Imagining the possible is not as simple as it might seem. Imagination is usually associated with a fanciful utopia, leaving the possible to those who learn to accept and compromise. Imagining the Possible questions whether the radical vision and the quest for incremental change truly preclude one another. These essays highlight the shifting intersection between utopian goals and immediate demands, the realm of freedom and the constraints of necessity, where we would like to go and where we are now. Bronner takes on the existential importance of ideals like socialism, democracy, and internationalism, attempting to reinvigorate them by refusing to identify them with any particular institutional arrangement. He argues that individuals in general and intellectuals in particular can make a difference, and explores the work of those he considers his allies: Luxembourg, Camus, Horkheimer and Adorno, and Ulrich Beck, among others. A call to action, and a call to reflection, Imagining the Possible aims to revitalize progressive thought and action in a conservative world.
Imagining the possible is not as simple as it might seem. Imagination is usually associated with a fanciful utopia, leaving the possible to those who learn to accept and compromise. Imagining the Possible questions whether the radical vision and the quest for incremental change truly preclude one another. These essays highlight the shifting intersection between utopian goals and immediate demands, the realm of freedom and the constraints of necessity, where we would like to go and where we are now. Bronner takes on the existential importance of ideals like socialism, democracy, and internationalism, attempting to reinvigorate them by refusing to identify them with any particular institutional arrangement. He argues that individuals in general and intellectuals in particular can make a difference, and explores the work of those he considers his allies: Luxembourg, Camus, Horkheimer and Adorno, and Ulrich Beck, among others. A call to action, and a call to reflection, Imagining the Possible aims to revitalize progressive thought and action in a conservative world.
Introductio Part I:Socialism and Freedom 1.The Socialist Project 2.Persistent Memories:Jewish Activists and the German Revolution of 1919 3.Confronting Nationalism 4.The Sickness Unto Death:International Communism Before the Deluge 5.Looking Backwards:1968 Thirty Years After Part II:Words and Needs 1.Red Dreams and the New Millennium:Remarks on Rosa Luxemborg 2.The Limits of Metatheory:Political Reflections on the Dialectics of Enlightenment 3.Foundations for a Spirit of Resistance:the War Diaries by Jean-Paul Sartre 4.Remembering Henry Pachter Poltics and Judgement Part III:Democracy and its Challenges 1.Transforming the State 2.Ecology, Politics, and Risk The Angst of Affirmative Action 4.Neo-Conservatism and the New Right in the United States and Abroad 5.Intellectuals, Democracy, and Society
Stephen Eric Bronner is Professor of Political Science at Rutgers University. He serves on the editorial boards of the journals New Politics and New Political Science. He is the author of editor of fifteen books, including Moments of Decision (Routledge, 1992), which won APSA's Michael Harrington Book Award.
"The notions of socialism, democracy, & internationalism, & the
contributions of various activists & intellectuals in these areas,
are analyzed to determine whether social & political change is
possible in the contemporary world. Several 20th-century events &
movements that significantly influenced leftist politics are
studied." -- J.W. Parker, Sociological Abstracts
"Wonderfully rich, unpredictable, and nuanced, these essays call us
back to a way of thinking radically that, had the American left
only reckoned with it better, might have kept many of us more
engaged. With acuity and candor, Stephen Eric Bronner leavens his
pragmatism with a humanist idealism that reintroduces hope to
politics." -- Jim Sleeper, The Closest of Strangers and
LiberalRacism
"In this classy and engaging collection, Bronner helps keep alive a
critical reflection threatened by both antiquarian Marxists and
policy wonks." -- Russell Jacoby, UCLA, and author of The End of
Utopia
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