Essays on power : empire, the sin upon my head / by Dessislav Valkanov.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Valkanov, Dessislav, 1973- author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Power (Philosophy).

Physical Description:

1 online resource (xiii, 95 pages)

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

Newcastle upon Tyne, UK : Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2018.

Summary:

This fascinating book brings together philosophical and historical essays on the European experience of empire. Its main thesis is that at the heart of political experience stands a metaphysical one, with a rich trail of evidence in the historical record. The book sets out to explore this in the case of a succession of European empires between the fifteenth and twentieth centuries. Power changed everything. It took away the old conceptions of morality and exposed the nature of the world in a way that forced these empires to make a choice on who they were and what they wanted. The study of this choice, translated into a million other choices and acts, forms the core of the text. It proceeds in two steps. The first examines the philosophical concepts of power; the second investigates the real experience of these concepts in the turbulent history of Europe from the Reformation to the Second World War and its aftermath. The result is a passionate and elegant work that offers a groundbreaking look into the psychology and psychosis of imperial power and achieves the rarest of feats: a philosophical work on politics that actually matters.

Contents:

Intro

Table of Contents

Acknowledgements

Preface

Part One: Concepts

1. Dream

2. Possession

3. A Platonic Summary

Part Two: Experiences

1. Sacred Politics

2. Altarpiece

3. Obligation

4. Riches

5. Virtue

6. In Stahlgewittern

7. Corpse Water

8. Enchanted

9. 1984. A Memoir

Into Thin Air: Epilogue

P.S. Babylon Inc

Literature

Index.

Notes:

Description based on print version record.

Description based on publisher supplied metadata and other sources.

ISBN:

1-5275-1477-3

OCLC:

1046634271