The fetishism of modernities : epochal self-consciousness in contemporary social and political thought

Offers a sustained critical examination of the concept of modernity, providing a fresh look at familiar modern ideas and practices such as nationalism, constitutionalism, and liberal democratic politics. Critiques the tendency to treat modernity as an integrated and coherent whole, and suggests that the real world presents far stranger and more unexpected combinations of these elements than are dreamt of in modernist and postmodernist philosophies. Of interest to cultural theorists, intellectual historians, and philosophers. Annotation c. by Book News, Inc., Portland, Or.