Setting the People Free : The Story of Democracy, Second Edition / John Dunn.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Dunn, John, author.

Contributor:

Dunn, John.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Democracy.

Democracy--History.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (257 pages)

Edition:

Second edition.

Place of Publication:

Princeton, NJ : Princeton University Press, [2018]

Language Note:

In English.

Summary:

Why does democracy-as a word and as an idea-loom so large in the political imagination, though it has so often been misused and misunderstood? Setting the People Free starts by tracing the roots of democracy from an improvised remedy for a local Greek difficulty 2,500 years ago, through its near extinction, to its rebirth amid the struggles of the French Revolution. Celebrated political theorist John Dunn then charts the slow but insistent metamorphosis of democracy over the next 150 years and its apparently overwhelming triumph since 1945. He examines the differences and the extraordinary continuities that modern democratic states share with their Greek antecedents and explains why democracy evokes intellectual and moral scorn for some, and vital allegiance from others. Now with a new preface and conclusion that ground this landmark work firmly in the present, Setting the People Free is a unique and brilliant account of an extraordinary idea.

Contents:

Frontmatter

Contents

Preface and Acknowledgements to the Second Edition

Acknowledgements for the Original Edition

Preface: Why Democracy?

1. Democracy's First Coming

2. Democracy's Second Coming

3. The Long Shadow of Thermidor

4. Why Democracy?

Conclusion

Notes

Index

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Description based on online resource; title from PDF title page (publisher's Web site, viewed 23. Mai 2019)

Description based on publisher supplied metadata and other sources.

ISBN:

9780691183916

0691183910

OCLC:

1080549166