Al Qaeda and What It Means to be Modern

by ProfessorJohnGray (Author)

• Used

  Paperback
  2004

  $3.25

  Fundamentalist terror movements are seen as reversions to medievalism, backlashes against a way of life that is the same everywhere. This view is a mirage. Thinking of modernity as a universal condition is a hindrance to understanding the present. Gray goes back to the origins of our notion of modernity in early nineteenth-century Positivism. Many economists imbibed their view that every society goes through the same developmental phases. Gray argues that September 11th destroyed the idea of globalisation as the sole pathway to modernity. He considers the role of the global free market, the pretensions of economics, the metamorphosis of war and the prospects of an American empire.

• Used

  Hardcover
  2003

  $3.25

  Marx, Mill and a great many economists imbibed the 19th-century Positivist view that every society is destined to go through the same phases of development, ending in a universal civilization based on science, industrial production and secular Enlightenment values. Tracing the impact of this view, via business, politics and academia, Gray argues that September 11 destroyed the idea of globalization as a single pathway to modernity. He also considers the rise and decline of the global free market, the pretensions of economics, the metamorphosis of war and the prospects of an American empire.