The Politics Of The Unpolitical

In this collection of fourteen essays, first published in 1943, Herbert Read extends and amplifies the point of view expressed in his successful pamphlet To Hell with Culture, which has been reprinted here. The politics of the unpolitical are the politics of those who strive for human values and not for national or sectional interests. Herbert Read defines these values and demands their recognition as a solvent of social and cultural crises', and looks forward to the future with constructive vision. This book will be of interest to students of politics, history, and cultural studies.

Massimo Cacciari is one of the leading public intellectuals in today's Italy. This collection of essays on political topics provides the best introduction in English to his thought to date.This carefully curated collection includes chapters on Hofmannsthal, Luk\ cs, Benjamin, Nietzsche, Weber, Derrida, Schmitt, Canetti, and Aeschylus. Written between 1978 and 2006, these essays engagingly address the most hidden tradition in European political thought: the unpolitical. Far from being a refusal of politics, The Unpolitical represents a merciless critique of political reason and a way out of the now impracticable consolations of utopia and harmonious community.A lucid and engaging Introduction by Alessandro Carrera sets these essays in the context of Cacciari's work generally and in the broadest context of its historical and geographical backdrop.

Massimo Cacciari is one of the leading public intellectuals in today's Italy, both as an outstanding philosopher and political thinker and as now three times (and currently) the mayor of Venice. This collection of essays on political topics provides the best introduction in English to his thought to date. The political focus does not, however, prevent these essays from being an introduction to the full range of Cacciari's thought. The present collection includes chapters on Hofmannstahl, Lukács, Benjamin, Nietzsche, Weber, Derrida, Schmitt, Canetti, and Aeschylus. Written between 1978 and 2006, these essays engagingly address the most hidden tradition in European political thought: the Unpolitical. Far from being a refusal of politics, the Unpolitical represents a merciless critique of political reason and a way out of the now impracticable consolations of utopia and harmonious community. Drawing freely from philosophy and literature, The Unpolitical represents a powerful contribution to contemporary political theory. A lucid and engaging Introduction by Alessandro Carrera sets these essays in the context of Cacciari's work generally and in the broadest context of its historical and geographical backdrop.

Throughout his life, Richard Hoggart has been involved with four main areas: broadcasting, arts policy, education, and social work, all of which he finds have characteristics in common. This collection of essays represents less than a quarter of his essays published over the last two decades. The subjects, to which he turned again and again and which recur in public debate, are still current and contemporary. His views on culture and society, on literature and censorship, and on higher education are both unique and timely.The volume is divided into six parts. Part 1, "Society and Culture: Home and Away," discusses the question, "Are museums political?"; the use of the battered word culture in relation to UNESCO; and the end of the public service idea. Part 2, "A Very English Voice," looks at the rural English culture and country of D. H. Lawrence, and examines the controversy and censorship involved with three of Lawrence's works: The Rainbow, Women in Love, and Lady Chatterley's Lover. Part 3, "Politics and Literature," reveals the author's penchant for timely debates on such subjects as "The State versus Literature" and "Freedom to Publish: Even Hateful Stuff"; and his thoughts on reviewers and reviewing. Part 4, "Levels of Education," touches upon the subjects of politics in universities; the use of public funds for various purposes presumed to be socially valuable; academics in the marketplace; and the need for government to foster critical and cultivated literacy. Part 5, "Figures from a Distant Past," contains reminiscences on and portraits of Hoggart's close relationships and family. Part 6, "Summing Up and Signing Off," is an interview with Nicolas Tredell in which Hoggart discusses his life's work and concerns.Written in Hoggart's characteristically graceful but direct style, these essays touch on issues of contemporary importance in his unique manner. This volume will be of interest to scholars and general readers interested in culture studies, communications, and education.

Politics was once regarded as an activity which could give human societies control over their fate. However, there is now a deep pessimism about the ability of human beings to control anything very much, least of all through politics. This new fatalism about the human condition claims that we are living in the iron cages erected by vast impersonal forces arising from globalization and technology: a society that is both anti-political and unpolitical, a society without hope or the means either to imagine or promote an alternative future. It reflects the disillusion of political hopes in liberal and socialist utopias in the twentieth century and a widespread disenchantment with the grand narratives of the Enlightenment about reason and progress, and with modernity itself. The most characteristic expression of this disenchantment is the endless discourses on endism - the end of history, the end of ideology, the end of the nation-state, the end of authority, the end of government, the end of the public realm, the end of politics itself - all have been proclaimed in recent years. Andrew Gamble's new book argues against the fatalism implicit in so many of these discourses, as well as against the fatalism that has always been present in many of the central discourses of modernity. It sets out a defence of politics and the political, explains why we cannot do without politics, and probes the complex relationship between politics and fate, and the continuing and necessary tension between them. This book will be essential reading for students and scholars of politics, public affairs and political thought.