Enter your mobile number or email address below and we'll send you a link to download the free Kindle App. Then you can start reading Kindle books on your smartphone, tablet, or computer - no Kindle device required.

  • Apple
  • Android
  • Windows Phone
  • Android

To get the free app, enter your email address or mobile phone number.
Download to your computer
Kindle Cloud Reader

Against the Modern World: Traditionalism and the Secret Intellectual History of the Twentieth Century 1st Edition

by Mark Sedgwick (Author)
3.2 out of 5 stars 32 customer reviews
ISBN-13: 978-0195152975
ISBN-10: 0195152972
Why is ISBN important?
ISBN
This bar-code number lets you verify that you're getting exactly the right version or edition of a book. The 13-digit and 10-digit formats both work.
Scan an ISBN with your phone
Use the Amazon App to scan ISBNs and compare prices.
Have one to sell? Sell on Amazon

Sorry, there was a problem.

There was an error retrieving your Wish Lists. Please try again.

Sorry, there was a problem.

List unavailable.
Facebook Twitter Pinterest
Buy used On clicking this link, a new layer will be open
$23.80 On clicking this link, a new layer will be open
Buy new On clicking this link, a new layer will be open
$30.65 On clicking this link, a new layer will be open
More Buying Choices
19 New from $26.09 21 Used from $9.92 1 Collectible from $29.99
41 used & new from $9.92
See All Buying Options
Free Two-Day Shipping for College Students with Amazon Student Free%20Two-Day%20Shipping%20for%20College%20Students%20with%20Amazon%20Student

Save Up to 90% on Textbooks Textbooks
$30.65 FREE Shipping on orders over $35. Only 2 left in stock (more on the way). Ships from and sold by Amazon.com. Gift-wrap available.

Customers Who Viewed This Item Also Viewed

Page 1 of 1 Start overPage 1 of 1
This shopping feature will continue to load items. In order to navigate out of this carousel please use your heading shortcut key to navigate to the next or previous heading.
Back
  1. The Crisis of the Modern World (Collected Works of Rene Guenon)
    Rene Guenon
    4.4 out of 5 stars 13
    Paperback
    $17.89 Prime
  2. Revolt Against the Modern World
    Julius Evola
    4.2 out of 5 stars 34
    Hardcover
    $23.87 Prime
  3. The Fourth Political Theory
    Alexander Dugin
    3.4 out of 5 stars 26
    Paperback
    $29.50 Prime
  4. Traditionalism: Religion in the light of the Perennial Philosophy
    Kenneth Oldmeadow
    5.0 out of 5 stars 3
    Paperback
    $19.95 Prime
  5. New Culture, New Right: Anti-Liberalism in Postmodern Europe
    Michael O'Meara
    3.3 out of 5 stars 3
    Paperback
    $27.50 Prime
  6. Eranos: An Alternative Intellectual History of the Twentieth Century
    Hans Thomas Hakl
    3.5 out of 5 stars 2
    Paperback
    $29.42 Prime
Next
NO_CONTENT_IN_FEATURE

Product Details

  • Hardcover: 384 pages
  • Publisher: Oxford University Press; 1 edition (June 3, 2004)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 0195152972
  • ISBN-13: 978-0195152975
  • Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 1.4 x 6.3 inches
  • Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
  • Average Customer Review: 3.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (32 customer reviews)
  • Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,429,795 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

    •  Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4.0 out of 5 starsA Substantial Reduction of My Ignorance
By Robert Morris HALL OF FAMETOP 500 REVIEWERVINE VOICE on August 5, 2004
Format: Hardcover
Frankly, until reading Against the Modern World, I knew nothing about Traditionalism nor about the Perennial Philosophy which René Guénon (1886-1951) formulated, based on the basic truths of the world's great religions. I found Sedgwick's book so interesting because it offers answers to questions such as these:

