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OverviewComplications is a brilliant study of the nature of communist totalitarianism pursued through the criticism of the recent work of two neo-liberal historians, Francois Furet and Martin Malia. Their books, The Passing of an Illusion and The Soviet Tragedy respectively were enthusiastically received in the West and, in Lefort's view, have drastically and harmfully oversimplified the nature of the Soviet regime and the nature of the support for it in the interests of providing a historiographical complement to the aggressive neo-liberal consensus of the present day. Lefort, who has always insisted on the relevance of the critique of totalitarianism to the renewal of the left, detects in the authors he surveys a neo-liberal bias that corrupts their interpretation both of the nature and of the lasting significance of the communist regime. It matters a great deal how autopsies of the Soviet Union are conducted because they imply what range of alternatives there is to its failed and criminal enterprise. Full Product DetailsAuthor: Claude Lefort , Julian Bourg (Boston University) , Dick HowardPublisher: Columbia University Press Imprint: Columbia University Press Dimensions: Width: 15.20cm , Height: 2.20cm , Length: 22.90cm Weight: 0.482kg ISBN: 9780231133005ISBN 10: 0231133006 Pages: 256 Publication Date: 05 June 2007 Audience: Professional and scholarly , Professional & Vocational Format: Hardback Publisher's Status: Active Availability: Manufactured on demand  We will order this item for you from a manufactured on demand supplier. Language: English Table of ContentsForeword by Dick Howard Acknowledgments Translator's Introduction by Julian Bourg Author's Introduction 1. Wisdom of the Historian 2. Critique of Couch Liberalism 3. Autopsy of an Illusion 4. Marx's False Paternity 5. The Idea of Revolution and the Revolutionary Phenomenon 6. The Jacobin Phantom 7. A Liberal Matrix for the Dictatorship of the Proletariat? 8. Democracy and Totalitarianism 9. The Myth of the Soviet Union in the West 10. The French Communist Party After World War II 11. Utopia and Tragedy 12. The Political and the Social 13. An Intentional Movement 14. The Party Above All 15. Disincorporation and Reincorporation of Power 16. Hannah Arendt on the Law of Movement and Ideology 17. The Perversion of the Law 18. The Fabrication of the Social 19. Voluntary Servitude 20. Impossible Reform 21. Planning and Social Division 22. Psychologism and Moralism at Fault 23. Communism and the Constitution of the World-Space Notes IndexReviewsAnyone with any interest in understanding the rise and fall of communism in the 20th century will find this book immensely stimulating. -- Paul Anderson Tribune Magazine 1/11/08 A work of extreme lucidity that eludes academic fashion or disciplinary classification. -- Constantin Iordachi, Central European University, Budapest, Hungary Slavic Review Vol. 67, No. 3, Fall 2008 An important book that forces us to rethink a fundamental question of the twentieth century -- Martin Dimitrov Journal of Cold War Stars Vol 10, No 4 Anyone with any interest in understanding the rise and fall of communism in the 20th century will find this book immensely stimulating. -- Paul Anderson, Tribune Magazine A work of extreme lucidity that eludes academic fashion or disciplinary classification. -- Constantin Iordachi, Central European University, Budapest, Hungary, Slavic Review An important book that forces us to rethink a fundamental question of the twentieth century -- Martin Dimitrov, Journal of Cold War Stars Author InformationClaude Lefort is the director of studies emeritus at the Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Science Sociales. He is the author of Writing: The Political Test, Democracy and Political Theory, and Political Forms of Modern Society, among other works. Julian Bourg is assistant professor of history at Bucknell University. He is the editor of After the Deluge: New Perspectives on the Intellectual and Cultural History of Postwar France and the author of From Revolution to Ethics: May 1968 and Contemporary French Thought. Dick Howard is Distinguished Professor of Philosophy at the State University of New York at Stony Brook. Among his books are The Marxian Legacy (2nd ed.), The Birth of American Political Thought, From Marx to Kant (2nd ed.), and Political Judgments. Tab Content 6Author Website:Countries AvailableAll regions |
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