Reviews (1)

psychology of conservatism & fundamentalism
Altemeyer is regarded by social psychologists as the world's leading authority on the psychology of political conservatism and the psychology of religious fundamentalism. He has also done the most-extensive studies inthe psychology of bigotry. Altemeyer has submitted his fascinatingpersonality-questionnaire to over 50,000 individuals, including young andold, various academic specializations, Republicans, Democrats, Christians,Jews, Moslems, religious reformists, religious fundamentalists, atheists,agnostics, professional politicians, U.S., Canada, the former SovietUnion--many categories of people. He has applied the sophisticatedmathematical technique of factorial analysis to the results, so as toidentify how a wide range of personality variables naturally clustertogether or separate--are actually the same or different from one another.He has found that political conservatism, religious fundamentalism, and allkinds of bigotry--against Jews, gays, Blacks, women, the poor, and manyother minority or other weak groups--cluster together as actually a singlepersonality-trait, which he has thus called "Right-WingAuthoritarianism." He was amazed to find, when he submitted hisquestionnaires to members of the communist party in the former SovietUnion, that they too scored very high on his "RWA" scale--thatthe U.S.S.R.'s communists were true conservatives. However, communists incapitalist countries, interestingly, scored low on "RWA" orconservatism.Read more

Subjects:  1. Authoritarianism    2. Fascism    3. General    4. History & Theory - Radical Thought    5. Personality    6. Political Psychology    7. Psychiatry - General    8. Psychology    9. Research & Methodology    10. Right and left (Political scie    11. Right-wing extremists    12. Political ideologies    13. Psychology & Psychiatry / Personality    14. Social, group or collective psychology    15. Sociology, Social Studies    16. The self, ego, identity, personality   

Reviews (2)

Academic's trapped mentality: The limits of linear ideology
Reading this book is almost like reading "China's democratic future" all over again. It is all too familiar how normative idealism ruins positive analysis in these two books. The difference is: this one is disguised by more theoretical tools, the other one was an outright shout for a democratic China.
A book for those who actually know the ABCs of China
For those who's never been to China or lived there, this book might be a little out of their scope. Afterall, the only things you hear in the news are how if Walmart were a country, it'd be China's 7th biggest trading partner, or how Intel is building their fabs in China (away from Shanghai towards inland to further reduce cost). For those people, go read on how China will take over the world economically by the middle of this century and believe what you want.
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Subjects:  1. 1976-2000    2. 1976-2002    3. Asia - China    4. China    5. Democracy    6. Economic policy    7. History    8. History - General History    9. History: World    10. Political Ideologies - Communism & Socialism    11. Politics and government    12. Public Policy - Economic Policy    13. Development economics    14. History / China    15. POLITICS & GOVERNMENT    16. Political economy   

Reviews (8)

An Interesting Story, But Lacking Depth
Although Breen, I'm sure, is a fine journalist, this particular work is little more than a compliation of Kim Jong-il news wire snippets and passages from memoirs.Breen offers little in the way of biography other than material provided by DPRK itself. Granted, Kim Jong-il is enigmatic, however Breen's work would have been substantially furhtered had he persued his psycho-political research.The author's brief passages subjecting Kim Jong-il to J.D. Barber'sThe Presidential Character methodology was clever and thought provoking.Had he been able to move his argument further in that direction, perhaps drawing new scholarship into the picture, a clearer picture of Kim Jong-il would appear.Still, Breen's descriptions of his own travels through North Korea were enlightening. As it is indeed, "the hermit kingdom" any description of the North proves intersting.In conclusion, for a good compliaiton of Kim Jong-il info, Breen serves well, but if one is looking for a more indepth biography, it would likely be best to look elsewhere.

