'This is an excellent book. It shows a great appreciation of Ernest Gellner's contribution to social thinking and also offers a critical assessment of this thinking in the context of social and intellectual developments since his death. … Ernest Gellner and Contemporary Social Thought is a valuable addition to the libraries of all serious scholars of contemporary society.' Nations and Nationalism
Introduction: an intellectual rebel with a cause Mark Haugaard and Siniša Malešević; Part I. Civil Society, Coercion and Liberty: 1. Ernest Gellner on liberty and modernity Alan Macfarlane; 2. Predation and production in European imperialism Michael Mann; 3. Power, modernity and liberal democracy Mark Haugaard; 4. Gellner versus Marxism: a major concern or a fleeting affair? Peter Skalnik; Part II. Ideology, Nationalism and Modernity: 5. Nationalism: restructuring Gellner's theory Nicos Mouzelis; 6. Between the book and the new sword: Gellner, violence and ideology Siniša Malešević; 7. Ernest Gellner and the multicultural mess Thomas Hylland Eriksen; Part III. Islam, Postmodernism and Gellner's Metaphysic: 8. Islam, Modernity and Science Michael Lessnoff; 9. Truth, reason and the spectre of contingency Kevin Ryan; 10. Gellner's metaphysic John A. Hall.