Setting the People Free: The Story of Democracy, Second Edition Contributor(s): Dunn, John (Author), Dunn, John (Preface by) |
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ISBN: 0691180032 ISBN-13: 9780691180038 Publisher: Princeton University Press OUR PRICE: $20.85 Product Type: Paperback - Other Formats Published: November 2018 |
Additional Information |
BISAC Categories: - Philosophy | Political - Political Science | History & Theory - General - Political Science | Political Ideologies - Democracy |
Dewey: 321.8 |
LCCN: 2018946519 |
Physical Information: 0.8" H x 5.4" W x 8.4" (0.75 lbs) 256 pages |
Descriptions, Reviews, Etc. |
Publisher Description: Why does democracy--as a word and as an idea--loom so large in the political imagination, though it has so often been misused and misunderstood? Setting the People Free starts by tracing the roots of democracy from an improvised remedy for a local Greek difficulty 2,500 years ago, through its near extinction, to its rebirth amid the struggles of the French Revolution. Celebrated political theorist John Dunn then charts the slow but insistent metamorphosis of democracy over the next 150 years and its apparently overwhelming triumph since 1945. He examines the differences and the extraordinary continuities that modern democratic states share with their Greek antecedents and explains why democracy evokes intellectual and moral scorn for some, and vital allegiance from others. Now with a new preface and conclusion that ground this landmark work firmly in the present, Setting the People Free is a unique and brilliant account of an extraordinary idea. |