Confronting Leviathan
A History of Ideas
Published on 9. September 2021
Book
Hardback
288 pages
978-1-78816-782-6 (ISBN)
Description
Based on the History Of Ideas podcast series by Talking Politics host David Runciman, A History of Ideas explores some of the most important thinkers and prominent ideas lying behind modern politics - from Hobbes to Gandhi, from democracy to patriarchy, and from revolution to lock down.
While explaining the most important and often-cited ideas of thinkers such as Constant, De Tocqueville, Marx and Engels, Hayek, MacKinnon and Fukuyama, David Runciman shows how crises - revolutions, wars, depressions, pandemics - generated these new ways of political thinking. This is a history of ideas to help make sense of what's happening today.
While explaining the most important and often-cited ideas of thinkers such as Constant, De Tocqueville, Marx and Engels, Hayek, MacKinnon and Fukuyama, David Runciman shows how crises - revolutions, wars, depressions, pandemics - generated these new ways of political thinking. This is a history of ideas to help make sense of what's happening today.
Reviews / Votes
Incredibly timely ... wonderful elegance and clarity through which complex ideas are presented ... The reader does not need to be considering the power behind lockdowns to read Confronting Leviathan. That the book helps make thinking about the state enjoyable is just the least of its many exceptional qualities ... a great guide -- Paschal Donohoe * Irish Times * A brilliant introduction for anyone looking to engage with political debates beyond the headlines ... Excellent -- Joshua Pugh Ginn * Herald * A studiously accessible work * Times Higher Education * Praise for How Democracy Ends:Presented in pellucid prose free of the jargon of academic political science, How Democracy Ends is a strikingly readable and richly learned contribution to understanding the world today ... surely one of the most luminously intelligent books on politics to have been published for many years. -- John Gray * New Statesman * Bracingly intelligent ... a wonderful read -- Mark Mazower * Guardian * Full of intriguing new lines of thought -- Gideon Rachman * FT * Clear-headed, compact and timely * Irish Times * Refreshingly free of received and rehearsed wisdoms, Runciman doesn't tiptoe around sacred cows and invites us to take part in that most adult way of thinking: to examine contradictory ideas in tandem and ponder what the dissonance amounts to. . . . [H]e argues lucidly, persuasively, even exhilaratingly at times. The nightly news will never appear exactly the same again * Australian * Refreshingly, rather than a knicker-twisting diatribe about Trump and Brexit, Runciman offers a thoughtful analysis about what popular democracy means, and its alternatives -- Katrina Gulliver * Spectator *
More details
Edition
Main
Language
English
Place of publication
London
United Kingdom
Target group
College/higher education
Professional and scholarly
Product notice
Trade binding
Illustrations
integrated b/w photos
Dimensions
Height: 236 mm
Width: 156 mm
Thickness: 30 mm
Weight
560 gr
ISBN-13
978-1-78816-782-6 (9781788167826)
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
Other editions
Additional editions
E-Book
09/2021
Profile Books Ltd
€13.49
Available for download
Person
David Runciman is Professor of Politics at Cambridge University and the former Head of the Department of Politics and International Studies. He is the author of six previous books, including Where Power Stops, How Democracy Ends (Profile), Political Hypocrisy, The Confidence Trap and Politics (for the Ideas in Profile series). He writes regularly about politics for the London Review of Books and hosts the widely acclaimed weekly podcast Talking Politics.