Democracy's Rebirth

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Author :
Publisher : University of Illinois Press
ISBN 13 : 025205329X
Total Pages : 177 pages
Book Rating : 4.2/5 (52 download)

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Book Synopsis Democracy's Rebirth by : Dick Simpson

Download or read book Democracy's Rebirth written by Dick Simpson and published by University of Illinois Press. This book was released on 2022-04-26 with total page 177 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Dick Simpson draws upon his fifty-year career as a legislator, campaign strategist, and government advisor to examine the challenges confronting Americans in their struggle to build the United States as a multiracial, multiethnic democracy. Using Chicago as an example, Simpson examines how the political, racial, economic, and social inequalities dividing the nation play out in our neighborhoods and cities. His investigation of our current crisis and its causes delves into issues like money in politics, low voter participation, the politics of resentment, political corruption, and a host of structural problems. But Democracy’s Rebirth goes beyond analysis. Simpson lays out a sober, practical manifesto meant to inspire people everywhere to educate themselves and do the hard work of creating the kind of strong institutions that will allow true democracy to flourish. With a foreword by Mayor Lori E. Lightfoot.

The Rebirth of Urban Democracy

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Author :
Publisher : Brookings Institution Press
ISBN 13 : 9780815723660
Total Pages : 356 pages
Book Rating : 4.7/5 (236 download)

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Book Synopsis The Rebirth of Urban Democracy by : Jeffrey M. Berry

Download or read book The Rebirth of Urban Democracy written by Jeffrey M. Berry and published by Brookings Institution Press. This book was released on 2002-09-13 with total page 356 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In an era when government seems remote and difficult to approach, participatory democracy may seem a hopelessly romantic notion. Yet nothing is more crucial to the future of American democracy than to develop some way of spurring greater citizen participation. In this important book, Jeffrey Berry, Ken Portney, and Ken Thompson examine cities that have created systems of neighborhood government and incorporated citizens in public policymaking. Through careful research and analysis, the authors find that neighborhood based participation is the key to revitalizing American democracy. The Rebirth of Urban Democracy provides a thorough examination of five cities with strong citizen participation programs--Birmingham, Dayton, Portland, St. Paul, and San Antonio. In each city, the authors explore whether neighborhood associations encourage more people to participate; whether these associations are able to promote policy responsiveness on the art of local governments; and whether participation in these associations increases the capacity of people to take part in government. Finally, the authors outline the steps that can be taken to increase political participation in urban America. Berry, Portney, and Thomson show that citizens in participatory programs are able to get their issues on the public agenda and develop a stronger sense of community, greater trust in government officials, and more confidence in the political system. From a rigorous evaluation of surveys and interviews with thousands of citizens and policymakers, the authors also find that central governments in these cities are highly responsive to their neighborhoods and that less conflict exists among citizens and policymakers. The authors assert that these programs can provide a blueprint for major reform in cities across the country. They outline the components for successful participation programs and offer recommendations for those who want to get involved. They demonstrate that participation systems can influence citizens to become more knowledgeable, more productive, and more confident in government; and can provide more governments with a mechanism for being more responsive in setting priorities and formulating polices that closely approximate the true preferences of the people.

The Rebirth of Urban Democracy

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Author :
Publisher : Brookings Institution Press
ISBN 13 : 9780815723660
Total Pages : 348 pages
Book Rating : 4.7/5 (236 download)

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Book Synopsis The Rebirth of Urban Democracy by : Jeffrey M. Berry

Download or read book The Rebirth of Urban Democracy written by Jeffrey M. Berry and published by Brookings Institution Press. This book was released on 2002-09-13 with total page 348 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In an era when government seems remote and difficult to approach, participatory democracy may seem a hopelessly romantic notion. Yet nothing is more crucial to the future of American democracy than to develop some way of spurring greater citizen participation. In this important book, Jeffrey Berry, Ken Portney, and Ken Thompson examine cities that have created systems of neighborhood government and incorporated citizens in public policymaking. Through careful research and analysis, the authors find that neighborhood based participation is the key to revitalizing American democracy. The Rebirth of Urban Democracy provides a thorough examination of five cities with strong citizen participation programs--Birmingham, Dayton, Portland, St. Paul, and San Antonio. In each city, the authors explore whether neighborhood associations encourage more people to participate; whether these associations are able to promote policy responsiveness on the art of local governments; and whether participation in these associations increases the capacity of people to take part in government. Finally, the authors outline the steps that can be taken to increase political participation in urban America. Berry, Portney, and Thomson show that citizens in participatory programs are able to get their issues on the public agenda and develop a stronger sense of community, greater trust in government officials, and more confidence in the political system. From a rigorous evaluation of surveys and interviews with thousands of citizens and policymakers, the authors also find that central governments in these cities are highly responsive to their neighborhoods and that less conflict exists among citizens and policymakers. The authors assert that these programs can provide a blueprint for major reform in cities across the country. They outline the components for successful participation programs and offer recommendations for those who want to get involved. They demonstrate that participation systems can influence citizens to become more knowledgeable, more productive, and more confident in government; and can provide more governments with a mechanism for being more responsive in setting priorities and formulating polices that closely approximate the true preferences of the people.