Entertaining reading but not particularly insightful
Michael Breen is well qualified to write about the Korean peninsular, having lived in Seoul for many years, and visiting North Korea several times.Although no scholar (he is a former journalist) Breen is also the author of "The Koreans - Who they are, what they want, where their future lies", an excellent commentary on South Korea.
Horrible and ill-informed
I purchased this book with the intent of providing some back ground on Kim Jong-Il as I was reading his official North Korean biography, and foolishly thought this would be one additional perspective.
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Subjects:  1. 1942-    2. Biography    3. Business & Economics    4. Business/Economics    5. Dictators    6. General    7. Government - International    8. History & Theory - Radical Thought    9. Kim, Chong-il,    10. Kim, Chæong-il,    11. Korea (North)    12. Korea - History    13. Political Ideologies - Communism & Socialism    14. Politics / Current Events    15. Asian / Middle Eastern history: postwar, from c 1945 -    16. Business & Economics / General    17. Business & Management    18. North Korea   

Subjects:  1. 1818-1883    2. History & Surveys - 19th Century    3. History & Surveys - General    4. Marx, Karl,    5. Philosophy    6. Political Ideologies - Communism & Socialism    7. Marx, Karl, --1818-1883    8. Marx, Karl,--1818-1883    9. Philosophy / History, Criticism, Surveys    10. Philosophy-History & Surveys - 19th Century    11. Political Science / Communism & Socialism    12. Political ideologies    13. Western philosophy, c 1800 to c 1900   

Reviews (4)

An excellent collection
This is a brilliant collection of some of the very best writings of Karl Marx. A must read for anyone with interest in Marx's early writings (non-Marxist period), letters, essays, his Doctoral thesis, and then later on his political writings forming the `theory of historical materialism', commonly referred to as Marxism. Personally, his `Economic and Philosophical Manuscripts 1844' is really a very nice reading because it renders a very attractive insight into Marx's early intellectual and psychological fight against Hegel's Phenomenology to form the basis of his theory later on. Also included is: Critique of Hegel's works and A Poverty of Philosophy (critique of Proudhon) which are excellent readings. Recommended to everyone; quintessentially to anyone trying to get an insight into one of the greatest intellectual minds of all time.
Wonderful Anthology Of Marx's Theories and Ideas
When one considers the incredible influence that Marxism has had in the unfolding history of the later nineteenth and twentieth century, the beginning student of the combined writings of both Marx and Engels will find this collection of the essential works of these two pioneering socialists absolutely essential reading. Its list of included works covers the waterfront of all that is required to gain a fruitful first look at the wealth of their philosophical musings, and the nature of their revolutionary canon, as well. Reading this material is essential if one is to understand the depth of Marx's understanding and the detail of his genius, however discredited he may be in current estimations. Indeed, with the rise of international corporatism is so close to his prognostications regarding the final phases of capitalism that it is hard to deny his continuing relevance. A Great Anthology
This is the best Marx anthology available.Aside from selections takenfrom all of Marx's major works, it contains lesser-known selections on avariety of topics.The whole presents a steady stream of selectionsthrough Marx's life.Consequently, it gives the length and breadth ofMarx's writing without burying you in a life-time of reading.Shortexplanatory introductions help place the selections in Marx's developmentand in broader history.Read more

Subjects:  1. History & Theory - General    2. Philosophy    3. Political    4. Political Ideologies - Communism & Socialism    5. Marxism & Communism    6. Other prose: 19th century    7. Philosophy / Political    8. Political manifestos    9. Politics | International Studies | Marxism    10. Socialism & left-of-centre democratic ideologies   

Reviews (7)

Good Introduction
The authors make a noble effort to minimize bias and examine the various ideologies objectively.As a few of the negative reviews make clear, not everyone is satisfied with this book's objectivity.I would like to respectfully disagree and ask the reviewers to re-examine their own biases.

good
in good condition and received in a generally timely manner, but could've been done quicker

Poltical Ideologies as a textbook
I am currently using this book in a Honors American Political Science course at Georgia State University.This book is very informative and does not add superfluous information like most textbooks do.However, there are some terms in the text that we as a class have found to be a bit contradictory; such as the term "individual conservative".This seems to be an oxymoron and my professor actually contacted Ball who just basically dodged the question... ... Read more

