Desolation and Enlightenment: Political Knowledge After Total War, Totalitarianism, and the Holocaust

by Ira Katznelson

Overview

Katznelson (political science and history, Columbia U.) writes about reason and the four decades of its sleep after World War II, while cruel and hideous monsters were on the loose. He also offers his views on history, social science, and liberal guardianship. Annotation ©2003 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780231507424
Publisher:	Columbia University Press
Publication date:	05/14/2003
Series:	Leonard Hastings Schoff Lectures
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	208
File size:	2 MB

About the Author

Ira Katznelson is interim provost, Ruggles Professor of Political Science and History, and deputy director of Columbia World Projects at Columbia University. He is the author of many acclaimed books, including When Affirmative Action Was White (2005) and Fear Itself: The New Deal and the Origins of Our Time (2013).

Table of Contents

Preface and Acknowledgments
1. Beyond Common Measure
2. The Origins of Dark Times
3. A Seminar on the State
4. A New Objectivity
Index

What People are Saying About This

E. J. Dionne

Brilliant... an event not only in the history of ideas, but in our own history, too.

— E. J. Dionne, Jr., author of Why Americans Hate Politics

E.J. Dionne

Brilliant... an event not only in the history of ideas, but in our own history, too.

Saskia Sassen

The larger intellectual and normative project in this brilliant book is to revise and extend the legacies of Enlightenment thought so as to help us confront war and violence.... Today, when we once again face a period of desolations and a new type of total war, Katznelson's book assumes a whole new importance.

— Saskia Sassen, author of Losing Control? Sovereignty in an Age of Globalization

Editorial Reviews

The horrors that culminated in the 1940s — world war, totalitarianism, and the Holocaust — dealt a severe blow to Western society's faith in the Enlightenment, rationality, and human progress. In this masterful excursion into the history of ideas, Katznelson explores how a "reconstructionist" generation of political scholars has since attempted to make sense of these dark times and rethink the bases of political theory and liberal community. The book is organized around a sequence of intellectual portraits. Hannah Arendt's treatise on totalitarianism and Karl Polanyi's analysis of the geopolitical structures of the liberal international order offered new insights into large-scale historical change. David Truman and Richard Hofstadter searched for ways to reconcile liberal democracy with the new modern state. Harold Lassell, Robert Dahl, and Charles Lindblom pioneered policy studies that sought to harness technological advances for larger social ends. Katznelson contends that these intrepid intellectuals were united in their determination to maneuver between nihilism and absolutism while preserving their ideals in an age of global catastrophe. Although the book was written largely before the attacks of September 11, 2001, it speaks powerfully to today's struggles to reconcile liberal values with a new threat of violence.

Foreign Affairs

Katznelson's book is an excellent study of one episode in the history of social sciences, an episode that is by no means interesting only to historians. Historical institutionalism is still a very productive approach andDesolation and Enlightenment helps to identify the strengths and limitations of this approach that may be hidden to its contemporary advocates and critics... Katznelson's work shows how real the dilemmas of the political studies enlightenment group are to all of us.

European Journal of Social Theory - Kamila Stullerova

Rich and thoughtful. . . . Contemporary political scientists have produced no better or more profound account of twentieth-century Western political theory.

International Studies Review

[An] eloquent volume. . . . Timely and important.

Perspectives on Politics

In this masterful excursion into the history of ideas, Katznelson explores how a 'reconstructionist' generation of political scholars has since attempted to make sense of these dark times and rethink the bases of political theory and liberal community... Although the book was written largely before the attacks of September 11, 2001, it speaks powerfully to today's struggles to reconcile liberal values with a new threat of violence.

Foreign Affairs - G. John Ikenberry

Katznelson's book is an excellent study of one episode in the history of social sciences, an episode that is by no means interesting only to historians. Historical institutionalism is still a very productive approach and Desolation and Enlightenment helps to identify the strengths and limitations of this approach that may be hidden to its contemporary advocates and critics... Katznelson's work shows how real the dilemmas of the political studies enlightenment group are to all of us.

European Journal of Social Theory

Katznelson's book remarkably (re)describes post-World War II American political studies... This is an important book.

Antioch Review - Maurice Meilleur

Katznelson's book is well written, a clear yet crystalline, multifaceted examination of the plight of Enlightenment thought.

Year's Work in Critical and Cultural Theory

Desolation and Enlightenment is a passionate call to arms.... [Katznelson's] book provides inspiration and considerable guidance for anyone who believes in the social responsibilities of intellectuals.

Ethics & International Affairs

Desolation and Enlightenment is a passionate call to arms.... [Katznelson's] book provides inspiration and considerable guidance for anyone who believes in the social responsibilities of intellectuals.-- "Ethics & International Affairs"

[An] eloquent volume. . . . Timely and important.-- "Perspectives on Politics"

In this masterful excursion into the history of ideas, Katznelson explores how a 'reconstructionist' generation of political scholars has since attempted to make sense of these dark times and rethink the bases of political theory and liberal community... Although the book was written largely before the attacks of September 11, 2001, it speaks powerfully to today's struggles to reconcile liberal values with a new threat of violence.--G. John Ikenberry "Foreign Affairs"

Katznelson's book is an excellent study of one episode in the history of social sciences, an episode that is by no means interesting only to historians. Historical institutionalism is still a very productive approach and Desolation and Enlightenment helps to identify the strengths and limitations of this approach that may be hidden to its contemporary advocates and critics... Katznelson's work shows how real the dilemmas of the political studies enlightenment group are to all of us.-- "European Journal of Social Theory"

Katznelson's book is well written, a clear yet crystalline, multifaceted examination of the plight of Enlightenment thought.-- "Year's Work in Critical and Cultural Theory"

Katznelson's book remarkably (re)describes post-World War II American political studies... This is an important book.--Maurice Meilleur "Antioch Review"

Rich and thoughtful. . . . Contemporary political scientists have produced no better or more profound account of twentieth-century Western political theory.-- "International Studies Review"

From the Publisher

Katznelson's book remarkably (re)describes post-World War II American political studies... This is an important book.

Antioch Review