The Politics of Authenticity
Radical Individualism and the Emergence of Modern Society
Published on 5. May 2020
358 pages
978-1-78960-511-2 (ISBN)
Description
In this acclaimed exploration of the search for "authentic" individual identity, Marshall Berman explores the historical experiences and needs out of which this new radicalism arose. Focussing on eighteenth-century Paris, a time and place in which a distinctively modern form of society was just coming into its own, Berman shows how the ideal of authenticity-of a self that could organize the individual's energy and direct it toward his own happiness-articulated eighteenth-century man's deepest responses to this brave new world, and his most ardent hope for a new life in it. Exploring in particular the ideas of Montesquieu and Rousseau, Berman shows how the ideal of authenticity was radically opposed to the bourgeois, capitalistic idea of "self-interest."
More details
Edition
Ebook UK & RoW
Language
English
Place of publication
London
United Kingdom
Product notice
Reflowable
ISBN-13
978-1-78960-511-2 (9781789605112)
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
Marshall Berman
The Politics of Authenticity
Radical Individualism and the Emergence of Modern Society
Book
11/2009
2nd Edition
Verso Books
€37.50
Shipment within 3-4 weeks
Person
Marshall Berman was Distinguished Professor of Political Science at City College of New York and CCNY Graduate Center, where he taught Political Theory and Urban Studies and is the author of The Politics of Authenticity, All That Is Solid Melts into Air, and On the Town.
Content
- Cover Page
- Halftitle Page
- Title Page
- Copyright Page
- Dedication
- Contents
- Preface to the Second Edition
- Preface to the First Edition
- Introduction: The Personal is Political
- I: The Subjugated Self in Revolt
- Montesquieu's Persian Letters
- Interlude: Diversion and Discovery: The Self in Enlightenment Thought
- II: Who Am I? Rousseau and the Self as a Problem
- Rousseau's Originality
- Self-Alienation in Traditional Society
- The Hidden Man: Self-Alienation in Modern Society
- The Paradox of Modernity
- III: The Dialectic of Authenticity
- A New Morality: The Authentic Man
- A New Politics: The Authentic Citizen
- IV: The Politics of Inauthenticity
- The Life and Death of Julie
- More Escapes from Freedom
- Conclusion
- Notes
