> >>Shane summarizing Anderson
> >
> >Thanks. Two questions: 1) why do you like poring over him so?, and
> >2) did he really need 10,000 words to make those unremarkable
> >observations? The gloom and windbaggery seem like two symptoms of
> >one underlying pathology of mandarin detachment.
> >
> >Doug
>
>
> _Passages from Antiquity to Feudalism_ and _Lineages of the
> Absolutist State_ are great books...
>
>
>
> Brad DeLong, not usually given to excessive praise of Marxist historians
I would agree with Doug that Anderson's essays on current politics tend to be bloated excercises in stating the obvious at great length. On the other hand, as Brad DeLong notes, Anderson has written some great histories. I would also add that Anderson essays on contemporary thinkers -- ranging from Carlo Ginsburg to Fredric Jameson to Kojeve -- are illiminating and very valuable. Anderson has a real gift for exposition and critique, across a wide body of disciplines.