The Anti-Enlightenment Tradition

"Few people know the power of evil ideas more intimately than Zeev Sternhell."Adam Kirsch, Tablet Magazine -- Adam Kirsch * Tablet Magazine * In this learned and impassioned book, Zeev Sternhell mounts a major offensive against thinkersbe they conservative or liberal, from Edmund Burke to Isaiah Berlinthat he considers as the enemies of Enlightenment values. Even readers who disagree with Sternhell's thesis will have to admire the scope and force of his argument. This book is a crowning achievement of his long and distinguished career.Susan Suleiman, author of Crisis of Memory and the Second World War -- Susan Suleiman "Everything Zeev Sternhell writes is powerful and challenging, and this book is no exception. At a time when Enlightenment values are again under attack, this history of anti-Enlightenment thought is important and timely."Robert Tombs, University of Cambridge -- Robert Tombs "In his The Anti-Enlightenment Tradition, Professor Sternhell has provided us another work of impeccable scholarship and intellectual stimulation. It is recommended to all who are interested in the fate of our civilization."A. James Gregor, University of California, Berkeley -- A. James Gregor "Zeev Sternhell is one of the most original scholars dealing with the historical roots of fascism and the European Right. This new book is a masterly synthesis which will generate vigorous debate and open new vistas for the understanding of contemporary political thought."Saul Friedlander, author of The Years of Extermination -- Saul Friedlander "Few scholars comprehend the nexus between Counter-Enlightenment discourse and fascist ideology as well as Zeev Sternhell. In Anti-Enlightenment Tradition, Sternhell provides a series of provocative and disturbing arguments to demonstrate convincingly just how fraught and intimate those linkages were. Anti-Enlightenment Tradition represents a landmark and transformative contribution to the political history of ideas."Richard Wolin, author of The Seduction of Unreason: The Intellectual Romance with Fascism from Nietzsche to Postmodernism -- Richard Wolin

Zeev Sternhell, who won the 2008 Israel Prize in political science, is Leon Blum Professor of Political Science, Hebrew University.