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The Enlightenment That Failed
- Ideas, Revolution, and Democratic Defeat, 1748-1830
- Narrated by: James Cameron Stewart
- Length: 60 hrs and 58 mins
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Publisher's summary
The Enlightenment That Failed explores the growing rift between those Enlightenment trends and initiatives that appealed exclusively to elites and those aspiring to enlighten all of society by raising mankind's awareness, freedoms, and educational level generally. Jonathan I. Israel explains why the democratic and radical secularizing tendency of the Western Enlightenment, after gaining some notable successes during the revolutionary era (1775-1820) in numerous countries, especially in Europe, North America, and Spanish America, ultimately failed. He argues that a populist, Robespierriste tendency, sharply at odds with democratic values and freedom of expression, gained an ideological advantage in France, and that the negative reaction this generally provoked caused a more general anti-Enlightenment reaction, a surging anti-intellectualism combined with forms of religious revival that largely undermined the longings of the deprived, underprivileged, and disadvantaged, and ended by helping, albeit often unwittingly, conservative anti-Enlightenment ideologies to dominate the scene.
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From one of the leading critics of leftist orientations comes a study of the thinkers who have most influenced the attitudes of the New Left. Beginning with a ruthless analysis of New Leftism and concluding with a critique of the key strands in its thinking, Roger Scruton conducts a reappraisal of such major left-wing thinkers as E. P. Thompson, Ronald Dworkin, R. D. Laing, Jurgen Habermas, Gyorgy Lukacs, Jean-Paul Sartre, Jacques Derrida, Slavoj Žižek, Ralph Milliband, and Eric Hobsbawm. Scruton delivers a critique of modern left-wing thinking.
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Deconstructing the New Left
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Islam
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Read the Book, pass on the audible!
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Bernard Lewis is recognized around the globe as one of the leading authorities on Islam. Hailed as "the world's foremost Islamic scholar" (Wall Street Journal), as "a towering figure among experts on the culture and religion of the Muslim world" (Baltimore Sun), and as "the doyen of Middle Eastern studies" (New York Times), Lewis is nothing less than a national treasure, a trusted voice that politicians, journalists, historians, and the general public have all turned to for insight into the Middle East.
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Informative intellectual biography, poor reading
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Interesting but lacks objectivity
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The Twilight of the American Enlightenment
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In the aftermath of World War II, the United States stood at a precipice. The forces of modernity unleashed by the war had led to astonishing advances in daily life, but technology and mass culture also threatened to erode the country's traditional moral character. As award-winning historian George M. Marsden explains in The Twilight of the American Enlightenment, postwar Americans looked to the country's secular liberalelites for guidance in this precarious time, but these intellectuals proved unable to articulate a coherent common cause by which America could chart its course.
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Such a relevant book to our current world
- By Adam Shields on 09-14-16
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On Anarchism
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On Anarchism provides the reasoning behind Noam Chomsky's fearless lifelong questioning of the legitimacy of entrenched power. In these essays, Chomsky redeems one of the most maligned ideologies, anarchism, and places it at the foundation of his political thinking. Chomsky's anarchism is distinctly optimistic and egalitarian. Moreover, it is a living, evolving tradition that is situated in a historical lineage; Chomsky's anarchism emphasizes the power of collective, rather than individualist, action.
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Hit and Miss
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The Civilization of the Middle Ages
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The Civilization of the Middle Ages incorporates current research, recent trends in interpretation, and novel perspectives, especially on the foundations of the Middle Ages and the Later Middle Ages of the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. A sharper focus on social history, Jewish history, women’s roles in society, and popular religion and heresy distinguish the book.
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Recommended for students
- By Delano on 12-18-11
By: Norman F. Cantor
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What listeners say about The Enlightenment That Failed
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- John M Bryant
- 02-10-24
Magnificent performance of an overwhelming argument
James Cameron Stewart is simply magnificent, tackling a wide range of languages, difficult names, and complex sentences with grace. Israel lays out not only his thesis, but why his critics are wrong.
In short, the enlightenment split into radical and moderate factions. The radical wing failed, but has reformed as postmodernism. A valuable correction to arguments like those in Cynical Theories and similar works.
The links are clear - you can see “modern” complaints about inequality in quotes from the 1600s.
Missing is any link to the impact the discovery of the Americas and native political organizations on European thought. This is unfortunate, as idealized versions likely influenced the arguments in Europe.
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- Anonymous User
- 07-02-22
Enlightened radical
This book is the best audiobook I have ever listened to. I am a history buff and this book plays on the philosophical/ideological and historical slant. I am definitely of the positive critique and Israel won me over with his pounding thesis of radical enlightenment - democratising republicanism coupled with rejection of religious authority or dogmatism.
The thing that made this such a great audiobook however was the narrator, James Cameron Stewart. He was perfect for this book. It was his cadence through sentences. The emphasis or stress he put on words with a slight pause. It was just so well delivered. The pronunciation was impeccable through many different languages - French mainly, but also German, Danish, Swedish, Dutch & Spanish.
I feel after finishing this exhaustive audiobook that I got a real education in the 18th century philosophical struggles of Europe. Struggles between monarchy and republics, struggles between the supremacy of church and atheism. It seems like a very challenging age where individuals were starting to think for themselves and fight the status quo.
What I would truly wish is that Jonathan Israel would allow the other three preceding books in this series to be recorded in audio. If this was excellent, I can’t imagine how good Democratic Enlightenment, Enlightenment Contested, or Radical Enlightenment would be. And of course please allow James Cameron Stewart to narrate these as well. He was unbelievable.
5 stars
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- Ruth B. Goldston
- 06-01-22
Long but Good Tour
…. thru the enlightenment starting from Spinoza, lingering (of course) on the French Revolution, and getting to Marx. He has a thesis about the strands of the enlightenment that doesn’t get too much in the way of the broad and informative sweep of the history. The lesson for our times is that democracy has a tough competitor in autocratic populism.
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