The Rebirth of Russian Democracy

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Author :
Publisher : Harvard University Press
ISBN 13 : 9780674750012
Total Pages : 252 pages
Book Rating : 4.7/5 (5 download)

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Book Synopsis The Rebirth of Russian Democracy by : Nicolai N. Petro

Download or read book The Rebirth of Russian Democracy written by Nicolai N. Petro and published by Harvard University Press. This book was released on 1995 with total page 252 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Includes bibliographical references and index.

Alternatives to Democracy in Twentieth-Century Europe

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Publisher : Central European University Press
ISBN 13 : 9633863104
Total Pages : 492 pages
Book Rating : 4.6/5 (338 download)

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Book Synopsis Alternatives to Democracy in Twentieth-Century Europe by : Sabrina P. Ramet

Download or read book Alternatives to Democracy in Twentieth-Century Europe written by Sabrina P. Ramet and published by Central European University Press. This book was released on 2019-06-12 with total page 492 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Alternatives to Democracy in Twentieth-Century Europe examines the historical examples of Soviet Communism, Italian Fascism, German Nazism, and Spanish Anarchism, suggesting that, in spite of their differences, they had some key features in common, in particular their shared hostility to individualism, representative government, laissez faire capitalism, and the decadence they associated with modern culture. But rather than seeking to return to earlier ways of working these movements and regimes sought to design a new future – an alternative future – that would restore the nation to spiritual and political health. The Fascists, for their part, specifically promoted palingenesis, which is to say the spiritual rebirth of the nation. The book closes with a long epilogue, in which Ramet defends liberal democracy, highlighting its strengths and advantages. In this chapter, the author identifies five key choke points, which would-be authoritarians typically seek to control, subvert, or instrumentalize: electoral rules, the judiciary, the media, hate speech, and surveillance, and looks at the cases of Viktor Orbán’s Hungary, Jarosław Kaczyński’s Poland, and Donald Trump’s United States.

Suicide of the West

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Author :
Publisher : Crown Forum
ISBN 13 : 110190495X
Total Pages : 482 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (19 download)

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Book Synopsis Suicide of the West by : Jonah Goldberg

Download or read book Suicide of the West written by Jonah Goldberg and published by Crown Forum. This book was released on 2020-01-14 with total page 482 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • An urgent argument that America and other democracies are in peril because they have lost the will to defend the values and institutions that sustain freedom and prosperity. Now updated with a new preface! “Epic and debate-shifting.”—David Brooks, New York Times Only once in the last 250,000 years have humans stumbled upon a way to lift ourselves out of the endless cycle of poverty, hunger, and war that defines most of history. If democracy, individualism, and the free market were humankind’s destiny, they should have appeared and taken hold a bit earlier in the evolutionary record. The emergence of freedom and prosperity was nothing short of a miracle. As Americans we are doubly blessed, because the radical ideas that made the miracle possible were written not just into the Constitution but in our hearts, laying the groundwork for our uniquely prosperous society. Those ideas are: • Our rights come from God, not from the government. • The government belongs to us; we do not belong to it. • The individual is sovereign. We are all captains of our own souls, not bound by the circumstances of our birth. • The fruits of our labors belong to us. In the last few decades, these political virtues have been turned into vices. As we are increasingly taught to view our traditions as a system of oppression, exploitation, and privilege, the principles of liberty and the rule of law are under attack from left and right. For the West to survive, we must renew our sense of gratitude for what our civilization has given us and rediscover the ideals and habits of the heart that led us out of the bloody muck of the past—or back to the muck we will go.

The Rebirth of Democracy

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Author :
Publisher : Council of Europe
ISBN 13 : 9789287130945
Total Pages : 452 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (39 download)

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Book Synopsis The Rebirth of Democracy by : International Institute for Democracy

Download or read book The Rebirth of Democracy written by International Institute for Democracy and published by Council of Europe. This book was released on 1996-01-01 with total page 452 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia.

