{"product_id":"the-shipwrecked-mind-on-political-reaction-9781590179024","title":"The Shipwrecked Mind: On Political Reaction","description":"We don't understand the reactionary mind. As a result, argues Mark Lilla in this timely book, the ideas and passions that shape today's political dramas are unintelligible to us. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eThe reactionary is anything but a conservative. He is as radical and modern a figure as the revolutionary, someone shipwrecked in the rapidly changing present, and suffering from nostalgia for an idealized past and an apocalyptic fear that history is rushing toward catastrophe. And like the revolutionary his political engagements are motivated by highly developed ideas. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eLilla begins with three twentieth-century philosophers--Franz Rosenzweig, Eric Voegelin, and Leo Strauss--who attributed the problems of modern society to a break in the history of ideas and promoted a return to earlier modes of thought. He then examines the enduring power of grand historical narratives of betrayal to shape political outlooks since the French Revolution, and shows how these narratives are employed in the writings of Europe's right-wing cultural pessimists and Maoist neocommunists, American theoconservatives fantasizing about the harmony of medieval Catholic society and radical Islamists seeking to restore a vanished Muslim caliphate. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eThe revolutionary spirit that inspired political movements across the world for two centuries may have died out. But the spirit of reaction that rose to meet it has survived and is proving just as formidable a historical force. We live in an age when the tragicomic nostalgia of Don Quixote for a lost golden age has been transformed into a potent and sometimes deadly weapon. Mark Lilla helps us to understand why.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eBinding Type:\u003c\/b\u003e Paperback\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublisher:\u003c\/b\u003e New York Review of Books\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublished:\u003c\/b\u003e 09\/06\/2016\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN:\u003c\/b\u003e 9781590179024\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePages:\u003c\/b\u003e 168\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eWeight:\u003c\/b\u003e 0.45lbs\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eSize:\u003c\/b\u003e 8.10h x 5.50w x 0.40d\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eReview Citations: \u003c\/strong\u003e\u003ci\u003ePublishers Weekly\u003c\/i\u003e 05\/23\/2016\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003eKirkus Reviews\u003c\/i\u003e 06\/15\/2016\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003eShelf Awareness\u003c\/i\u003e 09\/09\/2016\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003eChoice\u003c\/i\u003e 03\/01\/2017\u003cbr\u003e","brand":"Mark Lilla","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":44493154582709,"sku":"9781590179024","price":13.56,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0473\/0804\/6492\/files\/img_a2ad3660-1cf5-410d-b395-61a9ac5774f6.jpg?v=1721747246","url":"https:\/\/pastforward.org\/products\/the-shipwrecked-mind-on-political-reaction-9781590179024","provider":"Past Forward","version":"1.0","type":"link"}