equality if we don't understand it? As much as we have struggled for equality, we have always been profoundly sceptical about it. How much do we want, and for whom?
Darrin M. McMahon's Equality is the definitive intellectual history, tracing equality's global origins and spread from the dawn of humanity through the Enlightenment to today. Equality has been reimagined continually, in the great world religions and the politics of the ancient world, by revolutionaries and socialists, Nazis and fascists, and post-war reformers and activists.
A magisterial exploration of why equality matters and why we continue to reimagine it, Equality offers all the tools to rethink equality anew for our own age.
'Fascinating' - New York Times
WINNER OF THE 2024 JACQUES BARZUN PRIZE IN CULTURAL HISTORY
Equality is in crisis. Our world is filled with soaring inequalities, spanning wealth, race, identity, and nationality. Yet how can we strive for equality if we don't understand it? As much as we have struggled for equality, we have always been profoundly sceptical about it. How much do we want, and for whom?
Darrin M. McMahon's Equality is the definitive intellectual history, tracing equality's global origins and spread from the dawn of humanity through the Enlightenment to today. Equality has been reimagined continually, in the great world religions and the politics of the ancient world, by revolutionaries and socialists, Nazis and fascists, and post-war reformers and activists.
A magisterial exploration of why equality matters and why we continue to reimagine it, Equality offers all the tools to rethink equality anew for our own age.
Reviews / Votes
'This fascinating and refreshing book is more necessary than ever. A must-read' -- Thomas Piketty * author of Capital in the Twenty-First Century * 'Fascinating' * New York Times * 'Compellingly readable' * Times Literary Supplement * 'With erudition and style, reveals the contradictions and hypocrisy, the hopes and dreams, that lie behind an idea of great importance' -- James Hanrahan * The Irish Times * 'A landmark work of intellectual history ... This book is deeply researched, tightly argued and sparklingly written. It ought to be read by anyone interested in equality, and also anyone interested in people, history, God, politics, religion, nationalism, war or love' -- Richard V Reeves * Literary Review *More details
Language
English
Place of publication
Chichester
United Kingdom
Dimensions
Height: 196 mm
Width: 126 mm
Thickness: 38 mm
Weight
366 gr
ISBN-13
978-1-80418-685-5 (9781804186855)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Person
Darrin M. McMahon is the David W. Little Class of 1944 Professor of History at Dartmouth College, and the author of Happiness: A History and Divine Fury: A History of Genius.