Subjects:  1. Democracy    2. History    3. Ideology    4. Political Ideologies - Democracy    5. Political Ideologies - General    6. Political Science    7. Politics / Current Events    8. Politics/International Relations    9. Right and left (Political scie    10. Right and left (Political science)    11. Political ideologies   

Editorial Review

Gordon S. Wood--winner of the Pulitzer Prize and professor of American history at Brown University--had no idea what he was getting into when he began this 653-page book. Innocently, he wanted to write a "monographic analysis of constitution-making in the Revolutionary era." Little did he know he would discover an intellectual world where a complete transformation of political thought was occurring, one that would create "a distinctly American system of politics." As Wood explains, "Beneath the variety and idiosyncrasies of American opinion there emerged a general pattern of beliefs about the social process--a set of common assumptions about history, society, and politics that connected and made significant seemingly discrete and unrelated ideas. Really for the first time I began to glimpse what late eighteenth-century Americans meant when they talked about living in an enlightened age." This original study of the American political system is a strong contribution to the scholarly studies of the events surrounding the nation's independence. ... Read more

Reviews (12)

"a true, enduring classic"
Gordon S. Wood is one of the deans of the so-called "intellectual historians" of the Revolutionary era.I just finished reading this book for the third time in the last 15 years, and I am struck by the sweeping nature of it.Wood's thesis is essentially that Americans' thinking about government and politics underwent a remarkable change in the 11 years between the writing of the Declaration of Independence and the framing of the Constitution.In short, through a series of piecemeal changes during this brief period, Americans largely put together a new mode of political thinking.The key to Wood's argument seems to be his discussion of the changes that occurred in the locus of sovereignty, and the separation of political from social authority."The people" play the key role here.They went from traditionally being "embodied" in one branch of the gov't (the House of Commons in England, for example), to being the source of all governmental authority.This change brought with it changes in the understanding of representation and of separation of powers, and made possible Americans' unique concept of federalism, and the development of an "American science of politics".Wood uses a dazzling array of sources to support his arguments, and in doing so, shows how many hands and brains were involved in this work. The book is long and the general reader may find it a bit difficult, but anyone interested in the development of American political thought cannot neglect it.

Truly Great Book
I agree with the observations of all of your other reviewers, though I read this book in graduate school and didn't have trouble staying awake.I think R. Albin of Michigan comes closest to the gist of Wood's central thesis, but I would like to elaborate.The Founding Fathers were steeped in 18th century hierarchical society and resented the inherited privilege of Europe's aristocracy because they believed themselves to be the equal of the gentlemen who ruled England.A hallmark of such a society was a requirement that the elite assume the reins of government and exercise power for the benefit of everyone in society.They were required to act "Virtuously" in 18th century parlance.They did not really intend to change this hierarchy with the Revolution and they fully expected that the common men they mobilized as their ground forces would govern the country virtuously.The common man certainly being capable of governing his own affairs, Adams, Madison and the others found that the rustics who controlled the state legislatures during the Revolution and after had no inclination to govern for the larger society.They pursued their own interests and gave little thought to the greater issues at hand, such as the need for organizing a national government and integrating the economy.Because of that sour experience with "direct" democracy, the Founders created a constitution, based on what they saw as the structure of "checks and balances" implicit in the English constitution, that they hoped would restrain the common man and his lack of virtue.Wood's book is the history of their transition through, and adaptation of, highly sophisticated political theories to arrive at that result.Because of their superior understanding of politics and how to control the forces they unleashed, the US passed through its revolutionary era without the full-blown civil war that plagued both the French and Russian Revolutions.

