Making of Modern Society

Description

THIS IS AN excellent book and a valuable source of reference. The autobiographical introduction is particularly fascinating.” TOM BOTTOMORE, Professor of Sociology, University of Sussex. Robert Nisbet’s most recent essays focus on the intellectual aspects of the making of modern society. He specifically examines the ideas of progress and development, the ethic of equality, the nature of totalitarian mystique, and, finally, the requisites of a free society. Among the major philosophers and critics dealt with most prominently are Vico, Turgot and Marx in relation to the Western philosophy of progress, and Rousseau, Burke, Tocqueville, and Orwell on the battleground — of egalitarianism and power. Professor Nisbet’s new book of essays is characterised by a reasoned and coherent structure of thought, one in which ideas of progress, equality, and power interweave. Introduction 1 PART I 1. Developmentalism: A Critical Analysis 33 2. Vico and the Idea of Progress 70 3. The Future of Futurology 80 4. Turgot and the Contexts of Progress 95 PART II 5. Rousseau and Equality 113 6. Citizenship: Two Traditions 131 7. Many Tocquevilles 150 8. The Social Impact of the American Revolution 167 9. 1984 and the Conservative Imagination 186 Acknowledgments 207 Index 209