Product Description

This second edition of a successful textbook is a comprehensive account of the major political ideologies of the past two centuries.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #40420 in Books
• Published on: 1995-05-23
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 384 pages

From the Back Cover
This second edition of a successful textbook is a comprehensive account of the major political ideologies of the past two centuries. It is designed for introductory students of "ideologies" – a key component of all politics courses.

The new edition has been revised and updated, as a result of extensive market research, and now includes a completely new chapter on nationalism. It retains the popular format of the first edition.
Each ideology – liberalism, conservatism, socialism, anarchism, fascism, feminism, ecologism, nationalism – is covered in a separate chapter, designed to be read independently of the rest of the text. The format is user–friendly and accessible to all levels of students. The text highlights and illustrates the complex overlap and interplay of ideas that exist both within and between ideologies.

This book will appeal to students and scholars in the fields of social history, cultural history, literary studies and anthropology.

About the Author
Andrew Vincent is Senior Research Fellow of the Institute for Advanced Studies at the Australian National University and Reader in Political Theory at the University of Wales, Cardiff, and author of the Theories of the State (Blackwell, 1987).

Customer Reviews

Single Greatest Book On Politics There Is
Vincent writes an engaging and easily read perennial book on the topic of modern political ideologies, this is the sort of book anyone student, scholar or inerested reader can enjoy either reading cover to cover or browsing through. I guarantee if you buy this book as a student it could be one of the books that you keep long after you've finished your studies.

The chapters are divided out into the nature of ideology liberalism, conservatism, socialism, anarchism, feminism, nationalism, ecologism, icons and iconoclasm, Vincent admits to having a bias at the conclusion of the book and counters some post-modern arguments from the introduction, in the body of the text and in the conclusion about relativism but still manages to write what strikes me as a very objective and searching account.

This isnt a book that's likely to reinforce prejudices, popular or voguish views of political ideologies, particularly the prejudices and popular thinking since the neo-liberal eighties and ninties, Vincent presents the contradictions of liberalism, conservatism which isnt market friendly, socialism without the state, nationalism without borders, feminisms differing by country of origin and a lot of other totally intriguing concepts which you really would be hard pressed to find all in a single volume elsewere.

As a result I can see it being a very unpopular book with a lot of academics or anyone else who is happier with comfortable certainties than a challenging read.