Amazing book, and great sedative too!
This is a wonderful book that any student of the American Revolution should read.Gordon Wood does a great job of highlighting the fact the our founding fathers were brilliant scholars and historians.I also love how they are placed in the context of the Enlightenment and the Glorious Revolution and how their knowledge of these events shaped American history.Gordon Wood is brilliant, as are our founding fathers.Gentle warning though, this book doesn't have that great of a rhetoric style to it and is rammed full of details, so expect reading it to put you to sleep after a while. ... Read more

Subjects:  1. 1775-1783, Revolution    2. Government - U.S. Government    3. History    4. History - U.S.    5. History: American    6. Political science    7. Revolution, 1775-1783    8. U.S. History - Revolution And Confederation (1775-1789)    9. United States    10. United States - Colonial Period    11. United States - Revolutionary War    12. American history: c 1500 to c 1800    13. History / United States / Revolutionary Period (1775-1800)    14. Political ideologies    15. Political structure & processes    16. USA    17. c 1700 to c 1800    18. political thought; Declaration of Independence; Constitution; American political system; republicanism; American Revolution; Omohundro Institute of Early American History and Culture   

Reviews (172)

Accidentally hilarious
This is surely one of the worst books ever written. By anyone. Ever. And this was a best-seller in the US?!! Read it and weep. The book's title is remarkably telling, in fact telling you all you need to know about it. Charen uses the phrase "useful idiots" to describe those on the left in non-communist countries, apparently because that's what Lenin called them. Except that he didn't! As the author useful mentions on page 10, "Lenin may never have actually uttered the phrase". Hilarious! I might well write my own book in the future, called "Simple-minded Idiots", because Ronald Reagan once said that about Republicans. (Well, he might have done.)
Which "Liberals" Are You Talking About?
This book is yet another attempt to deligitimize any opposition to the the Republican and big business agenda by demogogic attacks on "liberals" as bumblingly inept fools and arbitrary bureacratic despots, if not traitors, who "blame America."Thus the title "Useful Idiots", borrowed from Lenin, implying in the manner of Joe McCarthy that liberals are "dupes of the Communists."
Ollie, give yourself another pat on the back...
Yet another whitewashing and self-serving attempt to claim that Ronald Reagan "won the Cold War" - by the way, it was my impression that the Cold War was not in any sense 'won', it was rather something that just ended, for the most part because it was widely acknowledged within the USSR that the Soviet style economy and political system could neither be sustained nor reformed.
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Subjects:  1. 20th century    2. Cold War    3. Communism    4. History    5. Liberalism    6. Political Ideologies - Communism & Socialism    7. Politics / Current Events    8. Popular Culture - General    9. Social Science    10. Sociology    11. United States    12. United States - 20th Century    13. Cultural studies    14. Social Science / Popular Culture    15. Sociology, Social Studies   

Reviews (11)

How so much Smartness Can Get it so Utterly Wrong
As to the best of my knowledge, there were two major intellectual responses to the seemingly endless and insuperable crisis which the capitalist system had got itself into after the Great Slump of 1929: Keynes`s "General Theory of Money, Interest and Employment" of 1936 and Schumpeter`s "Capitalism" which was first published in 1942. Like Marx before them, both Keynes and Schumpeter reject the "classic economists'" contention that what they called the market system w�ll always automatically swing back to an ideal equilibrium - expecially one that implied full employment - provided only the state kept its hands off as much as possible.
Provocative and Informative Analysis
Despite its age (published in 1942), Schumpeter's book remains a classic. If I have one dominant complaint, it's that he uses the Ubiquitous terms "rational" and "rationality" to refer to human calculus, not in its philosophical or logical senses.
Historical Endnote
Like Hayek's Road to Serfdom, this book was written during the Secon World War when Keynes was busy crafting the post war peace. It is infused with the 1930s' corporatist ideas and tends to favour the Communist version more than the Nazi/Fascist version. Keynes is indisputably the 2oth century's most important economist but why does Schumpeter and his creative destruction occupy position #2? I put it down to the same reason as Marx' Theory of Alienation gained such sway. As there was little else to salvage from Marx' writings, they hit on that to make him apear relevant. Marx was a dangerous idiot and the fact that Schumeter heaps measured praise on him suggests that Schumpeter should also join him in the intellectual trash can of history. I see little relevant in his work which I feel has gained prominence simply because economics has lost its intellectual direction. Unlike Gary Becker and other recipients of the Nobel Prize, Schumpeter tackles big issues. But the big issues shrug him off. Nothing here to ponder over. ... Read more

