Modernity and Its Discontents: Making and Unmaking the Bourgeois from Machiavelli to Bellow

by Steven B. Smith

Steven B. Smith examines the concept of modernity, not as the end product of historical developments but as a state of mind. He explores modernism as a source of both pride and anxiety, suggesting that its most distinctive characteristics are the self-criticisms and doubts that accompany social and political progress. Providing profiles of the modern project’s most powerful defenders and critics—from Machiavelli and Spinoza to Saul Bellow and Isaiah Berlin—this provocative work of philosophy and political science offers a novel perspective on what it means to be modern and why discontent and sometimes radical rejection are its inevitable by-products.

Genres: Philosophy, History, Nonfiction

416 pages, Hardcover

Published August 9, 2016

About the author

Steven B. Smith is the Alfred Cowles Professor of Political Science and Master of Branford College at Yale. He received his Ph.D. from the University of Chicago in 1981. At Yale he has served as the Director of Graduate Studies in Political Science, Director of the Undergraduate Program in Humanities, and Acting Chair of Judaic Studies. His research has been focused on the history of political philosophy and the role of statecraft in constitutional government. His recent publications include Spinoza, Liberalism, and Jewish Identity, Spinoza's Book of Life, and Reading Leo Strauss.

Reviews

[Victoria Hawco · Rating 3 out of 5]

Oh I’ll show ya discontent.

[Erkan Saka · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book has a very smoothly flowing narrative. Its style is in somewhere in between literary and philosophy. Why particular personas are chosen could be explained and I believe there might be many issues to be contested. I particularly found Nietzsche section limited and narrow-minded. However, I did love the book and I will recommend it to my students.

[junyan]

dnf. 有些失望，奔着对现代化及其正负面效应的深度剖析而来，却得到一整本文献综述

[Joshua Glucksman · Rating 5 out of 5]

This might be one of the best intro modern philosophy books I have ever read. It helped I had a familiarity with lots of the philosophers, otherwise it would be overwhelming. I LOVE the addition of some non-philosophical literature and plays, because that too can be deeply telling about modernity and its criticism. I also really learn a lot about philosophers through their plays and fiction! Lots of philosophers dabbled in poetry, art, and literature, which, I think one philosopher says, is the deepest sign of being human! I actually think I might agree.

Anyways, I think I subscribe to value pluralism, Isaiah Berlins idea, but also some of Strauss's stuff, not the conservatism. And I am decidedly NOT a modernist! And NOT a post-modernist neither. Welp.

[Peter Flom · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is an interesting collection of chapters on an interesting collection of philosophers, but it could have used more in the way of cohesion. My full review is at http://peterfsblogs.blogspot.com/2016... .