Fanaticism: On the Uses of an Idea
A genealogy of fanaticism—unearthing its long history, before it became a tool in the Clash of Civilizations

It is commonplace to hear fanaticism described as a deviant or extreme variant of an already irrational set of religious beliefs, an assertion that helps to demonize convictions outside political orthodoxy. Alberto Toscano’s compelling and erudite counter-history explodes this accepted convention by exploring the critical role fanaticism played in the formation of modern politics and the liberal state. Showing how fanaticism results from a failure to formulate an adequate emancipatory politics, this illuminating history sheds new light on an idea that continues to dominate debates about faith and secularism.

This expanded edition includes new material that revisits the idea of fanaticism as it operates at the limits of the liberal political imaginary, highlighting its relation to fraternal violence, political purity and the refusal of compromise, as well as its centrality to times of social crisis and international conflict.
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Fanaticism: On the Uses of an Idea
A genealogy of fanaticism—unearthing its long history, before it became a tool in the Clash of Civilizations

It is commonplace to hear fanaticism described as a deviant or extreme variant of an already irrational set of religious beliefs, an assertion that helps to demonize convictions outside political orthodoxy. Alberto Toscano’s compelling and erudite counter-history explodes this accepted convention by exploring the critical role fanaticism played in the formation of modern politics and the liberal state. Showing how fanaticism results from a failure to formulate an adequate emancipatory politics, this illuminating history sheds new light on an idea that continues to dominate debates about faith and secularism.

This expanded edition includes new material that revisits the idea of fanaticism as it operates at the limits of the liberal political imaginary, highlighting its relation to fraternal violence, political purity and the refusal of compromise, as well as its centrality to times of social crisis and international conflict.
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Fanaticism: On the Uses of an Idea

Fanaticism: On the Uses of an Idea

by Alberto Toscano
Fanaticism: On the Uses of an Idea

Fanaticism: On the Uses of an Idea

by Alberto Toscano

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Overview

A genealogy of fanaticism—unearthing its long history, before it became a tool in the Clash of Civilizations

It is commonplace to hear fanaticism described as a deviant or extreme variant of an already irrational set of religious beliefs, an assertion that helps to demonize convictions outside political orthodoxy. Alberto Toscano’s compelling and erudite counter-history explodes this accepted convention by exploring the critical role fanaticism played in the formation of modern politics and the liberal state. Showing how fanaticism results from a failure to formulate an adequate emancipatory politics, this illuminating history sheds new light on an idea that continues to dominate debates about faith and secularism.

This expanded edition includes new material that revisits the idea of fanaticism as it operates at the limits of the liberal political imaginary, highlighting its relation to fraternal violence, political purity and the refusal of compromise, as well as its centrality to times of social crisis and international conflict.

Product Details

ISBN-13: 9781786630544
Publisher: Verso Books
Publication date: 08/29/2017
Pages: 352
Product dimensions: 5.60(w) x 8.20(h) x 1.10(d)

About the Author

Alberto Toscano is Professor of Critical Theory in the Department of Sociology and Co-Director of the Centre for Philosophy and Critical Theory at Goldsmiths, University of London, and Term Research Associate Professor at the School of Communications at Simon Fraser University. He is the author of Fanaticism: On the Uses of an Idea (Verso, 2010; 2017, 2nd ed.), Cartographies of the Absolute (with Jeff Kinkle, Zero Books, 2015), Una visión compleja. Hacía una estética de la economía (Meier Ramirez, 2021), La abstracción real. Filosofia, estética y capital (Palinodia, 2021), and the co-editor of the 3-volume The SAGE Handbook of Marxism (with Sara Farris, Bev Skeggs and Svenja Bromberg, SAGE, 2022), and Ruth Wilson Gilmore's Abolition Geography: Essays in Liberation (with Brenna Bhandar, Verso, 2022). He is a member of the editorial board of the journal Historical Materialism: Research in Critical Marxist Theory and is series editor of The Italian List for Seagull Books. He is also the translator of numerous books and essays by Antonio Negri, Alain Badiou, Franco Fortini, Furio Jesi and others.

Table of Contents

Introduction xi

1 Figures of Extremism 1

2 The Birth of Modern Politics Out of the Spirit of Millenarianism 43

3 Raving with Reason: Fanaticism and Enlightenment 98

4 The Revolution of the East: Islam, Hegel, Psychoanalysis 149

5 The Clash of Abstractions: Revisiting Marx on Religion 172

6 The Cold War and the Messiah: On Political Religion 203

Conclusion 249

Note on the 2017 edition 255

Fanaticism and the Politics of Crisis 257

The Ambiguity of Fanaticism 275

Fanaticism, Fraternity and Global Civil War 291

Acknowledgments 307

Bibliography 309

Index 323

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