Domenico Losurdo's Books

Democracy or Bonapartism

Two Centuries of War on Democracy

By: Domenico Losurdo

Write a review Read reviews Take a Quiz Solve Book Puzzle

Democracy or Bonapartism

Two Centuries of War on Democracy

By: Domenico Losurdo

HOW AN IRON FIST DONNED DEMOCRACY’S VELVET GLOVE The history of universal suffrage is best understood as a conflict between liberal elites and democractic workers’ movements, according to Domenico Losurdo. John Stuart Mill, for example, argued that electoral influence should be more pronounced among the educated – and wealthy – than among those working with their hands. Every vote ought not to be counted the same. Countries with deep liberal roots have historically been quick to restrain the spread of the franchise, persisting in discrimination based on property, race, and gender. In this context, the rise of popular presidents and premiers, vested with extraordinary powers, has served to stimy attempts to associate politically and mobilize for meaningful change. This is modern Bonapartism, a soft authoritarianism in which popularity, stirred up by a news media dominated by the interests of the rich, replaces true democratic expression. As alternatives to this system drift toward the horizon, Bonapartism is set to become the dominant political regime of our era. Understanding the history of its development and the contradictory forces behind it may permit us to move towards true democracy. Praise for LIBERALISM: A COUNTER-HISTORY ‘Losurdo is almost unbelievably well-read’ - JACOBIN ‘A brilliant exercise in unmasking liberal pretensions, surveying over three centuries with magisterial command of the sources’ - FINANCIAL TIMES ‘Stimulatingly uncovers the contradictions of an ideology that is much too self-righteously invoked’ - PANKAJ MISHRA, GUARDIAN ‘A book of wide reference and real erudition’ - TIMES LITERARY SUPPLEMENT ‘The book is a historically grounded, very accessible critique of liberalism, complementing a growing literature critical of liberalism’ - CHOICE Praise for WAR AND REVOLUTION: RETHINKING THE TWENTIETH CENTURY ‘War and Revolution is a relentless document. It is dense and disconcerting. This is precisely why it should be considered one of the most important history books written since 9/11’ - RON JACOBS, COUNTERPUNCH

Average ratings

N/A

Write a review

Solve jigsaw puzzle

Age

Page Count

353

Publisher

Verso Books

Published Date

ISBN 10

1784787310

ISBN 13

9781784787318

Liberalism

A Counter-History

By: Domenico Losurdo

Write a review Read reviews Take a Quiz Solve Book Puzzle

Liberalism

A Counter-History

By: Domenico Losurdo

One of Europe’s leading intellectual historians deconstructs the dark side of liberalism, sifting through 3 centuries of liberal writings by John Locke, Alexis de Tocqueville, and others. In this definitive historical investigation, Italian author and philosopher Domenico Losurdo argues that from the outset liberalism, as a philosophical position and ideology, has been bound up with the most illiberal of policies: slavery, colonialism, genocide, racism and snobbery. Narrating an intellectual history running from the 18th through to the 20th centuries, Losurdo examines the thought of preeminent liberal writers such as Locke, Burke, Tocqueville, Constant, Bentham, and Sieyès, revealing the inner contradictions of an intellectual position that has exercised a formative influence on today’s politics. Among the dominant strains of liberalism, he discerns the counter-currents of more radical positions, lost in the constitution of the modern world order.

