Democracy and Populism : Fear and Hatred

by John Lukacs

• ISBN13: 9780300116939
• ISBN10: 0300116934
• Format: Trade Paper
• Copyright: 2006-06-15
• Publisher: Yale University Press

Summary

This intensely interestingand troublingbook is the product of a lifetime of reflection and study of democracy. In it, John Lukacs addresses the questions of how our democracy has changed and why we have become vulnerable to the shallowest possible demagoguery. Lukacs contrasts the political systems, movements, and ideologies that have bedeviled the twentieth century: democracy, Liberalism, nationalism, fascism, Bolshevism, National Socialism, populism. Reflecting on American democracy, Lukacs describes its evolution from the eighteenth century to its current forma dangerous and possibly irreversible populism. This involves, among other things, the predominance of popular sentiment over what used to be public opinion. This devolution has happened through the gigantic machinery of publicity, substituting propagandaand entertainmentfor knowledge, and ideology for a sense of history. It is a kind of populism that relies on nationalism and militarism to hold society together. Lukacs's observations are original, biting, timely, sure to inspire lively debate about the precarious state of American democracy today.

Author Biography

John Lukacs writes widely on American and European history. He is one of the world’s great experts on Churchill and on Hitler.

Table of Contents

Preface	vii
Tocqueville's vision of history	3	(5)
The ending of ``mixed'' government	8	(9)
``Right'' and ``Left'': Their conservative misreadings	17	(5)
A liberal misreading	22	(4)
Conservatives and liberals	26	(6)
Popular sovereignty and socialism	32	(3)
Popular sovereignty and nationalism	35	(3)
Nationalism and socialism	38	(7)
The accumulation of opinions	45	(3)
Progressive liberalism	48	(8)
Progressives and populists	56	(6)
Populist anti-Semitism and Germanophilia	62	(9)
Nation and state	71	(6)
1914: The world of yesterday?	77	(8)
``Modern''?	85	(6)
The Russian Revolution: A tremendous failure	91	(11)
1917 and the Americanization of the world	102	(4)
The failure of liberalism after 1918	106	(4)
1920--1945: The division of the world	110	(6)
Misuse and misreading of ``Fascism''	116	(10)
Misuse and misreading of ``totalitarianism''	126	(5)
Misuse and misreading of National Socialism as an ``ideology''	131	(12)
The United States in 1945 and thereafter	143	(11)
The decline of the state	154	(11)
The declining function of ``classes''	165	(10)
``Tyranny of the majority''? ``Public opinion'' and its misreadings	175	(5)
Decline of privacy, rise of publicity	180	(5)
Publicity and celebrity	185	(7)
Changes in the recording and knowledge of history	192	(11)
Fear and hatred	203	(14)
Triumph and disappearance of ``liberalism''	217	(9)
The rise of criminality	226	(3)
A new, profound, division	229	(6)
Ideas and beliefs	235	(5)
Hope, against fear	240	(5)
Index	245