| Revolutions Revisited: Two Faces of the Politics of Enlightenment Contributor(s): Lerner, Ralph (Author) |
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ISBN: 0807857424 ISBN-13: 9780807857427 Publisher: University of North Carolina Press OUR PRICE: $37.95 Product Type: Paperback - Other Formats Published: May 2011 |
| Additional Information |
| BISAC Categories: - Political Science | Political Ideologies - General - Philosophy |
| Dewey: 320.509 |
| LCCN: 93-36438 |
| Lexile Measure: 1320 |
| Physical Information: 0.36" H x 6" W x 9" (0.52 lbs) 152 pages |
| Descriptions, Reviews, Etc. |
| Publisher Description: In this elegant extended essay, Ralph Lerner concentrates on the politics of enlightenment--the process by which those who sought to set minds free went about their work. Eighteenth-century revolutionaries in America and Europe, Lerner argues, found that a revolution aimed at liberating bodies and minds had somehow to be explained and defended. Lerner first investigates how the makers of revolution sought to improve their public's aspirations and chances. He pays particular attention to Benjamin Franklin, to the tone and substance of revolutionaries' appeals on both sides of the Atlantic, and to the preoccupations of first- and second-generation enlighteners among the Americans. He then unfolds the art by which later political actors, confronting the profound political, constitutional, and social divisions of their own day, drew upon and reworked their national revolutionary heritage. Lerner's examination of the speeches and writings of Edmund Burke, Abraham Lincoln, and Alexis de Tocqueville shows them to be masters of a political rhetoric once closely analyzed by Plato and his medieval student al-Farabi but now nearly forgotten. Originally published in 1994. A UNC Press Enduring Edition -- UNC Press Enduring Editions use the latest in digital technology to make available again books from our distinguished backlist that were previously out of print. These editions are published unaltered from the original, and are presented in affordable paperback formats, bringing readers both historical and cultural value. |
Contributor Bio(s): Lerner, Ralph: - Ralph Lerner is professor, Committee on Social Thought, at the University of Chicago. He is author of The Thinking Revolutionary: Principle and Practice in the New Republic and coeditor of The Founders' Constitution. |