In Search of the Liberal Moment
Democracy, Anti-totalitarianism, and Intellectual Politics in France since 1950
Editors: Sawyer, S., Stewart, Iain (Eds.)
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- About this book
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This book explores a series of challenging new perspectives on the origins, development, and legacy of France's 'liberal moment' during the second half of the twentieth century. It surveys a significant shift in interest regarding socio-political philosophy and culture, with the 1970s emergence of a blossoming French curiosity about liberalism and liberal thought. While liberalism had played an important role in French political debate prior to this period, liberal voices were often disregarded. It was not until this newfound fascination with liberalism by French intellectuals—spanning from the second left to the new right—that a French liberal revival truly occurred. In Search of the Liberal Moment addresses this revival, its resultant resuscitation of nineteenth-century authors like Tocqueville and Constant, its relationship with the contemporary rise of neoliberalism in Britain and the US, and how its adherents used liberalism to rethink the past, present, and future of modern democracy.
- About the authors
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Stephen W. Sawyer is an Associate Professor and Chair of the History Department at the American University of Paris, France.
Iain Stewart is a Lecturer in modern European history at University College London, UK, and is currently writing a monograph on Raymond Aron's place in the history of liberal thought in France and internationally. - Reviews
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“The title of this collection of essays is appropriate, since in the past several generations ‘liberalism’ has tended to be elusive and to have a largely negative connotation in France. … For graduate students and specialists. Summing Up: Recommended. Graduate students and faculty.” (W. Safran, Choice, Vol. 54 (5), January, 2017)
- Table of contents (10 chapters)
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Introduction: New Perspectives on France’s “Liberal Moment”
Pages 1-16
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Taking Anti-totalitarianism Seriously: The Emergence of the Aronian Circle in the 1970s
Pages 17-38
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Plettenburg not Paris: Julien Freund, the New Right, and France’s Liberal Moment
Pages 39-59
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Rethinking the French Liberal Moment: Some Thoughts on the Heterogeneous Origins of Lefort and Gauchet’s Social Philosophy
Pages 61-83
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“The Best Help I Could Find to Understand Our Present”: François Furet’s Antirevolutionary Reading of Tocqueville’s Democracy in America
Pages 85-109
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Table of contents (10 chapters)
Bibliographic Information
- Bibliographic Information
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- Book Title
- In Search of the Liberal Moment
- Book Subtitle
- Democracy, Anti-totalitarianism, and Intellectual Politics in France since 1950
- Editors
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- S. Sawyer
- Iain Stewart
- Copyright
- 2016
- Publisher
- Palgrave Macmillan US
- Copyright Holder
- The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s)
- eBook ISBN
- 978-1-137-58126-6
- DOI
- 10.1057/9781137581266
- Hardcover ISBN
- 978-1-137-57823-5
- Softcover ISBN
- 978-1-349-72072-9
- Edition Number
- 1
- Number of Pages
- VII, 222
- Topics
