The Dragons of Expectation: Reality and Delusion in the Course of History

The Dragons of Expectation: Reality and Delusion in the Course of History

by RobertConquest (Author)

Synopsis

In The Dragons of Expectations , Robert Conquest returns to damn the terrible delusions and pernicious optimism that have caused so much bloodshed in the last century. His is a landmark defence of civilisation that illuminates the political degradations and intellectual fetishes of our current era. Conquest has devoted a lifetime to exposing the political and mental distortions that spawn and appease tyranny, leading all too often to death and destruction. Whether discussing the political thinking of ancient Greece, the corrosive effect of ideological socialism, or the inanities of the European Union, Conquest assesses the ravages of our past, the absurdities of our present, and the pitfalls that lie in our future. In and analysis that ranges from the failures of the Enlightenment to the nature of Democracy, Stalinism and Liberalism, Conquest masterfully shows how false nostrums have affected academe, politicians and the public, and how our weakness for ideological certainty has caught us in a ruinous cycle of totalitarianism and war. Conquest remains an astute and keenly critical observer of contemporary culture and politics. Devoting more than half of the Dragons of Expectation to an assessment of the world situation at the beginning of the 21st century, Conquest explores a possible future for Britain and the Unites States and the likely fate of civilisation itself.

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More Information

Format: Paperback
Pages: 256
Publisher: Gerald Duckworth & Co Ltd
Published: 09 Nov 2006

ISBN 10: 0715635972
ISBN 13: 9780715635971

Media Reviews
'Good and necessary fun' Christopher Hitchens
Author Bio
Robert Conquest, author of Reflections on a Ravaged Century and The Great Terror, was educated at Winchester and at Magdalen College, Oxford, and is a Research Fellow at Stanford's Hoover Institution. In 2005 he was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the highest civil honour awarded in the United States. He lives in Stanford, California.