Steven B. Smith examines the concept of modernity, not as the end product of historical developments but as a state of mind. He explores modernism as a source of both pride and anxiety, suggesting that its most distinctive characteristics are the self-criticisms and doubts that accompany social and political progress. Providing profiles of the modern project's most powerful defenders and critics-from Machiavelli and Spinoza to Saul Bellow and Isaiah Berlin-this provocative work of philosophy and political science offers a novel perspective on what it means to be modern and why discontent and sometimes radical rejection are its inevitable by-products.
- ISBN10 0300198396
- ISBN13 9780300198393
- Publish Date 2 August 2016
- Publish Status Out of Print
- Out of Print 5 August 2021
- Publish Country US
- Imprint Yale University Press
- Format Hardcover
- Pages 416
- Language English