The Cunning of Unreason: Making Sense of Politics - Brossura

Dunn, John

Brossura

ISBN 10: 0006863582 ISBN 13: 9780006863588

Casa editrice: HarperCollins, 2001

Riassunto

Britain’s greatest political historian and scientist shows in this unique book the nuts and bolts of how politics works.

Politics is inevitably disappointing. Why is this so? Politics is important and obscure and difficult. Must it be so? How can anyone even begin to understand politics? In fact, why bother to try to understand it at all?

This, possibly the first genuinely, unblinkingly honest book about politics, endeavours to answer all these questions. ‘The Cunning of Unreason’ shirks nothing, no aspect of political thought or theory. It explains first in the abstract (what is politics? etc.) and then makes this concrete, tying the ideas into a fascinating re interpretation of Thatcher’s Britain. Dunn shows how this lasted and then fell apart, in all its complexity. The focus then becomes more general, spanning ideas of state, judgment, corruption, democracy and its failings, economics, markets, etc, etc. The final part is one of consolidation: what is political science; what are the implications of our and the world’s current political situation and how can we use this knowledge to choose better?

‘As usual John Dunn asks questions about politics and the political process that few other scholars have thought of asking (or dared to ask). “The Cunning of Unreason” is a searching intellectual inquiry into the nature of political action; but it is an even more disturbing and acute essay upon the nature of political thought. It is idiosyncratic, brilliant, and very original.’ Paul Kennedy, author of ‘The Rise and Fall of the Great Powers’

Su questo libro

L'autore:

JOHN DUNN has been Professor of Political Theory at the University of Cambridge since 1987, and a Fellow of Kings College, Cambridge since 1966. Among his previous publications are the volume on Locke in the OUP Past Masters series, the classic study Western Political Theory in the Face of the Future (reissued by Canto, 1994) and Democracy: the Unfinished Journey (OUP, 1992).

Dalla quarta di copertina:

"An impressively profound and comprehensive survey of the current and future economic and political scene."
IAN GILMORE, 'The Times'

"A serious jewel."
STEVEN POOLE, 'Gaurdian'

"Perhaps the most original and important political thinker of his generation, John Dunn's 'The Cunning of Unreason' provides a powerful, challenging and consistently illuminating demonstration of why professional understandings are so erratic and disappointing. Beginning from first principles – what is politics? Why does it exist at all? – he threads his way towards specific examples chosen to instruct us on how to understand our own political predicaments. Dunn's outstanding trait is his sensitivity toward the two core dimensions of politics: power and value. He takes the case of Britain under Mrs Thatcher, and asks why there occurred a sharp shift in the political right and what this shift means... By broadening our sense of politics and why it matters, by reminding, us of the quality of wisdom, Dunn has given us a rare thing: an intellectually aristocratic book written for a profoundly democratic age."
SUNIL KHILNANI, 'Financial Times'

"Stimulating and deft... an impressive and interesting book"
ANDREW ROBERTS, 'Daily Telegraph'

"A breviary of scepticism, 'The Cunning of Unreason' blows a gust of fresh air through the cobwebbed byways of political thought."
JOHN GRAY,'Independent'

Su questa edizione

• Editore: HarperCollins
• Data di pubblicazione: 2001
• ISBN 10: 0006863582
• ISBN 13: 9780006863588
• Rilegatura: Copertina flessibile
• Numero di pagine: 416