Average ratings

N/A

Write a review

Solve jigsaw puzzle

Age

Page Count

480

Publisher

Verso Books

Published Date

ISBN 10

178168216X

ISBN 13

9781781682166

Western Marxism

How it was Born, How it Died, How it can be Reborn

By: Domenico Losurdo

Write a review Read reviews Take a Quiz Solve Book Puzzle

Western Marxism

How it was Born, How it Died, How it can be Reborn

By: Domenico Losurdo

A stinging critique of Western Marxism, counterposing its complicity with imperialist logic against a resurgent anti-imperialism Western Marxism: How It Was Born, How It Died, How It Can Be Reborn is a paradigm-shifting book that provides a trenchant critique of the Western left intelligentsia. It reveals how its dominant ideological orientation—characterized by defeatism, utopianism, and anti-communism—is rooted in the political economy of imperialism. Internationally acclaimed theorist Domenico Losurdo thus provides a fresh and challenging perspective on purportedly radical thinkers who have been widely promoted in the imperial core, including those affiliated with the Frankfurt School, French Theory, and operaismo, as well as Hannah Arendt, Giorgio Agamben, Michael Hardt, and Slavoj Žižek, among others. His critique also has wide-reaching implications for trend-setting discourses inspired by this coterie of intellectuals, from postcolonial and decolonial theory to subaltern studies and beyond. Far from being a negative undertaking, however, this book is grounded in the positive project of reigniting anti-imperialist Marxism. As a complement to the Italian edition of Western Marxism, this first-ever English translation also features the unprecedented publication of a major lecture that demystifies “Western Marxism” and its role in imperialists’ efforts to denigrate the achievements of actually existing socialism. Raising the stakes of what it means to produce critical theory, Western Marxism will surely provoke wide debate and a reevaluation of hallowed canons.

Average ratings

N/A

Write a review

Solve jigsaw puzzle

Age

Page Count

181

Publisher

NYU Press

Published Date

ISBN 10

168590064X

ISBN 13

9781685900649

Class Struggle

A Political and Philosophical History

By: Domenico Losurdo

Write a review Read reviews Take a Quiz Solve Book Puzzle

Class Struggle

A Political and Philosophical History

By: Domenico Losurdo

Available for the first time in English, this book examines and reinterprets class struggle within Marx and Engels’ thought. As Losurdo argues, class struggle is often misunderstood as exclusively the struggle of the poor against the rich, of the humble against the powerful. It is an interpretation that is dear to populism, one that supposes a binary logic that closes its eyes to complexity and inclines towards the celebration of poverty as a place of moral excellence. This book, however, shows the theory of class struggle is a general theory of social conflict. Each time, the most adverse social conflicts are intertwined in different ways. A historical situation always emerges with specific and unique characteristics that necessitate serious examination, free of schematic and biased analysis. Only if it breaks away from populism can Marxism develop the ability to interpret and change the world.

Average ratings

N/A

Write a review

Solve jigsaw puzzle

Age

Page Count

365

Publisher

Springer

Published Date

ISBN 10

1349706604

ISBN 13

9781349706600

Non-Violence

A History Beyond the Myth

By: Domenico Losurdo

Write a review Read reviews Take a Quiz Solve Book Puzzle

Non-Violence

A History Beyond the Myth

By: Domenico Losurdo

We know of the blood and tears provoked by the projects of transformation of the world through war or revolution. Starting from the essay published in 1921 by Walter Benjamin, twentieth century philosophy has been committed to the criticism of violence, even when it has claimed to follow noble ends. But what do we know of the dilemmas, of the “betrayals,” of the disappointments and tragedies which the movement of non-violence has suffered? This book tells a fascinating history: from the American Christian organizations in the first decades of the nineteenth century who wanted to eliminate slavery and war in a non-violent way, to the protagonists of movements—Thoreau, Tolstoy, Gandhi, Capitini, M. L. King, the Dalai Lama—who either for idealism or for political calculation flew the flag of non-violence, up to the leaders of today’s “color revolutions.”

Average ratings

N/A

Write a review

Solve jigsaw puzzle

Age

Page Count

247

Publisher

Lexington Books

Published Date

ISBN 10

1498502202

ISBN 13

9781498502207

Hegel and the Freedom of Moderns

By: Domenico Losurdo

Write a review Read reviews Take a Quiz Solve Book Puzzle

Hegel and the Freedom of Moderns

By: Domenico Losurdo

DIVTranslated into English for the first time, this work portrays a different side of Hegel -- not just as a philosopher preoccupied with abstract ideas but a man deeply enmeshed and active in the pressing, concrete political issues of his time./div

Average ratings

N/A

Write a review

Solve jigsaw puzzle

Age

Page Count

404

Publisher

Duke University Press

Published Date

ISBN 10

0822332914

ISBN 13

9780822332916

War and Revolution

Rethinking the Twentieth Century

By: Domenico Losurdo

Write a review Read reviews Take a Quiz Solve Book Puzzle

War and Revolution

Rethinking the Twentieth Century

By: Domenico Losurdo

War and Revolution identifies and takes to task a reactionary trend among contemporary historians, one that’s grown increasingly apparent in recent years. It’s a revisionist tendency discernible in the work of authors such as Ernst Nolte, who traces the impetus behind the Holocaust to the excesses of the Russian Revolution; or François Furet, who links the Stalinist purges to an “illness” originating with the French Revolution. The intention of these revisionists is to eradicate the revolutionary tradition. Their true motives have little to do with the quest for a greater understanding of the past, but lie in the climate of the present day and the ideological needs of the political classes, as is most clearly seen now in the work of the Anglophone imperial revivalists Paul Johnson and Niall Ferguson. In this vigorous riposte to those who would denigrate the history of emancipatory struggle, Losurdo captivates the reader with a tour de force account of modern revolt, providing a new perspective on the English, American, French and twentieth-century revolutions.

