Daniel Mahoney – författare

By collectively concentrating on the theme of political symbolism in modern Europe, the contributors to this volume have chosen to honor a revered teacher and colleague by developing a set of variations on one of his primary scholarly concerns. The essays deal with familiar domains in the history of European culture: religion, science, philosophy, theater, popular culture, and social ideologies. They attempt to focus on their individual subjects as studies of the ways in which the terms of cultural discourse have been shaped and elaborated by social position and the inherently political nature of such discourse. The essays also trace attempts to capture assent or compliance to particular world views which have had profound cultural and political consequences. Many es-says deal with the vocabularies of strategically located elites con-sciously or unconsciously shap-ing discourse to enhance their role in the Eruopean social hierar-chy. Others turn to the problem of the dynamics of symbolic recep-tion and reception by popular au-diences. A third group of thematic essays deals with case studies of world views dominated by political metaphors of group identityand differentiation which became dominant in Western Europe to-ward the end of the nineteenth century—class, nation, sex, age, and race.

The essays in the volume deal with: George Mosse and political symbolism; the medical model of cultural crisis in fin de siecle France; cultural uses of "fatigue" in the nineteenth century; Mar-burg neo-Kantian thought and German popular culture; the Ostjude as a cultural symbol in German anti-Semitism; the func-tion of myth and symbol in Georges Sorel; feminism and eugenics in Edwardian England; Darwinism and the working class in Germany; science and religion in early modern Europe; popular theater and socialism in fin de siecle France; political symbolism in the paintings of the German war of liberation; generational discourse in pre-World War I France; and cultural implications of national-socialist religion.

This analysis of the thought and action of Charles de Gaulle explores the intellectual foundations of Gaullist statecraft. Mahoney''s careful exegesis of de Gaulle''s major writings and speeches, reveals a penetrating political thinker as well as a major political actor. He explains de Gaulle to an American public that too often sees him as a posturing figure suffering from an exaggerated and misplaced sense of personal and national grandeur. Mahoney shows that de Gaulle''s defense of the "grandeur" of France is tied to a fundamentally classical view of human nature and politics. In elucidating de Gaulle''s political self-understanding, Mahoney highlights the foundation of his noble but elusive moderation.

Mahoney shows how de Gaulle repeatedly and explicitly rejected the cult of the Nietzschean superman, the Bonapartist separation of grandeur from moderation, and all temptations of personal and ideological despotism. He explicates de Gaulle''s self-understanding as a statesman or "man of character" who comes to the service of a democratic political order in a time of crisis. He articulates de Gaulle''s relationship to classical and Christian thought, his place in the French tradition, his profound debts to the Catholic poet-philosopher Charles Peguy, as well as his important affinities with Alexis de Tocqueville on the need to remain faithful to the dual imperatives of democracy and grandeur.

In addition, the book discusses the principal moments of de Gaulle''s statecraft from his "appeal" to resistance in June, 1940, and his founding of a new French Republic in 1958, to his articulation of a "Europe of Nations" in the 1960''s. In doing so, Mahoney thoughtfully clarifies the Gaullist understanding of the "problem" of democracy: The democratic statesman must correct the corrosive acids of modern individualism, while accepting that democratic individualism sets the inescapable contours of political action in our time.

Written in clear and non-technical language for both a scholarly and general audience. De Gaulle will be of interest to students of modern European political history, contemporary political theory, and those concerned with statecraft or statesmanship.

This analysis of the thought and action of Charles de Gaulle explores the intellectual foundations of Gaullist statecraft. Mahoney''s careful exegesis of de Gaulle''s major writings and speeches, reveals a penetrating political thinker as well as a major political actor. He explains de Gaulle to an American public that too often sees him as a posturing figure suffering from an exaggerated and misplaced sense of personal and national grandeur. Mahoney shows that de Gaulle''s defense of the "grandeur" of France is tied to a fundamentally classical view of human nature and politics. In elucidating de Gaulle''s political self-understanding, Mahoney highlights the foundation of his noble but elusive moderation.

Mahoney shows how de Gaulle repeatedly and explicitly rejected the cult of the Nietzschean superman, the Bonapartist separation of grandeur from moderation, and all temptations of personal and ideological despotism. He explicates de Gaulle''s self-understanding as a statesman or "man of character" who comes to the service of a democratic political order in a time of crisis. He articulates de Gaulle''s relationship to classical and Christian thought, his place in the French tradition, his profound debts to the Catholic poet-philosopher Charles Peguy, as well as his important affinities with Alexis de Tocqueville on the need to remain faithful to the dual imperatives of democracy and grandeur.

In addition, the book discusses the principal moments of de Gaulle''s statecraft from his "appeal" to resistance in June, 1940, and his founding of a new French Republic in 1958, to his articulation of a "Europe of Nations" in the 1960''s. In doing so, Mahoney thoughtfully clarifies the Gaullist understanding of the "problem" of democracy: The democratic statesman must correct the corrosive acids of modern individualism, while accepting that democratic individualism sets the inescapable contours of political action in our time.

Written in clear and non-technical language for both a scholarly and general audience. De Gaulle will be of interest to students of modern European political history, contemporary political theory, and those concerned with statecraft or statesmanship.