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Earthly Powers: The Conflict Between Religion & Politics from the French Revolution to the Great War by: Michael Burleigh List Price: £9.99 City Travel Guides Price: £6.99 You Save: £3.00 (30%)Prices subject to change. |
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Binding: Paperback EAN: 9780007195732 ISBN: 0007195737 Label: HarperPerennial Manufacturer: HarperPerennial Number Of Pages: 576 Publication Date: October 02, 2006 Publisher: HarperPerennial Studio: HarperPerennial Sales Rank: 192861 Related Items:
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 Rating:  - A Missed OpportunityMichael Burleig is a historian of some re-known and brings his undoubted abilities in the creation of this book. His central theses Rating: - `Starting from unlimited freedom, I arrive at unlimited despotism.' Burleigh's main thesis is that the human desire to create a utopia here on earth, often religiously-tinged knowingly or otherwise, can unleash ferocious violence and suffering. This argument is not terribly original. In the 1950s, both Czeslaw Milosz (in 'The Captive Mind') and Albert Camus (in 'The Rebel') drew attention to the religious trappings of Communism. Nevertheless, Burleigh brings the empiricism of the historian to bear on the topic, and does so admirably. The main exemplar of secular religion explored in the book is that of French Revolution. Only two of the book's ten chapters deal with the Revolution, but ideas born in the cauldron of this seminal event, especially the secular utopian impulse, reoccurred throughout the following ... Read More: Rating:  - Between two horrorsMichael Burleigh has written a fine history of religion in Europe from the horrors of th French Revolution to those of the trenches of the first World War and its influence on politics, particularly the rise of nationalism. He writes well and with great breadth of learning. You need to have a dictionary to hand. He is no bland academic pretending to an objective neutrality. He is scathingly critical of received Marxist views of history. He concentrates on the big players, France, Germany, Britain, Russia and Italy. Presumably he sees these as the significant participants. This I believe leads to one glaring omission, The Netherlands, and the Protestants there who gave the best critique of the Enligtenment and the revolution ... Read More: |
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