Average ratings

N/A

Write a review

Solve jigsaw puzzle

Age

Page Count

506

Publisher

Verso Books

Published Date

ISBN 10

1781686173

ISBN 13

9781781686171

Hegel and the Freedom of Moderns

By: Domenico Losurdo

Write a review Read reviews Take a Quiz Solve Book Puzzle

Hegel and the Freedom of Moderns

By: Domenico Losurdo

Average ratings

N/A

Write a review

Solve jigsaw puzzle

Age

Page Count

404

Publisher

Duke University Press

Published Date

ISBN 10

0822332914

ISBN 13

9780822332916

Liberalism

A Counter-History

By: Domenico Losurdo

Write a review Read reviews Take a Quiz Solve Book Puzzle

Liberalism

A Counter-History

By: Domenico Losurdo

One of Europe’s leading intellectual historians deconstructs the dark side of liberalism, sifting through 3 centuries of liberal writings by John Locke, Alexis de Tocqueville, and others. In this definitive historical investigation, Italian author and philosopher Domenico Losurdo argues that from the outset liberalism, as a philosophical position and ideology, has been bound up with the most illiberal of policies: slavery, colonialism, genocide, racism and snobbery. Narrating an intellectual history running from the eighteenth through to the twentieth centuries, Losurdo examines the thought of preeminent liberal writers such as Locke, Burke, Tocqueville, Constant, Bentham, and Sieyès, revealing the inner contradictions of an intellectual position that has exercised a formative influence on today’s politics. Among the dominant strains of liberalism, he discerns the counter-currents of more radical positions, lost in the constitution of the modern world order.

Average ratings

N/A

Write a review

Solve jigsaw puzzle

Age

Page Count

385

Publisher

Verso Books

Published Date

ISBN 10

178168166X

ISBN 13

9781781681664

Nietzsche, the Aristocratic Rebel

Intellectual Biography and Critical Balance-Sheet

By: Domenico Losurdo

Write a review Read reviews Take a Quiz Solve Book Puzzle

Nietzsche, the Aristocratic Rebel

Intellectual Biography and Critical Balance-Sheet

By: Domenico Losurdo

Available in English for the first time, this masterwork is widely regarded as the single most important book on Nietzsche.

Average ratings

N/A

Write a review

Solve jigsaw puzzle

Age

Page Count

1052

Publisher

Historical Materialism

Published Date

ISBN 10

1642593400

ISBN 13

9781642593402

War and Revolution

Rethinking the Twentieth Century

By: Domenico Losurdo

Write a review Read reviews Take a Quiz Solve Book Puzzle

War and Revolution

Rethinking the Twentieth Century

By: Domenico Losurdo

War and Revolution identifies and takes to task a reactionary trend among contemporary historians. It is a revisionist tendency discernible in the work of authors such as Ernst Nolte, who traces the impetus behind the Holocaust to the excesses of the Russian Revolution; or Franois Furet, who links the Stalinist purges to an "illness" originating with the French Revolution. In this vigorous riposte to those who would denigrate the history of emancipatory struggle, Losurdo captivates the reader with a tour de force account of modern revolt, providing a new perspective on the English, American, French and twentieth-century revolutions.

Average ratings

N/A

Write a review

Solve jigsaw puzzle

Age

Page Count

499

Publisher

Verso Books

Published Date

ISBN 10

1781687242

ISBN 13

9781781687246

Book's by Domenico Losurdo

Democracy or Bonapartism

Democracy or Bonapartism

Liberalism

Liberalism

Western Marxism

Western Marxism

Class Struggle

Class Struggle

Non-Violence

Non-Violence

Hegel and the Freedom of Moderns

Hegel and the Freedom of Moderns

War and Revolution

War and Revolution

Hegel and the Freedom of Moderns

Hegel and the Freedom of Moderns

Liberalism

Liberalism

Nietzsche, the Aristocratic Rebel

Nietzsche, the Aristocratic Rebel

War and Revolution

War and Revolution

Username

Password

Username

Password

Password again

Birthday

Email