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Age of folly : America abandons its democracy

Title
Age of folly : America abandons its democracy / Lewis H. Lapham.
Author
Lapham, Lewis H.
Publication
  • London ; Brooklyn, NY : Verso, 2016.
  • ©2016

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TextUse in library JFE 16-12756Schwarzman Building - Main Reading Room 315

Details

Description
xv, 384 pages; 24 cm
Summary
"America's leading essayist on the frantic retreat of democracy, in the fire and smoke of the war on terror. In twenty-five years of imperial adventure, America has laid waste to its principles of democracy. The self-glorifying march of folly steps off at the end of the Cold War, in an era when delusions of omnipotence allowed the market to climb to virtual heights, while society was divided between the selfish and frightened rich and the increasingly debt-ridden and angry poor. The new millennium saw the democratic election of an American president nullified by the Supreme Court, and the pretender launching a wasteful, vainglorious and never-ending war on terror, doomed to end in defeat and the loss of America's prestige abroad. All this culminates in the sunset swamp of the 2016 election--a farce dominated by Donald Trump, a self-glorifying photo-op bursting star-spangled bombast in air. This spectacle would be familiar to Aristotle, whose portrayal of the "prosperous fool" describes a class of people who "consider themselves worthy to hold public office, for they already have the things that give them a claim to office.""--
Subjects
Note
  • Includes index.
  • "The essays comprising Part I appeared first in the pages of Harper's Magazine between 1990 and 2015 ; chapters 33 through 35 were published originally in Lapham's Quarterly between 2014 and 2015."-Title page verso.
Call Number
JFE 16-12756
ISBN
  • 9781784787110 (hardback)
  • 1784787116 (hardback)
LCCN
2016027836
OCLC
957077638
Author
Lapham, Lewis H., author.
Title
Age of folly : America abandons its democracy / Lewis H. Lapham.
Publisher
London ; Brooklyn, NY : Verso, 2016.
Copyright Date
©2016
Type of Content
text
Type of Medium
unmediated
Type of Carrier
volume
Research Call Number
JFE 16-12756
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