Perry Anderson is an English Marxist intellectual and historian renowned for his incisive examinations of historical and political trajectories. His work often delves into the intricate relationship between theory and practice, particularly within the context of left-wing thought. Anderson gained prominence through his engagement in intellectual debates, challenging various Marxist approaches and their historical applications. His style is marked by analytical depth and a broad scope, establishing him as an influential figure in contemporary intellectual discourse.
Focusing on six prominent historians, this book offers an insightful exploration of their contributions to the understanding of the First World War. It delves into their unique perspectives, methodologies, and the impact of their work on the field of history. Through engaging narratives, readers will gain a deeper appreciation for the complexities of the war and how these historians have shaped contemporary views on its significance.
Exploring the evolution of political theory, this book delves into the concept of hegemony, examining its implications in various historical contexts. It analyzes key figures and their contributions to the understanding of power dynamics and dominance in society. By tracing the development of hegemonic theory, the author reveals its relevance to contemporary political discourse and challenges, making it an essential read for those interested in political science and history.
An exploration of Marcel Proust and Anthony Powell's greatest literary achievements. There are few writers about whom opinions diverge so widely as Anthony Powell, whose Dance to the Music of Time sequence is one of the most ambitious literary constructions in the English language. In Different Speeds, Same Furies, Perry Anderson measures Powell’s achievement against Marcel Proust’s celebrated In Search of Lost Time. The literature on Dance is a drop in the ocean compared to that on Proust. Yet in construction of plot and depiction of character, Anderson ranks Powell above him. How much do particular advantages of this kind matter, and why is Powell an odd man out in English letters? At once so similar and dissimilar, the intricate retrospectives of the two novelists on bohemia and Society, upbringing and mortality, relationships and personality, invite interrelated judgements. The closing chapters of Different Speeds, Same Furies reach beyond their handlings of time to chart the historical novel from Waverley to Underworld, and the breakthrough in epistolatory fiction of Montesquieu’s Persian Letters, held together by what its author described as ‘a secret chain which remains, as it were, invisible’.
Exploring controversial themes, the book delves into the connections between the September 11 attacks and various historical events, including the Kennedy assassinations and the influence of figures like Billy Graham. It addresses the struggles of children from challenging backgrounds while intertwining elements of the paranormal. The narrative raises thought-provoking questions about how these events are interlinked, particularly focusing on their impact on young people. Anderson's debut promises to challenge perceptions and provoke discussion on these complex issues.
How to theorise the European UnionThe European Union is a political order of peculiar stamp and continental scope, its polity of 446 million the third largest on the planet, though with famously little purchase on the conduct of its representatives. Sixty years after the founding treaty, what sort of structure has crystallised, and does the promise of ever closer union still obtain?Against the self-image of the bloc, Perry Anderson poses the historical record of its assembly. He traces the wider arc of European history, from First World War to Eurozone crisis, the hegemony of Versailles to that of Maastricht, and casts the work of the EU’s leading contemporary analysts—both independent critics and court philosophers—in older traditions of political thought. Are there likenesses to the age of Metternich, lessons in statecraft from that of Machiavelli?An excursus on the UK’s jarring departure from the Union considers the responses it has met with inside the country’s intelligentsia, from the contrite to the incandescent. How do Brussels and Westminster compare as constitutional forms? Differently put, which could be said to be worse?
New expanded edition of landmark text by world's leading Marxist scholar, with reply to critics and postscript on Modi's India
Challenging the notion that business failure is inevitable, Perry M. Anderson explores the resilience of small-to-medium-sized enterprises in a tough economic landscape. He argues against the prevailing statistics that suggest closure is the only option when financial struggles arise. Instead, Anderson provides insights and strategies for overcoming adversity and achieving success, emphasizing that businesses can thrive despite daunting challenges.
Leading English-language account of the fall of Lula's Workers' Party and rise of Bolsonaro and the New Right
A fascinating history of the political theory of hegemony Few terms are so widely used in the literature of international relations and political science, with so little agreement about their exact meaning, as hegemony. In the first full historical study of its fortunes as a concept, Perry Anderson traces its emergence in Ancient Greece and its rediscovery during the upheavals of 1848–1849 in Germany. He then follows its checkered career in revolutionary Russia, fascist Italy, Cold War America, Gaullist France, Thatcher’s Britain, post-colonial India, feudal Japan, Maoist China, eventually arriving at the world of Merkel and May, Bush and Obama. The result is a surprising and fascinating expedition into global intellectual history, ending with reflections on the contemporary political landscape.
A major essay on the thought of the great Italian Marxist Perry Anderson's essay The Antimonies of Antonio Gramsci, first published in New Left Review in 1976, was an explosive analysis of the central strategic concepts in the thought of the great Italian Marxist. Since then it has been the subject of book-length attacks across four decades for its disentangling of the hesitations and contradictions in Gramsci's highly original usage of such key dichotomies as East and West, domination and direction, hegemony and dictatorship, state and civil society, and war of position and war of movement. In a critical tribute to the international richness of Gramsci's work, the essay shows how deeply embedded these notions were in the revolutionary debates in Tsarist Russia and Wilhelmine Germany. Here arguments crisscrossed between Plekhanov, Lenin, Kautsky, Luxemburg, Lukács and Trotsky, with later echoes in Brecht and Benjamin. A new preface considers the objections the essay provoked and the reasons for them. This edition also includes the first English translation of Athos Lisa's report on Gramsci's lectures in prison.