1. How does Sedgwick define "modern"?

2. Why was Guénon so opposed to it?

3. Why has Traditionalism attracted such a wide, deep, and diverse following worldwide?

4. What is the relationship between Traditionalism and Orientalism?

5. What are the most relevant historical "streams and counterstreams"? Why?

6. What have been the nature and extent of cultural displacement?

7. What role has the tactic of (in italics) entrisme (end italics) played during the development of Traditionalism?

8. What is Frithjof Schuon's significance?

9. Why have various religious leaders rejected Traditionalism?

10. What are Traditionalism's sub-denominations and how do they differ from each other?

During the Religioscope interview (5 June 2004), Sedgwick explains that "the real reason that I became interested in Traditionalism as a subject for research was growing astonishment at the extent and importance of the movement. I remember spending an evening, shortly after the Internet had reached Egypt, looking through the various editions and translations of Guénon's works in European library catalogs-I couldn't believe it. And the more I looked, the more I found, and the more convinced I became that here was a story worth the telling.Read more ›
Comment 53 of 67 people found this helpful. Was this review helpful to you? Yes No Sending feedback...
Thank you for your feedback.
Sorry, we failed to record your vote. Please try again
Report abuse
3.0 out of 5 starsMissing the Forest for the Trees
By denis_abellio on June 17, 2004
Format: Hardcover
This book is the author's attempt to write, in his words "a biography of Rene Guenon and the Traditionalist movement he founded." His treatment spans 370 pages of which about 100 are taken up with notes, a glossary, a list of interviewees, a bibliography, and an index. The remaining 271 pages are divided into a prologue and four main parts: The Development of Traditionalism, Traditionalism in Practice, Traditionalism at Large, and Traditionalism and the Future. Sedgwick understandability found it easier to organize some of his presentation thematically; still the overall presentation is chronological.
In the PROLOGUE Sedgwick tells the story of his how he learned of "Traditionalism" and how he began to piece together a fuller picture of it.
In PART I he takes us back to pre-WWI France for a look at the young Guenon (1886-1951) and the characters and milieu that surrounded the his early work. Sedgwick looks at Guenon's contact with Theosophy, Neo-Gnosticism, various Catholic and occult groups of the time. He tells of his relations with such figures as the art historian Ananda Coomaraswaamy, philosopher Jacques Maritain and occultist Gerard Encausse.
PART II Tells of Guenon's move to Cairo, introduces us to Frithjof Schuon, another very important "Traditionalist", and tells us about Julius Evola and his activities during WWII. The last chapter of this section, entitled "Fragmentation", concentrates mainly on Sedgwick's understanding of the Shuon's relationship with Guenon as well as the beginnings of Shuon's Sufi order and the various groups that sprang from it.
In PART III Sedgwick continues the story of Shuon's order, the Maryamiyya, and tells of Shuon's move to America along with some other "Traditionalist" activity there.Read more ›
2 Comments 34 of 43 people found this helpful. Was this review helpful to you? Yes No Sending feedback...
Thank you for your feedback.
Sorry, we failed to record your vote. Please try again
Report abuse
1.0 out of 5 starsTraditionalists: a term too ambiguous
By Alen on July 30, 2004
Format: Hardcover
When I first saw the book I was delighted to see that an important school of thought in the twentieth century has finally found the attention it deserved. But my delight was changed to disappointment after reading through the chapters of the book.

First of all, one may call many thinkers with very divergent ideas "traditionalists," but one cannot make blanket statements and judgments about all of them based on the thoughts and deeds of some. It is as if one condemned Sartre as being a Nazi, because he was an Existentialist philosopher like Heideger, and Heideger, in some point, agreed with Hitler! There is a huge difference between a Rene Guenon and a Mircea Eliade, between an Evola and a Schuon, and one can put them all in one category only in some very superficial way, as exactly it is done in this book. The difference in the outlook and philosophy of these thinkers is sometimes as enormous as possible. Their political thought was even more divergent: the author has not been able to give even one example of any endorsement of Nazism, Fascism, or any totalitarian system by Guenon, Schuon, or Coomaraswami, whom he regards as the most influential among the traditionalists and as "hard" traditionalists (there is no example indeed; actually these people and their loyal followers always opposed and condemned that kind of regimes), yet he cleverly asserts Eliade (his "soft" traditionalist) and Evola's approval of fascism in a way to convince the reader of the whole party's guilt.

