The Ideology of Political Reactionaries (Routledge Innovations in Political Theory) - Softcover

Shorten, Richard

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1032125101 ISBN 13: 9781032125107

Verlag: Routledge, 2023

Inhaltsangabe

The Ideology of Political Reactionaries offers a new perspective on the beliefs reactionaries share, presenting a theory of reactionary ideology in the process. Rather than taking self-contradictions in the reactionary imagination as a reason for diminishment, complexity is taken as a challenge.

The book argues that the features that unite reactionaries lie in rhetoric. Reactionaries make three persuasive appeals: to decadence, conspiracy, and indignation. They also display some recurrent styles. The book's rhetorical approach entails a critique of the alternative approaches to reactionary politics (dubbed as 'dispositional', 'sociological', and 'conceptual'). At the heart of the book is the textual analysis of the writings of a range of figures who are chosen in deliberate diversity and who have interacted with political audiences in different eras and settings: Edmund Burke, Joseph de Maistre, Sarah Palin, Donald Trump, Adolf Hitler, Éric Zemmour, Joe McCarthy, Anders Breivik, and Nigel Farage. Analysis of their writings helps the book to reckon with some particular puzzles of ideologies and rhetoric. These puzzles include the proximity of reactionaries to conservatism, the ambiguity of their nostalgia, the myth of their essential charisma, and the apparent fetishisation of facts.

The Ideology of Political Reactionaries ought to interest anyone concerned about current ideological trends and, in particular, students and scholars of politics and history.

Über diesen Titel

Über die Autorin bzw. den Autor

Richard Shorten is Senior Lecturer in Political Theory at the University of Birmingham, United Kingdom. His research focuses on the history of modern political ideas, particularly in twentieth-century Europe. He is the author of Modernism and Totalitarianism (2012). He has written widely on topics relating to extremism and political violence.

Details zur Ausgabe

• Verlag: Routledge
• Erscheinungsdatum: 2023
• Sprache: Englisch
• ISBN 10: 1032125101
• ISBN 13: 9781032125107
• Einband: Taschenbuch
• Auflage: 1
• Anzahl der Seiten: 284
• Kontakt zum Hersteller: Taylor and Francis; gpsr@taylorandfrancis.com; ; Taylor & Francis Verlag GmbH, Kaufingerstraße 24; München; 80331; Deutschland