Subjects:  1. Capitalism    2. Democracy    3. Economics - General    4. General    5. History - General History    6. Political Ideologies - Communism & Socialism    7. Politics/International Relations    8. Socialism    9. Political Science / General    10. Political ideologies   

Editorial Review

Most American conservatives take it as an article of faith that the less governmental involvement in affairs of the market and pocketbook the better. The rich do not, whatever they might say--for much of their wealth comes from the "power and preferment of government." So writes Kevin Phillips, the accomplished historian and one-time Washington insider, in this extraordinary survey of plutocracy, excess, and reform. "Laissez-faire is a pretense," he argues; as the wealth of the rich has grown, so has its control over government, making politics a hostage of money. Examining cycles of economic growth and decline from the founding days of the republic to the recent collapse of technology stocks, Phillips dispels notions of trickle-down wealth creation, pricks holes in speculative bubbles, and decries the ever-increasing "financialization" of the economy--all of which, he argues, have served to reduce the well-being of ordinary Americans and government alike. Highly readable for all its charts and graphs, Phillips's book offers a refreshing--and, of course, controversial--blend of economic history and social criticism. His conclusions won't please all readers, but just about everyone who comes to his pages will feel hackles rising. Read more

Reviews (131)

Intriguing in Places, Sermonizing in Others
Kevin Phillips is not a bad man. He genuinely has an interest in the admittedly complex topic of economics, wealth consolidation and its effects on democratic institutions. The problem with Phillips' book is not that he has shed his Republican affiliation to take up the cause of progressive crusading, but that it often shifts from the gripping to the mind-numbingly technical without warning.
The Game!
The middle class is not democratizing economically or politically.The middle class is not taking control of its money and instead the middle is rapidly transferring money from its savings into the massive market profits for the super rich.The middle class should immediately abandon any transfers from savings into the stock market and preserve their wealth, but instead they will be lured into hedge funds and mutual markets speculating that someday they will be super rich.
a modern day truth teller
I've always been impressed with the honesty and integrity of Kevin Phillips. Coming out of the conservative movement, Phillips nevertheless places truth, and a deep concern for the well being of American democracy, well over and above mere partisanship. The current corrupt leadership in Washington DC could learn a thing or two here, where Phillips turns a critical eye to the age old tension between democracy and the tendency toward an oligarchy. Lately, it seems that democracy has been the loser in this struggle.
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Subjects:  1. Economic Conditions    2. Government - U.S. Government    3. Political Ideologies - Democracy    4. Political Science    5. Political corruption    6. Politics - Current Events    7. Politics / Current Events    8. Politics and government    9. Politics/International Relations    10. Representative government and    11. Representative government and representation    12. United States    13. United States - General    14. Wealth    15. Political ideologies    16. Social Science / Poverty    17. Social history    18. USA   

Reviews (4)

Anyone interested in modern China should own this book

A History of Mao Zedong Thought - but where are the Chinese?
I bought this book largely on the recommendations of previous readers and because I was looking for an intelligent, thought-provoking history of Modern China. On the whole, the book is all these things, but it left meunsatisfied. It's a particular kind of historical review which in the finalanalysis I found wanting because it delivers very broad-stroke judgementsbased on evidence gleaned from a very small grouping of sources. Mr.Meisner analyses modern Chinese history largely through the readings andactions of one man: Mao Zedong. Fair enough, given the title of the book.But it's almost as if no one else matters or had any impact whatsoever onwhat happened. The Chinese people are completely absent from this history,which is largely a history of Mao's shifting theoretical viewpoints. It maybe true that the history of modern China is the history of one man'sthought, but it wasn't until I got to the section dealing with DengXiaoping that I began to feel that I was reading a history of a people witha multitude of viewpoints and opinions. It may be an impossibility to knowwhat actually went on in China from 1946 up to 1976 and that therefore allwe have is Mao Zedong Thought, which may only be another way of saying thata history of Modern China has yet to be written.