Secondly, when reading a book about some philosophy, one expects the critical examination of the philosophy in itself, and not some here and there told stories, whether factual or fictional, coupled with some not very important aspects of the philosophy in question.Read more ›
1 Comment 52 of 67 people found this helpful. Was this review helpful to you? Yes No Sending feedback...
Thank you for your feedback.
Sorry, we failed to record your vote. Please try again
Report abuse

Most Recent Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5 starsA Profound and Critical Study of an Influential - but Often Hidden,...

Like many others, I was influenced by the Traditionalists without actually reading Guenon or Schuon. Read more

Published 7 months ago by John Aaron
5.0 out of 5 stars... the Modern World more years ago and the book delighted me. It...

I first came across Sedgwick's Against the Modern World more years ago and the book delighted me. It opens a useful path into that dark wood of philosophical-mythology so important... Read more

Published 10 months ago by Stephen R. Heller
2.0 out of 5 starsThis is a scholar of religion with no understanding, experience or...

I put this book down after the first couple chapters a few months ago. This author is so absorbed in the details, he's just a reporter. Read more

Published on January 23, 2014 by William T. Palmer
2.0 out of 5 starsBiased Journalism, Bland Writing

While I have to admit that I did find the history herein presented rather fascinating, the delivery was slow and unnecessarily detailed, the content was definitely unbalanced,... Read more

Published on June 5, 2013 by stevenhorr
4.0 out of 5 starsonly one sign of the times

In the news today, the legal debate over same sex marriage endures in the American Supreme Court. On one side are the traditionalists (conservatives) that argue marriage is a... Read more

Published on March 29, 2013 by J. Szimhart
2.0 out of 5 starsNothing ventured, nothing gained

"Against the Modern World" is an irritatingly childish book. It is really just a summary of the life of René Guénon and everyone who corresponded with him and read... Read more

Published on August 21, 2012 by Avery
4.0 out of 5 starsGreat history, but a lack of ideas

This book is by no means as biased as some of the hysterically negative reviews would make it out to be, and I say this as someone who has admiration for Guenon, and Coomaraswamy... Read more

Published on May 9, 2011 by Justin
4.0 out of 5 starsInformative in parts lacking in others.

I agree with a previous reviewer that the reviews of this book seem to fall into 2 camps, either traditionalists (Who all give the book 1 star but fail to give any substance as to... Read more

Published on April 21, 2010 by Gogol
5.0 out of 5 starsHow traditional is Traditionalism?

"Against the modern world" is a scholarly study of Traditionalism, a current of thought associated with René Guénon, Ananda Coomaraswamy, Frithjof Schuon and Julius... Read more

Published on August 29, 2009 by Ashtar Command
4.0 out of 5 starsworthwhile read

A useful read for those who want to investigate this current.

As a past reviewer noted, it is amusing to read the reviews of those that seem to be enthralled with the... Read more

Published on June 8, 2009 by Faiz Khan MD

Set up an Amazon Giveaway

Amazon Giveaway allows you to run promotional giveaways in order to create buzz, reward your audience, and attract new followers and customers. Learn more
Against the Modern World: Traditionalism and the Secret Intellectual History of the Twentieth Century
This item: Against the Modern World: Traditionalism and the Secret Intellectual History of the Twentieth Century
Price: $30.65
Ships from and sold by Amazon.com
Set up a giveaway

There's a problem loading this menu right now.

Learn more about Amazon Prime.



Want to discover more products? Check out this page to see more: cambridge companions to philosophy