Research Catalog

The dark side of the Left : illiberal Egalitarianism in America

Title: The dark side of the Left : illiberal Egalitarianism in America / Richard J. Ellis.
Author: Ellis, Richard (Richard J.)
Publication: Lawrence, Kan. : University Press of Kansas, ©1998.

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Status	Format	Access	Call Number	Item Location
Request for On-site Use Request Scan How do I pick up this item and when will it be ready?	Text	Use in library	HN90.R3 E55 1998	Off-site

Details

Description

xiii, 426 pages; 25 cm.

Summary

Why do people who identify themselves as liberal or egalitarian sometimes embrace intolerance or even preach violence? Illiberalism has come to be expected of the right in this country; its occurrence on the left is more paradoxical but no less real. In this book, Richard J. Ellis examines the illiberal tendencies that have characterized egalitarian movements throughout American history, from the radical abolitionists of the 1850s to the New Left activists of the 1960s. He also takes on contemporary radical feminists like Catharine MacKinnon and radical environmental groups like Earth First to show that, even today, many of the American left's sacred cows have cloven hooves. He explains how orthodoxy arises within a group from the need to maintain distance from a society it views as hopelessly corrupt, and how individuals committed to egalitarian causes are particularly susceptible to illiberalism - even poets like Walt Whitman, who celebrated the common people but often expressed contempt for their mundane lives. Political correctness, idealizing the oppressed, and an affinity for authoritarian and charismatic leaders are all parts of what Ellis calls "the dark side of the left."

Series Statement

American political thought

Uniform Title

American political thought.

Subject

Bibliography (note)

Includes bibliographical references (p. [287]-406) and index.

Contents

The Nineteenth and Early Twentieth Centuries -- Radical Abolitionism: Purity and Violence -- Illiberal Utopianism in the Age of Reform -- The Revolting Masses: From Walt Whitman to Mike Gold -- SDS, The New Left, and the 1960s -- The Illiberal Turn: Tom Hayden, SDS, and the New Left -- Romancing the Oppressed: The New Left and the Left Out -- When More (Democracy) Is Less -- Egalitarianism Today -- Radical Feminism: The Personal is Political -- Earth First! and the Misanthropy of Radical Egalitarianism -- Apocalypse and Authoritarianism in the Radical Environmental Movement.

ISBN

0700608753
9780700608751
9780700610303
0700610308

LCCN

97027340

OCLC

ocm37300678
37300678
SCSB-8977028

Owning Institutions

Princeton University Library