A great general overview
I am very glad I read this book (which Howard Zinn recommended to me).I feel I have a firm grasp of the basics of 20th Century Chinese history now.Meisner really takes an independent line: he doesn't just parrot Chineseor US propaganda. I feel he makes reasonable surmises about motivations andactions which are still unclear, given the secretive nature of the Chinesegovernment. In all, one of the best history books I have ever read. ... Read more

Subjects:  1. 1949-    2. Asia - China    3. China    4. China - History - 20th Century    5. History    6. History - General History    7. History: World    8. Political History    9. Political Ideologies - Communism & Socialism    10. Asian / Middle Eastern history: postwar, from c 1945 -    11. History / China   

Reviews (1)

something to stay away from
im taking a political science class and we are using this book. all i have to say its that it is unabashadly liberal. much of this book is just about bush-bashing and why conservativism is bad. mr. baradat is an outspoken socialist and communist. stay away from this book, it really is heinous. if your looking for a book about politics that is VERY left leaning and like bush bashing at every corner, then this is for you. for the 99.9% of the world, stay away. FAR away. ... Read more

Subjects:  1. General    2. History    3. History & Theory - General    4. Ideology    5. Political Ideologies - General    6. Political Science    7. Politics / Current Events    8. Politics/International Relations    9. Textbooks    10. POLITICS & GOVERNMENT    11. Political Science / General    12. Political ideologies    13. Political science & theory   

Reviews (11)

Coming of age as a "ballroom pink"
The Mitfords, the six daughters of Baron Redesdale, were inescapable fixtures of England's cultural life in the Thirties; as their mother noted, she needed only pick up a newspaper to see invariably a headline about "Peer's daughter" and she'd know one of them was in trouble. Eccentric, funny, intelligent and lively, one became a one became a novelist (Nancy), one became a fascist (Diana), one became a countrywoman (Pamela), one became a Nazi (Unity), and one became a duchess (Deborah). The second to youngest, Deborah, became a communist and then a famous muckraking journalist, and wrote THE AMERICAN WAY OF DEATH as well as this very funny memoir of growing up Mitford. Given almost no education while being raised in Gloucestershire and London, she eloped with Churchill's nephew Esmond Romilly to Spain, and then found work with him in America as the war began across the Atlantic. The memoir gives a fascinating account of what it was like to live as what her sisters dismissingly term "a ballroom pink" in the Thirties, but is most memorable, of course, for its detailing of her sisters' hilarious observations about class, snobbery, sex and one another: when it is announced their King is going to marry an American with the unprepossesing name of Wallis Simpson, for example, the sisters refuse to believe it ("That cannot be her real Christian name!").

Surprisingly interesting
Several things about this book were interesting.How alien to our current sensibilites for someone to want to go to school so badly, but have their parents consider it an unnecessary frivolity.Mitford also gives a real sense of what the lead-up to WWII was like.Again, I was fascinated that up until the Nazis invaded France, it wasn't clear if England would fight the Nazis or the Soviets.How strange sounding.And that some in the Engligh upper classes admired Hitler ("We could do with Hitler in this country").Wow, I didn't expect that.
Poignant memoir of happier days
One of my favourite books of all time, Jessica Mitford's Hons and Rebels is her personal account of her childhood as a member of the eccentric, aristocratic family of Lord and Lady Redesdale, and of what happened after that - when she ran away from home to fight in the Spanish Civil War, eloping with a distant cousin.The family were a constant presence in the British press in the first half of the twentieth century, and this book gives the story of their lives from the other side.Impossibly impractical, the author was entirely unprepared for any semblance of independent living - she writes amusingly of her early attempts at housekeeping, including doing the washing-up by washing, drying and putting away each dish before tackling the next one, and sweeping the staircase from the bottom to the top.Personal tragedies, however, are glossed over - the sudden deaths of two of her children are barely mentioned, overshadowed by the family's associations with such famous historical figures as Churchill and Hitler.
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Subjects:  1. 1917-    2. 1917-1996    3. 20th century    4. Biography    5. Biography & Autobiography    6. Biography / Autobiography    7. Biography/Autobiography    8. Childhood and youth    9. England    10. Mitford, Jessica,    11. Political    12. Political Ideologies - Communism & Socialism    13. Social life and customs    14. Socialism    15. Women    16. Biography & Autobiography / Personal Memoirs    17. Biography & Autobiography / Women   

