Toward Democracy: The Struggle for Self-Rule in European and American Thought

Kloppenberg, James T.

ISBN 10: 019505461X / ISBN 13: 9780195054613

Verlag: Oxford University Press, Oxford, London, New York, Toronto, Melbourne &c., 2016

Beschreibung

MAGNIFICENT: ENCYCLOPEDIC: COMPREHENSIVE: PROVOCATIVE: AUTHORITATIVE: NEW First Edition hardcover (Orig. 2016) w/ full no. line showing First Printing, NEW handsomely-designed-illustrated unclipped mylar-protected jacket / sharp NEW edges & corners & showing orig. $34.95 pub. price at bottom-right rear panel, IMMACULATE smooth-cut text-block exterior, NEW cover w/ back paper wrapping spine & extending 1.36" onto front & back panels strikingly covered in crimson paper w/ sharp NEW edges & corners & titles ELEGANTLY gold-stamped on spine, IMMACULATE smooth-cut text-block exterior, NEW perfect binding w/ tight signatures & gold-white-checked cloth bands at spine-caps, IMPECCABLE jet-black card-stock end-papers, PRISITNE interior handsomely printed on EXCELLENT unblemished archival paper * Extensive Endnotes, Index * 6.36" x 9.50" x 2.24", 0.84 kg, xvi+892 (914) pp * ABOUT THE BOOK: In this magnificent & encyclopedic overview, James T. Kloppenberg presents the history of democracy from the perspective of those who struggled to envision & achieve it. The story of democracy remains one w/o an ending, a dynamic of progress & regress that continues to our own day. In the classical age "democracy" was seen as the failure rather than the ideal of good governance. Democracies were deemed chaotic & bloody, indicative of rule by the rabble rather than by enlightened minds. Beginning in the 16th & 17th centuries, however, first in Europe & then in England's North American colonies, the reputation of democracy began to rise, resulting in changes that were sometimes revolutionary & dramatic, sometimes gradual & incremental. Kloppenberg offers a fresh look at how concepts & institutions of representative government developed & how understandings of self-rule changed over time on both sides of the Atlantic. Notions about what constituted true democracy preoccupied many of the most influential thinkers of the Western world, from Montaigne & Roger Williams to Milton & John Locke; from Rousseau & Jefferson to Wollstonecraft & Madison; & from de Tocqueville & J.S. Mill to Lincoln & Frederick Douglass. Over 3 centuries, explosive ideas & practices of democracy sparked revolutions--English, American, & French--that again & again culminated in civil wars, disastrous failures of democracy that impeded further progress.Comprehensive, provocative, & authoritative, "Toward Democracy" traces self-government through 3 pivotal centuries. The product of 20 years of research & reflection, this momentous work reveals how nations have repeatedly fallen short in their attempts to construct democratic societies based on the principles of autonomy, equality, deliberation, & reciprocity that they have claimed to prize. Underlying this exploration lies Kloppenberg's compelling conviction that democracy has always been & remains an ethical ideal rather than merely a set of institutions, a goal toward which we continue to struggle. * HIGHEST PRAISE: "Intellectual history on a monumental scale . . ." -David A. Bell, Princeton University. "Learned & magisterial . . . " -Caroline Winterer, Stanford Humanities Center. "Magnum Opus. Extraordinary . . ." -E.J. Dionne * ABOUT THE AUTHOR: JAMES T. KLOPPENBERG is Charles Warren Professor of American History at Harvard, where he teaches European & American intellectual history. He has been elected to the American Academy of Arts & Sciences & to the Executive Board of the Organization of American Historians, has served as Pitt Professor at the University of Cambridge & as a visiting professor at the Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales in Paris, & has held fellowships from the ACLS, NEH, and the Guggenheim, Whiting, & Danforth foundations. * SHIPPING: MNEMOSYNE carefully wraps, labels & custom-packages this fine book for FREE domestic shipment via USPS MEDIA MAIL or USPS PRIORITY MAIL for a below-cost additional fee & to international destinations via USPS FIRST CLASS INTERNATIONAL AIRMAIL at our quoted below-cost rates. Bestandsnummer des Verkäufers 010717

Bibliografische Details

Titel: Toward Democracy: The Struggle for Self-Rule...

Verlag: Oxford University Press, Oxford, London, New York, Toronto, Melbourne &c.

Erscheinungsdatum: 2016

Einband: Hardcover

Zustand: New

Zustand des Schutzumschlags: New

Auflage: 1st Edition

Über diesen Titel

Inhaltsangabe:

The history of democracy, in addition to being a tale of social movements and political and economic developments, is also a story of ideas. In Toward Democracy, James T. Kloppenberg explores this story of ideas, focusing on the evolution of democracy in Britain's North American colonies and then in the United States. By concentrating on historical figures whose pivotal texts and framed arguments helped form the concept of democracy, he examines how American ideas and practices both descended and diverged from earlier European, and particularly English, models. Kloppenberg also shows how American thought, in return, profoundly influenced European ideas about democracy--both negatively and positively.

Toward Democracy presents the history of democracy from the perspective of those who helped to form its principles. Kloppenberg neither condemns nor endorses these thinkers, but rather offers a fresh look at how these initial democratic ideals have shifted over time. He argues that democracy has remained an ethical model rather than a mere set of institutions, and sheds light on the many failures faced by democracy and its advocates. This discrepancy--between intentions and results--constitutes the tragic irony of democracy.

From the beginnings of democracy in the ancient world, through the Enlightenment, and past the French Revolution, James T. Kloppenberg's authoritative work traces the transformation of democracy over centuries, and reveals how nations have repeatedly failed in their attempts to construct democratic societies based on the autonomy and reciprocity they so prized.

Über die Autorin bzw. den Autor:

James T. Kloppenberg is Charles Warren Professor of American History at Harvard University.