Idea Of Civil Society [Hardcover]

Adam Seligman (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 28, 1992 | ISBN-10: 0029283159 | ISBN-13: 978-0029283158

Seligman examines the notion of the civil society. He argues that the combination of individal rights and interests with a social and political system based on a shared morality found its clearest concrete expression in 18th-century America. Since then, successive societies and social experiments have sought in vain to approximate to the society in which individual interests and the public good are identical. The problems of modern mass democracies which require intense centralization to be functional, and the growth of socialism and the notion of unearned entitlements have served to undermine the foundations of the civil society.

Editorial Reviews

Review

One of the merits of Adam Seligman's wide-ranging, probing, and deeply reflective inquiry into the history and uses of the idea of civil society is that it is concerned explicitly with identifying the ambiguities in its applications to contemporary societies . . . In one aspect Mr. "Seligman's book is an exploration of the idea of civil society in all its contemporary and historical ironies and ambiguities, one that is richly learned and subtly reasoned. In another it is a question mark over the very idea of a civil society. -- John Gray, The New York Times Book Review --This text refers to the Paperback edition.

From the Back Cover

"A most exciting, original, and well documented presentation of the idea of civil society in the Western--in the broadest sense of the word, including Eastern Europe--historical experience and political tradition."--S. N. Eisenstadt, The Hoover Institute and Hebrew University

"Seligman argues his case in an attractively open manner and with great range, both in terms of ideas and institutions. His is the best book on the subject at the moment: lucid, high-powered, convincing, and approachable."--John A. Hall, McGill University

--This text refers to the Paperback edition.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 241 pages
• Publisher: Free Press (September 28, 1992)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0029283159
• ISBN-13: 978-0029283158
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6.1 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #876,355 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)