Democracy and populism: fear & hatred

This intensely interesting-and troubling-book 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 form-a 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 propaganda-and entertainment-for 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

This intensely interesting-and troubling-book 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 form-a 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 propaganda-and entertainment-for 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

Intro -- Contents -- Preface -- 1 -- Tocqueville's vision of history -- The ending of "mixed" government -- "Right" and "Left": Their conservative misreadings -- A liberal misreading -- Conservatives and liberals -- Popular sovereignty and socialism -- Popular sovereignty and nationalism -- Nationalism and socialism -- The accumulation of opinions -- Progressive liberalism -- Progressives and populists -- Populist anti-Semitism and Germanophilia -- Nation and state -- 2 -- 1914: The world of yesterday? -- Modern"? -- The Russian Revolution: A tremendous failure -- 1917 and the Americanization of the world -- The failure of liberalism after 1918 -- 1920-1945: The division of the world -- Misuse and misreading of "Fascism" -- Misuse and misreading of "totalitarianism" -- Misuse and misreading of National Socialism as an "ideology" -- 3 -- The United States in 1945 and thereafter -- The decline of the state -- The declining function of "classes" -- Tyranny of the majority"? "Public opinion" and its misreadings -- Decline of privacy, rise of publicity -- Publicity and celebrity -- Changes in the recording and knowledge of history -- 4 -- Fear and hatred -- Triumph and disappearance of "liberalism" -- The rise of criminality -- A new, profound, division -- Ideas and beliefs -- Hope, against fear -- Index.