Hope and Memory: Lessons from the Twentieth CenturyPrinceton University Press, 2003 - 337 pagini Both a political history and a moral critique of the twentieth century, this is a personal and impassioned book from one of Europe's most outstanding intellectuals. Identifying totalitarianism as the major innovation of the twentieth century, Tzvetan Todorov examines the struggle between this system and democracy and its effects on human life and consciousness. Totalitarianism managed to impose itself because, more than any other political system, it played on people's need for the absolute: it fed their hope to endow life with meaning by taking part in the construction of a paradise on earth. As a result, millions of people lost their lives in the name of a higher good. While democracy eventually won the struggle against totalitarianism in much of the world, democracy itself is not immune to the pitfall of do-goodery: moral correctness at home and atomic or "humanitarian" bombs abroad. Todorov explores the history of the past century not only by analyzing its spectacular political conflicts but also by offering moving profiles of several individuals who, at great personal cost, resisted the strictures of the communist and Nazi regimes. Some--Margarete Buber-Neumann, David Rousset, Primo Levi, and Germaine Tillion--were deported to concentration camps. Others--Vasily Grossman and Romain Gary--fought courageously in World War II. All became exemplary witnesses who described with great lucidity and humanity what they had endured. This book preserves the memory of the past as we move into the twenty-first century--arguing eloquently that we must place the past at the service of a just future. |
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... countries were at war , the victims of these actions were not asked ahead of time whether they supported their governments ' policies . Some degree of novelty might be found in the fact that America was attacked on its own soil ...
... countries . " Anti - imperialist " rhetoric was tacked on later , in an effort to ensure the sympathy of the masses in the ongoing conflict . It should be added that , from a purely political standpoint , the forecasts of Bin Laden and ...
... country's government but fatal consequences for its population . None of these three groups is coextensive with the entity known as Islam , however much the backers of the terrorist attacks would have liked us to believe so . For the ...
... country , the United States would have to find a way to freeze the financial assets of the terrorist network , infiltrate it , and abduct or execute its most dangerous members . It would have been a long and difficult campaign ...
... country . But to say that it was legitimate is not to say that it should be a source of pride or celebration . U.S. bombing - though it did not , as might have been feared , provoke a major catastrophe — nonetheless caused the death of ...
Alte ediții - Afișează-le pe toate
Hope and Memory: Lessons from the Twentieth Century Tzvetan Todorov,Cvetan Todorov Previzualizare limitată - 2016 |
Hope and Memory: Lessons from the Twentieth Century Tzvetan Todorov Nu există previzualizare disponibilă - 2003 |
Hope and Memory: Reflections on the Twentieth Century Tzvetan Todorov Nu există previzualizare disponibilă - 2005 |
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The Bourgeois Virtues: Ethics for an Age of Commerce Deirdre Nansen McCloskey Previzualizare limitată - 2010 |
Where Have All the Soldiers Gone?: The Transformation of Modern Europe James J. Sheehan Nu există previzualizare disponibilă - 2008 |