<< >I found this passage from Perry Anderson's The Origins of Postmodernity
>very illuminating.
Does this mean I have to buy another book?
>>
While we are plugging books, I want to put in a word for Don Herzog's Poisoning the Minds of the Lower Orders. At a first cut it it a social and intellectual history of conservatism in England from 1790 (Burke) through the 1840s--roughly the period covered by EP Thompson's The Making of the Working Classes. At a deeper level it's a hiostorical mediation on the antagonism between conservatism and democracty. It's gorgeously written, very accessible despite its learning. It's full of wierd and wonderful quotes and starts out the an account of the investigation into the affiars *litrerral) of Queen Caroline that reminds you Kenneth Starr is a type, not a abberation. Two caveats: Don is no Marxist or socialist; he's an unabhed liberal. And he was one of my dissertation advisors. On the other hand I wouldn't recomm,ens that you read my dissertation chair Allan Gibbard's Wise Choices, Apt Feelings unless you were really interested in metaethics.
--jks