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In
the turbulent period between 1870 and 1930, the contours on modernity
were taking shape, especially the connections between technology,
politics and aesthetics. The trilogy The Nihilist Order
traces the genealogy of the nihilist-totalitarian syndrome.
Georges Sorel (1847–1922) was the first political
philosopher to develop a systematic theory of political myth, one
that had profound impact on radical leaders and totalitarian movements
of the twentieth century. While he was a highly respected early
political sociologist, his writings transcended disciplinary boundaries
in their creation of a modern political mythology. Believing that
ideology was too abstract, general and ineffective to be instrumental
in the political mobilization of the masses, he formulated the myth
of the general strike. According to his theory of social psychology,
people are socialized not by means of ideology, but through a common
experience of action. This idea was adopted to great effect in the
following years by revolutionary syndicalism, fascism and bolshevism.
… Sorel’s problem was one
that is well understood by the social thinkers of today: that of
revitalizing a political arena and a social structure which he felt
to be dominated by an inauthentic, degenerate search for a tranquil
bourgeois existence. The myth of violence, he believed, would reinvigorate
the militancy of both socialism and nationalism and spur these on
to a new and dynamic course of action. Sorelian myth should be understood
in a new way, not as a means to some ideological purpose, but to
a mobilization of heroic action, seen as an end in itself.
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Preface
Part One Georges Sorel and the Rise of Political Myth
Chapter One The Role of Myth in History
Chapter Two The Origins of Sorelian Thought
Chapter Three The Birth of Civilization Out of Myth
Chapter Four The Illusions of Harmony
Chapter Five Marxism in Nietzschean Dress
Chapter Six Violence and Force, Myth and Utopia
Chapter Seven The Dreyfus Revolution
Chapter Eight The Sorelian Order
Part Two Mythology Reconstructed
Chapter Nine Walter Benjamin, Ernst Bloch and the Fascist Myth
Chapter Ten Ernst Cassirer and the Rise of “Myth-Leader”
Chapter Eleven Camus, Sartre, Arendt and the Myth of Violence
Chapter Twelve Marshall McLuhan, Technology and Myth
Chapter Thirteen The “Anti-Intellectual” Intellectuals
as Political Mythmakers
Notes
Bibliography
Index
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“A provocative and illuminating thesis
on Totalitarianism.” Isaiah Berlin
“Ohana has convincingly shown that a complex
cultural, ideological and psychological syndrome, linking nihilism
to totalitarianism, represented a significant factor in the ‘gathering
storm’ which marked the early twentieth century.”
Saul Friedländer, author of The Years of Extermination:
Nazi Germany and the Jews, 1939–1945
“A major contribution to the understanding
of the ‘condition humain’.” Yehoshua Arieli,
author of Individualism and Nationalism in American Ideology
“A turning point in the research
of European modernity.” Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung
“Ohana begins by exploring
the political and mythical theory of Georges Sorel (1847–1922)
as a pioneering theoretician of myth who shaped the radical path
of political and syndicalist currents in France and Europe. He also
attributes to him the theoretical framework, historical analogies,
and intellectual support for radical activists and political leaders
who sought to move from ideology to myth by stressing belligerent
form rather than ideological content, preaching liberating violence,
and creating a fighting order. In the second part, he introduces
critical theoreticians who recognized the centrality of myth but
did not share Sorel’s political conclusions, among them Bloch,
Cassirer, Sartre, Arendt, and McLuhan.”
Reference & Research Book News |
Publication Details
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Hardback ISBN: |
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978-1-84519-290-7 |
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Page Extent / Format: |
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224 pp. / 229 x 152 mm |
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Release Date: |
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April 2009 |
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Illustrated: |
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No |
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Hardback Price: |
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£44.50 / $67.50 |
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