Reconstructing America: The Symbol of America in Modern Thought - Hardcover

Ceaser, James W.

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0300070535 ISBN 13: 9780300070538

Verlag: Yale University Press, 1997

Inhaltsangabe

For many, America has become the primary symbol of all that is grotesque, deadening and oppressive. It is time, this text argues, to reaffirm confidence in American principles and remember that the US forged a system of liberal democratic government that has shaped the destiny of the modern world.

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Reseña del editor

With wit and passion, Ceaser traces the origins of the negative images of America, beginning with French scientists in the middle of the eighteenth century who viewed the country as a land of racial and physical degeneracy, and continuing with German thinkers from Hegel to Nietzsche, Spengler, and Heidegger, who viewed America as culturally inferior and a technological wasteland. Ceaser puts these critics of America in a dialogue with the country's defenders - among them Alexander Hamilton, Alexis de Tocqueville, and Leo Strauss. By revealing the sources of the hostility to America, Ceaser undermines the position of its present attackers. He contends that only if we reassert political science rather than cultural and literary criticism as the proper intellectual discipline for directing politics will we free the real America from the symbolic America and vindicate its name.

Details zur Ausgabe

• Verlag: Yale University Press
• Erscheinungsdatum: 1997
• Sprache: Englisch
• ISBN 10: 0300070535
• ISBN 13: 9780300070538
• Einband: Tapa dura
• Anzahl der Seiten: 300
• Kontakt zum Hersteller: Nicht verfügbar
• Verantwortliche Person: Nicht verfügbar