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9780190058418

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Duong sheds light on our present with a significant and timely blend of democratic theory, political thought, and history. * Stephen W. Sawyer, Professor of History, The American University of Paris * In his arresting and innovative study, Kevin Duong returns to episodes in the French republican tradition to show how violence appealed to those struggling to bring the abstractions of modern democracy into communion with the concrete social body. For historians and theorists willing to think with Duong beyond the limits of the Cold War, this book is essential. * Samuel Moyn, Professor of History, Yale University * Kevin Duong's highly readable book deftly weaves together theory and history in an important argument about the redemptive capacity of violence. Drawing on key revolutionary moments from France, Duong's work serves as a timely corrective to those who would dismiss violence as solely destructive and divisive. Reviving conversations about violence in politics could not come at a more opportune time. * Judith Grant, Professor of Political Science, Ohio University * Violence is repugnant. This book aims to make you less certain of that. Duong's surprising and original history of redemptive violence in 19th-century French political thought recaptures its relationship to a democratic desire - solidarity - that abstract rights and individual freedoms cannot satisfy.Not that we twenty-first century democrats should take to the barricades as revolutionaries, but that we must honor the demand for social cohesion and imagine non-nativist ways of satisfying it. * Lisa Disch, Professor of Political Science, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor *

"""Duong is an innovative, intuitive, and insightful guide who leads us through complicated historical episodes in a compelling voice. The Virtues of Violence is an important book that will likely change the contours of debate about the meaning of nineteenth-century democratic contestation--no longer seen primarily as a looming problem for liberalism but rather as a deeply ingrained pattern of thought and emotion with its own powerful force field."" -- Perspectives on Politics ""Violence is repugnant. This book aims to make you less certain of that. Duong's surprising and original history of redemptive violence in 19th-century French political thought recaptures its relationship to a democratic desire DL solidarity DL that abstract rights and individual freedoms cannot satisfy. Not that we twenty-first century democrats should take to the barricades as revolutionaries, but that we must honor the demand for social cohesion and imagine non-nativist ways of satisfying it."" -- Lisa Disch, Professor of Political Science, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor ""Kevin Duong's highly readable book deftly weaves together theory and history in an important argument about the redemptive capacity of violence. Drawing on key revolutionary moments from France, Duong's work serves as a timely corrective to those who would dismiss violence as solely destructive and divisive. Reviving conversations about violence in politics could not come at a more opportune time."" -- Judith Grant, Professor of Political Science, Ohio University ""In his arresting and innovative study, Kevin Duong returns to episodes in the French republican tradition to show how violence appealed to those struggling to bring the abstractions of modern democracy into communion with the concrete social body. For historians and theorists willing to think with Duong beyond the limits of the Cold War, this book is essential."" -- Samuel Moyn, Professor of History, Yale University ""Duong sheds light on our present with a significant and timely blend of democratic theory, political thought, and history."" -- Stephen W. Sawyer, Professor of History, The American University of Paris"

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Kevin Duong is Assistant Professor of Politics at the University of Virginia.

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