The Trouble with History

Morality, Revolution, and Counterrevolution

Bibliographic Data

ID20022558
AuthorsAdam Michnik, Irena Grudzinska-Gro (0000-0003-2892-3862), James Davison Hunter (0000-0002-5501-6718), John M Owens (0000-0003-0458-1992)
EditorsIrena Grudzińska Gross
Year2014
Publication date2014-05-27
Open AccessYes
TypeBOOK
VenueTrouble with History (SOURCE_BOOK)
PublisherYale University Press (PUBLISHER • US)
DOI10.12987/9780300207026
OpenAlexW602408972
ISBN9780300207026
LanguageEN
Citations received7

A brilliant meditation on politics, morality, and history from of the most courageous and controversial authors of our age Renowned Eastern European author Adam Michnik was jailed for more than six years by the communist regime in Poland for his dissident activities. He was an outspoken voice for democracy in the divided by the Iron Curtain and has remained so to the present day. In this thoughtful and provocative work, the man the Financial Times named one of the 20 most influential journalists in the world strips of its religious component and examines it purely as a secular political phenomenon. Comparing modern-day Poland with postrevolutionary France, Michnik offers a stinging critique of the ideological virus of fundamentalism often shared by emerging democracies: the belief that, by using techniques of intimidating public opinion, a state governed by sinless individuals armed with a doctrine of the only correct means of organizing human relations can build a without sin. Michnik employs deep historical analysis and keen political observation in his insightful five-point philosophical meditation on morality in public life, ingeniously expounding on history, religion, moral thought, and the present political climate in his native country and throughout Europe

Communism · Democracy · Doctrine · Ideology · Morality · Political science · Politics · Public morality · Eastern European Communism and Reforms · History · Law · Philosophy · Religious studies

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