The Fetishism of Modernities: Epochal Self-Consciousness in Contemporary Social and Political Thought (Frank M. Covey, Jr., Loyola Lectures in Political Analysis)

In addition to this much-needed clarification of the uses and abuses of the term "modernity," Yack here provides a fresh look at familiar modern ideas and practices such as nationalism, constitutionalism, and liberal democratic politics. Our world, the author suggests, offers us far stranger and more unexpected combinations that are dreamt of in modernist and postmodernist philosophies. His critique of the tendency to treat modernity as an integrated and coherent whole will expand the reader's vision to take in the broader landscape of surprising and inconsistent features in the social and political world that surrounds us. The Fetishism of Modernities will be of interest to social, political and cultural theorists, intellectual historians and philosophers, as well as anyone with a stake in current debates about modernity and postmodernity. Offers a sustained critical examination of the concept of modernity, providing a fresh look at familiar modern ideas and practices such as nationalism, constitutionalism, and liberal democratic politics. Critiques the tendency to treat modernity as an integrated and coherent whole, and suggests that the real world presents far stranger and more unexpected combinations of these elements than are dreamt of in modernist and postmodernist philosophies. Of interest to cultural theorists, intellectual historians, and philosophers. Annotation c. by Book News, Inc., Portland, Or.