The Anatomy of Despondency: European Socio-Cultural Criticism 1789–1939

ISBN-13: 9789004194038 / Angielski / Twarda / 2011 / 896 str.

Jaap Harskamp

Opis

Socio-cultural criticism is the continuous assessment and evaluation of developments within democratic society and hence a vital ingredient of democracy itself. Departing from the French Revolution, this study focuses upon a tradition of European criticism. On the whole, critics accepted that technological advance was irreversible but they opposed the assumption that this implied general progress. Instead, they stressed the negatives: class conflict, erosion of tradition, mechanization of life, fragmentation of society, loss of cultural differentiation. The approach is exclusively text-orientated. The result is a multi-coloured mosaic depicting an image of what has moved, confused or dismayed the European mind over a period of a century and a half. The intensity of concern has shaped our contemporary thought, awareness and outlook. "Brill's Texts and Sources in Intellectual History," vol. 8