The Demise and Rebirth of American Third Parties

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Author :
Publisher : Routledge
ISBN 13 : 1351128248
Total Pages : 314 pages
Book Rating : 4.3/5 (511 download)

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Book Synopsis The Demise and Rebirth of American Third Parties by : Bernard Tamas

Download or read book The Demise and Rebirth of American Third Parties written by Bernard Tamas and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2018-03-13 with total page 314 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Virtually all academic books on American third parties in the last half-century assume that they have largely disappeared. This book challenges that orthodoxy by explaining the (temporary) decline of third parties, demonstrating through the latest evidence that they are enjoying a resurgence, and arguing that they are likely to once again play a significant role in American politics. The book is based on a wealth of data, including district-level results from US House of Representatives elections, state-level election laws after the Civil War, and recent district-level election results from Australia, Canada, India, and the United Kingdom.

Democracy as Popular Sovereignty

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Publisher : Lexington Books
ISBN 13 : 073917939X
Total Pages : 125 pages
Book Rating : 4.7/5 (391 download)

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Book Synopsis Democracy as Popular Sovereignty by : Filimon Peonidis

Download or read book Democracy as Popular Sovereignty written by Filimon Peonidis and published by Lexington Books. This book was released on 2013-08-15 with total page 125 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Although democracy is in principle associated with popular rule, in practice it is best described as rule by elected elites. This form of government is not only wanting from a theoretical point of view, but it also no longer seems to meet the expectations of large segments of the citizenry. This book offers a blueprint for an alternative democratic model, democracy as popular sovereignty. Starting with the idea that the people, generously defined, are sovereign when they rule as equally valuable and fully participating members of a self-governing collectivity, this model tries to describe the constitutional and institutional arrangements necessary to achieve a workable version of this idea in advanced democratic states. This implies among other changes a greater dose of direct democracy, the use of sortition and a different conception of representation. The overall argument developed combines insights, facts, and findings from normative political theory, empirical political science, democracy’s long history as well as from the recent burgeoning literature on participatory and deliberative democracy.

The Rebirth of Politics in Russia

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Author :
Publisher : Cambridge University Press
ISBN 13 : 9780521566117
Total Pages : 452 pages
Book Rating : 4.5/5 (661 download)

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Book Synopsis The Rebirth of Politics in Russia by : Michael Urban

Download or read book The Rebirth of Politics in Russia written by Michael Urban and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 1997-03-28 with total page 452 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Blending first hand accounts of grassroots politics with an original theory of social relations under communism, this 1997 book seeks to explain one of the seminal events of this century: the rebirth of politics in Russia amid the collapse of the USSR. The authors trace the process from the pre-political period of dissident activity, through perestroika and the appearance of political groups and publications, elections, the formation of political parties and mass movements, counter-revolution and coup d'état, the victory of democratic forces and the organization of a Russian state; to the struggle of power in the post-communist epoch, the violent end of the first republic and the contentious relations engulfing its successor. By focusing on the popular forces which accomplished Russia's political rebirth, rather than the reforms of the Soviet establishment, this book offers an original perspective on this critical period.

How Democracies Die

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Author :
Publisher : Crown
ISBN 13 : 1524762946
Total Pages : 321 pages
Book Rating : 4.5/5 (247 download)

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Book Synopsis How Democracies Die by : Steven Levitsky

Download or read book How Democracies Die written by Steven Levitsky and published by Crown. This book was released on 2019-01-08 with total page 321 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • “Comprehensive, enlightening, and terrifyingly timely.”—The New York Times Book Review (Editors' Choice) WINNER OF THE GOLDSMITH BOOK PRIZE • SHORTLISTED FOR THE LIONEL GELBER PRIZE • NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY The Washington Post • Time • Foreign Affairs • WBUR • Paste Donald Trump’s presidency has raised a question that many of us never thought we’d be asking: Is our democracy in danger? Harvard professors Steven Levitsky and Daniel Ziblatt have spent more than twenty years studying the breakdown of democracies in Europe and Latin America, and they believe the answer is yes. Democracy no longer ends with a bang—in a revolution or military coup—but with a whimper: the slow, steady weakening of critical institutions, such as the judiciary and the press, and the gradual erosion of long-standing political norms. The good news is that there are several exit ramps on the road to authoritarianism. The bad news is that, by electing Trump, we have already passed the first one. Drawing on decades of research and a wide range of historical and global examples, from 1930s Europe to contemporary Hungary, Turkey, and Venezuela, to the American South during Jim Crow, Levitsky and Ziblatt show how democracies die—and how ours can be saved. Praise for How Democracies Die “What we desperately need is a sober, dispassionate look at the current state of affairs. Steven Levitsky and Daniel Ziblatt, two of the most respected scholars in the field of democracy studies, offer just that.”—The Washington Post “Where Levitsky and Ziblatt make their mark is in weaving together political science and historical analysis of both domestic and international democratic crises; in doing so, they expand the conversation beyond Trump and before him, to other countries and to the deep structure of American democracy and politics.”—Ezra Klein, Vox “If you only read one book for the rest of the year, read How Democracies Die. . . .This is not a book for just Democrats or Republicans. It is a book for all Americans. It is nonpartisan. It is fact based. It is deeply rooted in history. . . . The best commentary on our politics, no contest.”—Michael Morrell, former Acting Director of the Central Intelligence Agency (via Twitter) “A smart and deeply informed book about the ways in which democracy is being undermined in dozens of countries around the world, and in ways that are perfectly legal.”—Fareed Zakaria, CNN

