Bertrand De Jouvenel: Conserative Liberal & Illusions Of Modernity (Library of Modern Thinkers) [Paperback]

Daniel J. Mahoney (Author)

Book Description

Series: Library of Modern Thinkers | Publication Date: May 31, 2005

In his effort to detach the indispensable notion of the common good from its historical identification with the more closed, homogeneous, and static societies of the premodern past, the French political philosopher Bertrand de Jouvenel (1903-87) pointed the way towards a viable conservative liberalism. So argues Daniel J. Mahoney in this compelling introduction to the life and work of Jouvenel, one of twentieth-century France's most profound philosophers and political essayists. Although he vigorously defended the historical achievement of liberal society against its totalitarian critics, Jouvenel also challenged the modern conceit that man is an autonomous being beholden neither to the moral law nor to the humanizing inheritance of the past. Mahoney's study focuses on Jouvenel's three masterworks On Power (1945), Sovereignty (1955), and The Pure Theory of Politics (1963) and on his broader effort to defend civility and social friendship against rationalist individualism and its logical fruit, collectivist politics. Mahoney explores Jouvenel's affinities with and debts to Aristotle, Burke, Rousseau, and Tocqueville, and he contrasts Jouvenel's signal theoretical achievements with the twists and turns manifested in his (sometimes questionable) practical political engagements from the 1930s until his death. Mahoney's characteristically engaging appraisal of this important political philosopher, the fifth entry in ISI Books' Library of Modern Thinkers series, is the first book on Jouvenel to appear in the English language.

--This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

Editorial Reviews

Review

Anything by Daniel Mahoney is worth reading, and this is doubly true when the subject is Bertrand de Jouvenel. -- Wilson Carey McWilliams, Rutgers University

Daniel Mahoney's book is a splendid achievement. -- Philippe Beneton, Professor of Political Science, University of Rennes, France --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

About the Author

Daniel J. Mahoney is Professor of Politics at Assumption College in Worcester, Massachusetts. A renowned expert on French political philosophy, his books include the critically acclaimed Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn: The Ascent from Ideology, (Rowman & Littlefield, 2001).

Product Details

• Paperback: 225 pages
• Publisher: Intercollegiate Studies Institute; 1 edition (May 31, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1932236414
• ISBN-13: 978-1932236415
• Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 5.3 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 3.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,786,716 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

28 of 29 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Mahoney's Jouvenel, September 5, 2005

By 

W. Morrisey (Hillsdale, Michigan) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Bertrand De Jouvenel: Conserative Liberal & The Illusions Of Modernity (Library of Modern Thinkers) (Hardcover)

Daniel J. Mahoney has published studies of Charles de Gaulle, Raymond Aron, and Alexander Solzhenitsyn. In his new book on Bertrand de Jouvenel, Mahoney continues his ever-widening exploration of the the religio-political question in modernity.

Any of Mahoney's readers should recognize his characteristic strengths, once again in evidence here: the balanced critical judgment, the wide and deep learning, the spirited wit. What seems to have gone unremarked so far, however, is the overall outline of his project. With Aron, the secularized Jew, Solzhenitsyn the Russian Orthodox believer, de Gaulle--who perhaps was thinking of himself when he spoke to Malraux of men "whose Christian faith was dim but who were, nonetheless, not Voltaireans"--and now de Jouvenel, the firm and judicious Roman Catholic, Mahoney is exploring the ways that thoughtful men who were formed and in some cases animated by religious conviction found their bearings when the supreme ambitions of modernity issued in world war, tyranny, and genocide.

In this book as in the others, Mahoney shows himself unmatched in his ability to introduce a thinker to new readers while illuminating him to old ones. Having suffered neglect for thirty years or more, de Jouvenel reappears as a worthy successor to Tocqueville--one situated, moreover, in a modernity whose grimness even Tocqueville had underestimated, and so forced to confront things Tocqueville could scarcely imagine.

The book itself is compact, well designed, fairly priced--a companiable volume, as befits the humane and judicious spirit one finds inside it.