Intellectuals and the Crisis of Politics in the Interwar Period and Beyond

A Transnational History
Erscheinungsjahr 2025
ISBN: 978-0-19-892948-2
Verlag: Oxford University Press

Buch, Englisch, 336 Seiten, Format (B × H): 162 mm x 240 mm, Gewicht: 598 g

This volume offers a broad-ranging and comprehensive analysis of the history and theory of the political idea of 'crisis', from the interwar period through to the present day. It considers how the multiple crises of civilization, capitalism, social cohesion, liberalism, democracy, socialism, and the nation-state were conceptualized; how these spheres of crisis became entangled; and who the intellectuals, politicians and experts were who employed these discourses.

Intellectuals and the Crisis of Politics in the Interwar Period and Beyond maps the range of meanings the term 'crisis' has borne and the roles it has performed across disciplines and countries, de-centering the dominant narrative that takes Western European positions and developments as normative. It especially focuses on the historical roots of two key contemporary contesters of liberal democracy: neoliberalism and populism, and presents an innovative analysis of the roots of contemporary illiberalism in Europe.

Bringing these ideas into the present day, Balázs Trencsényi offers ideas on how a reflective and self-critical liberal democratic political position could be defined and defended in our current predicament, which is increasingly compared to the interwar period and is often described as a “polycrisis”.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Trencsényi, Balázs

Fachgebiete

• Geisteswissenschaften Geschichtswissenschaft Weltgeschichte & Geschichte einzelner Länder und Gebietsräume Europäische Geschichte
• Geisteswissenschaften Geschichtswissenschaft Weltgeschichte & Geschichte einzelner Länder und Gebietsräume Geschichte einzelner Länder Europäische Länder
• Sozialwissenschaften Politikwissenschaft Politische Ideologien
• Geisteswissenschaften Geschichtswissenschaft Weltgeschichte & Geschichte einzelner Länder und Gebietsräume Weltgeschichte
• Sozialwissenschaften Politikwissenschaft Politische Systeme Vergleichende Politikwissenschaft

Über Autor(innen)

Balázs Trencsényi is Professor in the History Department at Central European University (CEU) and Director of the CEU Institute for Advanced Study in Budapest. His main field of interest is the history of modern political thought in East Central Europe. He is the co-author of A History of Modern Political Thought in East Central Europe, vols. I-II (OUP, 2016-8) and co-editor of European Regions and Boundaries: A Conceptual History (Berghahn Books, 2017) and Brave New Hungary: Mapping the "System of National Cooperation” (Rowman and Littlefield, 2019), among others.