The Rebirth of History

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Author :
Publisher : Penguin Mass Market
ISBN 13 :
Total Pages : 378 pages
Book Rating : 4.:/5 (321 download)

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Book Synopsis The Rebirth of History by : Misha Glenny

Download or read book The Rebirth of History written by Misha Glenny and published by Penguin Mass Market. This book was released on 1993 with total page 378 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Account of the 1989 revolution in Eastern Europe plus a new chapter bringing events up to date considering the long-term influences to determine the future of the region.

Democracy's Edge

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Publisher : John Wiley & Sons
ISBN 13 : 0787983357
Total Pages : 493 pages
Book Rating : 4.7/5 (879 download)

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Book Synopsis Democracy's Edge by : Frances Moore Lappe

Download or read book Democracy's Edge written by Frances Moore Lappe and published by John Wiley & Sons. This book was released on 2005-10-28 with total page 493 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Three out of five Americans, both Republicans and Democrats, feel our country is headed in the wrong direction. America is at the edge, a critical place at which we can either renew and revitalize or give in and lose that most precious American ideal--democracy--and along with it the freedom, fairness, and opportunities it assures. Democracy's Edge is a rousing battle cry that we can--and must--act now. From Jefferson to Eisenhower, presidents from both parties have warned us of the danger of letting a closed, narrow group of business and government officials concentrate power over our lives. Yet today, a small and unrepresentative group of people is making vital decisions for all of us. But this crisis is only a symptom, Lappé argues. It's a symptom of thin democracy, something done to us or for us, not by or with us. Such democracy is always at risk of being stolen by private interests or extremist groups, left and right. But there is a solution. The answer, says Lappé, is Living Democracy, a powerful yet often invisible citizens' revolution surging in communities across America. It's not random, disjointed activism but the emergence of a new historical stage of democracy in which Americans realize that democracy isn't something we have but something we do. Either we live it or lose it, says Lappé.

The Rebirth Constitution

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Author :
Publisher : Createspace Independent Publishing Platform
ISBN 13 : 9781484910207
Total Pages : 164 pages
Book Rating : 4.9/5 (12 download)

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Book Synopsis The Rebirth Constitution by : Thomas Dahlberg

Download or read book The Rebirth Constitution written by Thomas Dahlberg and published by Createspace Independent Publishing Platform. This book was released on 2013-07-04 with total page 164 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The US Constitution of 1789 has been disobeyed from the outset because it could be. Its anti-democratic bias, its lack of democratic process, has made it impossible for the people to directly police their so-called "representatives," judges, and constitutional officers. None of them, contrary to what they so often suggest, are the champions of the objective truth. All human thought and action is tradition-bound. Because it was not specifically prohibited and sanctioned in the constitution of 1789, the government has monopolized the means of cultural production -- the schools, the universities, the welfare system, policy-making science, immigration, and the courts. It has leveraged this monopoly in its attempt to make its liberal, rationalist tradition the culturally dominant tradition and the dominant interpretation of the otherwise static text of the positive law -- including the constitution itself. The so-called "rule of law" is the rule of a dominant tradition. We must make it impossible for the government to unilaterally determine that tradition. Democracy is the private ownership and control of the means of cultural production. This must be asserted explicitly in our constitution if democracy is going to survive. We need a new postmodern constitution which rejects the modern liberal notion that the government can be rooted in universal standards of rational justification and universal principles of justice; that it can be tradition-neutral. Democracy is rooted in a whole web of belief about Reality, including the nature of man and therefore the nature of justice. The Rebirth Constitution recognizes the Christian foundations of real democracy, including the rejection of any official state religion and the separation of the state from every form of non-technical education. The western religious tradition is the foundation of all limits on the state. The state must have a tradition to administer justice. Paradoxically, that tradition must be one which, by its very nature, puts itself at risk by giving the people complete control over the means of cultural production. Without this popular control of the culture there is no liberty and there is no peace. This is what justifies the very same government's enforcement of the democratically derived law; its prohibition of sub-cultural law when such law violates the law written by the people and interpreted by the tradition they make dominant through competing private education and the election of their judges. The Rebirth Constitution is an explicitly postmodern, neopopulist artifact. It is a text that will please libertarians, but whose foundations are unquestionably post-liberal.

