The dragons of expectation
The dragons of expectation: reality and delusion in the course of history Robert Conquest,
Publisher: New York : W.W. Norton, c2005.
ISBN: 0393059332
DDC: 306.09
LCC: HN13
Edition: $24.95 ($36.00 Can)
Summary:
"Aware of the "primitive delusions" that have attracted people to
rogue ideologies over the past century, Robert Conquest has devoted a
lifetime to exposing the political and mental distortions that have
spawned or appeased implacable regimes and led, all too often, to
death and destruction." "Here, in The Dragons of Expectation, whether
discussing the political thinking of ancient Greece, the corrosive
effect of ideological socialism, or the inanities of the European
Union, Conquest assesses the ravages of our past, the absurdities of
our present, and the pitfalls that lie in our future." "As Conquest
observes, the early part of the sixteenth century "saw what appeared
to be, or foreshadow, the rise of a tolerant order on the Continent."
Yet it was not the heirs of Montaigne or Erasmus who prevailed, but
the fanatics and dogmatists, whose ideas plunged Europe into a
downward track with a series of internecine programs the likes of
which had never been seen before."--BOOK JACKET.
Notes:
Includes bibliographical references (p. 233-239) and index.
Ch. I. Heads above water and vice versa -- Ch. II. Lemming lore --
Ch. III. Harpooning some word-whales -- Ch. IV. Choose your
enlightenment -- Ch. V. After utopia -- Ch. VI. Internationalism,
supranationalism -- Ch. VII. Slouching towards Byzantium -- Ch. VIII.
1917 : "revolution" and reality -- Ch. IX. Revolutionary high
finance: some notes on a neglected theme -- Ch. X. Into the planned
economy -- Ch. XI. Inside the new society -- Ch. XII. With and
against Hitler -- Ch. XIII. Cold war: heated imaginations -- Ch. XIV.
A gaggle of misleaders -- Ch. XV. A collapse of unreality -- Ch. XVI.
The whys of art -- Ch. XVII. Bureaucracies and barbarism -- Ch.
XVIII. Awake to affirmation -- App. A. "No one foresaw the collapse
of the Soviet system" -- App. B. An Anglosphere in the neosphere (a
political exercise).
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