Elizabeth Deeds Ermarth's book argues that modernity had its roots in the Renaissance and traces the history of modernity and postmodernity in Western culture from that time. After decades of conflicting work on related issues, this succinct, lucid and wide-ranging discussion of what is at stake is much needed.

Illuminating and comprehensive, this excellent volume addresses the problematic relationship between democratic institutions and the current critique of enlightenment and modernity. Since at least the beginning of the twentieth century, and across the range of practice from science to politics to art, various cultural shifts have unsettled assumptions that have been fundamental to the development of democratic institutions: assumptions concerning individual identity, the nature of political systems, and the viability of egalitarian ideals. Can democracy survive these changes to the value...