Civic Responsibility and Higher Education

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Author :
Publisher : Rowman & Littlefield
ISBN 13 : 1573565636
Total Pages : 448 pages
Book Rating : 4.5/5 (735 download)

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Book Synopsis Civic Responsibility and Higher Education by : Thomas Ehrlich

Download or read book Civic Responsibility and Higher Education written by Thomas Ehrlich and published by Rowman & Littlefield. This book was released on 2000 with total page 448 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: More than a century ago, John Dewey challenged the education community to look to civic involvement for the betterment of both community and campus. Today, the challenge remains. In his landmark book, editor Thomas Ehrlich has collected essays from national leaders who have focused on civic responsibility and higher education. Imparting both philosophy and working example, Ehrlich provides the inspiration for innovative new programs in this essential area of learning.

Project Rebirth

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Author :
Publisher : Penguin
ISBN 13 : 1101543485
Total Pages : 173 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (15 download)

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Book Synopsis Project Rebirth by : Dr. Robin Stern

Download or read book Project Rebirth written by Dr. Robin Stern and published by Penguin. This book was released on 2011-08-18 with total page 173 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Written in conjunction with the documentary Rebirth, a full decade in the making, an uplifting look at the lives of nine individuals whose lives were forever changed by the largest tragedy our nation has ever faced. The images of the burning towers, the heartbroken friends building memorials, the minute-by-minute accounts of the horrors of that day-all are indelibly etched on our collective consciousness. But what of those left behind after 9/11? What have they, and we, learned from the gift of time? In Project Rebirth, a psychologist and a journalist examine the lives of nine people who were directly affected by the events of September 11, 2001. Written concurrently with the filming of a forthcoming documentary, it is uniquely positioned to tackle the questions raised about how people react in the face of crippling grief, how you maintain hope for a future when your life as you knew it is destroyed, and the amazing ability of humans to focus on the positive aspects of day-to-day living in the face of tragedy. The project follows people dedicated to rebuilding, both physically and emotionally. Spirituality, resilience, and hope are at the center of their stories. Brian, who lost his firefighter brother, spent two years working at Ground Zero and then helped to rebuild the PATH train station. Tanya, who lost her fiancée on 9/11, finds new love, new life, and joy as a mother in the years following, all doors she thought closed to her forever. Not a book that recounts the events of that day, and not a book about grief, Project Rebirth is a book about resilience and finding inner peace.

The Shape of the New

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Author :
Publisher : Princeton University Press
ISBN 13 : 0691173192
Total Pages : 508 pages
Book Rating : 4.6/5 (911 download)

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Book Synopsis The Shape of the New by : Scott L. Montgomery

Download or read book The Shape of the New written by Scott L. Montgomery and published by Princeton University Press. This book was released on 2016-10-04 with total page 508 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: How four revolutionary ideas from the Enlightenment shaped today's world This panoramic book tells the story of how revolutionary ideas from the Enlightenment about freedom, equality, evolution, and democracy have reverberated through modern history and shaped the world as we know it today. A testament to the enduring power of ideas, The Shape of the New offers unforgettable portraits of Adam Smith, Thomas Jefferson, Alexander Hamilton, Charles Darwin, and Karl Marx—heirs of the Enlightenment who embodied its highest ideals about progress—and shows how their thoughts, over time and in the hands of their followers and opponents, transformed the very nature of our beliefs, institutions, economies, and politics. Yet these ideas also hold contradictions. They have been used in the service of brutal systems such as slavery and colonialism, been appropriated and twisted by monsters like Stalin and Hitler, and provoked reactions against the Enlightenment's legacy by Islamic Salafists and the Christian Religious Right. The Shape of the New argues that it is impossible to understand the ideological and political conflicts of our own time without familiarizing ourselves with the history and internal tensions of these world-changing ideas. With passion and conviction, it exhorts us to recognize the central importance of these ideas as historical forces and pillars of the Western humanistic tradition. It makes the case that to read the works of the great thinkers is to gain invaluable insights into the ideas that have shaped how we think and what we believe.