In an era when intellectual and artistic life is increasingly being distorted by political dogmatism, Julien Benda’s Treason of the Intellectuals is a classic that speaks with a new and extraordinary urgency. Benda’s essay, published by ERIS in a new translation by David Broder, offers an incisive account of interwar Europe that ranges from the influence of Friedrich Nietzsche and Georges Sorel to the activities of Charles Maurras and Benito Mussolini. It also serves, however, as ...

Available for the first time in a stand-alone volume, the classic essay that envisioned liberalism not as the triumphant endpoint of political progress, or even a cohesive ideology, but rather as a precarious guardrail against abuses of power.After the collapse of the Soviet Union, many hailed the supposed triumph of liberal democracy as the “end of history.” But Judith Shklar offered a sober and cautionary perspective. Far from an inevitable or permanent political...

Aristotle claimed that ‘all human beings want to know’. Yet we also want not to know. Centuries after the Enlightenment, mesmerised crowds still follow preposterous prophets; irrational rumours trigger fanatical acts; and magical thinking crowds out common sense and expertise. Where does this will to ignorance originate, and how does it shape our lives today?Acclaimed essayist and historian of ideas Mark Lilla offers an absorbing intellectual travelogue of the human will not to kno...

"Terrific . . . essential reading for anyone who wants to understand how we arrived in the Trump era and where the Democrats go from here." —Fareed Zakaria, CNNFollowing the shocking results of the US election of 2016, public intellectuals across the globe offered theories and explanations, but few were met with such vitriol, panic, and debate as Mark Lilla's. The Once and Future Liberal is a passionate plea to liberals to turn from the divisive politics of...

"A wise and wonderfully enjoyable book. Mark Lilla treats weighty matters with a light touch, in an elegant prose style that crackles with dry wit . . . Invigorating." —John Banville, The GuardianA dazzling exploration of our wish to remain innocent and ignorant—and its consequences.Aristotle claimed that “all human beings want to know.” Our own experience proves that all human beings also want not to know. Today, centuries after t...

“A skilled exploration” of why 6 notable 20th-century philosophers—from Martin Heidegger to Michel Foucault—succumbed to “a narcissistic embrace of totalitarian politics” (The Washington Post).European history of the past century is full of examples of philosophers, writers, and scholars who supported or excused the worst tyrannies of the age. How was this possible? How could intellectuals whose work depends on freedom defend those who would deny it? Here,...

A classic, controversial book exploring German culture and identity by the author of Death in Venice and The Magic Mountain, now back in print.When the Great War broke out in August 1914, Thomas Mann, like so many people on both sides of the conflict, was exhilarated. Finally, the era of decadence that he had anatomized in Death in Venice had come to an end; finally, there was a cause worth fighting and even dying for, or, at least when i...

Covering centuries of thought and politics, this collection of essays “offers a fascinating framework for making sense of our contemporary political landscape” (Vox).“Skillfully untangles the apocalyptic ‘mytho-histories,’ ‘just-so narratives,’ and ‘political bedtime stories’ favored by the modern right, in Europe and America.” —The New YorkerWe don’t understand the reactionary mind. In this timely book, Mark Lilla argues ...

For nearly forty years, Ronald Reagan's vision-small government, lower taxes, and self-reliant individualism-has remained America's dominant political ideology. The Democratic Party has offered no truly convincing competing vision. Instead, American liberalism has fallen under the spell of identity politics. Mark Lilla argues with acerbic wit that liberals, originally driven by a sincere desire to protect the most vulnerable Americans, have now unwittingly invested their energies in social...

A classic, controversial book exploring German culture and identity by the author of Death in Venice and The Magic Mountain, now back in print.When the Great War broke out in August 1914, Thomas Mann, like so many people on both sides of the conflict, was exhilarated. Finally, the era of decadence that he had anatomized in Death in Venice had come to an end; finally, there was a cause worth fighting and even dying for, or, at least when i...

From one of the most internationally admired political thinkers, a controversial polemic on the failures of identity politics and what comes next for the left — in America and beyond.Following the shocking results of the US election of 2016, public intellectuals across the globe offered theories and explanations, but few were met with such vitriol, panic, and debate as Mark Lilla’s. The Once and Future Liberal is a passionate plea to liberals to turn from ...

From the acclaimed author of Listen, Liberal and What’s the Matter with Kansas, a scathing collection of his incisive commentary on our cruel times—perfect for this political moment.What does a middle-class democracy look like when it comes apart? When, after forty years of economic triumph, America’s winners persuade themselves that they owe nothing to the rest of the country?With his sharp eye for detail, Thomas Frank takes us on a wide-...