Subjects:  1. Christianity - History - General    2. International Relations - General    3. Ngos (Non-Governmental Organizations)    4. Political Science    5. Politics/International Relations    6. Religion - Church History    7. Religion, Politics & State    8. Christian social thought & activity    9. International relations    10. Political ideologies    11. Religion / Church History    12. USA   

Reviews (9)

Heavy philosophical discourse, but very worthy for serious readers
Intellectuals "are always inclined to judge their country and its institutions by comparing present realitities with theoretical ideals rather than with other realitities." It's evocative of "...the monumental impatience of intellectuals with human complexity and imperfection," and the inability to (quoting from the intro by H. Mansfield) "appreciate the inevitability of partisanship; hence they do not understand politics." But one does not understand politics until one sees that it is a permanent feature of human life, and that it defines human imperfection as the striving for perfection of beings incapable of it."After all, man (as in people-kind) is not God. But for those without any faith in a higher being it is far easier to imagine the feasibility of utopian perfection on earth. Marxism is a 'religion' that supplants religion (& faith in a higher being) and "marxism is in itself a synthesis of all the principal themes of progressive thought." So, it does not beg credulity to see why intellectuals (inclined to "progressive" beliefs & less inclined to be religious---in a traditional sense) imagine anything to be possibile.And it explains why many such people excused away the "terrorism erected into a system of government" in the Soviet Union utilizing a belief that any "progressive" government must be given the benefit of any possible doubts: such is the faith of progressives, easily inebriated on great collective utopian schemes.People are imperfect, though, are they not?Yet intellectuals (far more prone than workers or oppressed minorities) are "merciless toward the failings of democracies but ready to tolerate the worst crimes as long as they are committed in the name of the proper doctrines."It's an inclination that betrays a penchant for aristocratic values and contempt for average people. A little historical context: After the fall of the aristocratic French monarchy "the revolutionary fervour...split into two separate channels, nationalist and socialist," but "the nationalist ideology is nonetheless condemned in Western Europe."After all,how can European 'powers' "get excited about the temporal grandeur of a collectivity which is incapable of manufacturing its own arms" or unwilling to do so.It is much more economical to free-ride off 'nationalist' America, bemoan such a self-imposed predicament, and channel their frustrations into socialist collectivity.Progresive intellectuals in America (who see the proverbial glass more than half-empty) are no different and "are more pained than simpler mortals by the hegemony of the United States."To quote General Wesley Clark, of all people (though many have said this): "people have an instinctive need to feel a part of something greater than themselves."Citizenship in "a second-class nation state [ie., any European state] is not an adequate framework for full human expression," Aron posits.Hence the increased level of anti-Americanism since the defeat of the USSR (a campaign Europe was very much an important contributing part of) & European intellectual elites frantic drive to federally collectivise their continent despite their citizens' mixed inclinations on the matter.So much for the here-&-now-ideals of democracy when judged against the 'limitless' possibilities of the future. Fair warning PS: This very worthy book, like many philosophical works, is heavy reading at times.An example of the author's writing style: "A pseudo-unity is obtained by subordinating the specific meaning of each spiritual universe to the social fuction which is assigned to it, by setting up equivocal or false propositions as the basis of a doctrine which is alleged to be at once scientific and philosophical." (06Jul) Cheers!

A great book about one secular religion.
I read this book here in Brazil, some years ag