Critics of totalitarianism

Bibliographic Data

ID23620101
AuthorsJeffrey C Isaac (corresponding author)
Year2003
Pages181-201
Publication date2003-08-14
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeCHAPTER
VenueCambridge history of twentieth-century political thought (SOURCE_BOOK)
PublisherCambridge University Press (PUBLISHER • US)
DOI10.1017/chol9780521563543.010
OpenAlexW2498813249
ISBN9780521563543
LanguageEN
Citations received6
References cited254

It is common among intellectual historians to conceive of distinct historical periods in terms of the values or world views to which these periods seem to give expression. Thus the eighteenth century is sometimes called the Age of Reason or Enlightenment, and the nineteenth the Age of Ideology or the Age of History. Raymond Aron, in a book of the same name, dubbed the twentieth century the Century of Total War (Aron 1955). Like all historical generalisations, this one seeks to capture what is fundamental – in this case, the organisation of prodigious violence and destructiveness – at the expense of developments deemed less than fundamental, however important they may be. Of course this involves certain judgements of significance. Aron was far from being alone in his assessment of what distinguishes the twentieth century.

Age of Enlightenment · Enlightenment · Epistemology · Expression (computer science) · Ideology · Political science · Politics · European Political History Analysis · French Historical and Cultural Studies · History · Law · Philosophy · Political Theory and Influence

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