Skip to main content Accessibility help
×
  1. Home
  2. Books
  3. After the Enlightenment
  • Cited by 43
      • Nicolas Guilhot, Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), Paris
      Show more authors
      • You may already have access via personal or institutional login
    • Select format
    • Publisher:
      Cambridge University Press
      Publication date:
      04 July 2017
      24 April 2017
      ISBN:
      9781316755181
      9781107169739
      9781316621110
      DOI:
      https://doi.org/10.1017/9781316755181
      Dimensions:
      (228 x 152 mm)
      Weight & Pages:
      0.5kg, 264 Pages
      Dimensions:
      (228 x 152 mm)
      Weight & Pages:
      0.39kg, 264 Pages
      • Subjects:
      History of Ideas, Politics and International Relations, International Relations and International Organisations
    You may already have access via personal or institutional login
    • Selected: Digital
    Add to cart View cart Buy from Cambridge.org
    Subjects:
    History of Ideas, Politics and International Relations, International Relations and International Organisations
    Information

    Book description

    After the Enlightenment is the first attempt at understanding modern political realism as a historical phenomenon. Realism is not an eternal wisdom inherited from Thucydides, Machiavelli or Hobbes, but a twentieth-century phenomenon rooted in the interwar years, the collapse of the Weimar Republic, and the transfer of ideas between Continental Europe and the United States. The book provides the first intellectual history of the rise of realism in America, as it informed policy and academic circles after 1945. It breaks through the narrow confines of the discipline of international relations and resituates realism within the crisis of American liberalism. Realism provided a new framework for foreign policy thinking and transformed the nature of American democracy. This book sheds light on the emergence of 'rational choice' as a new paradigm for political decision-making and speaks to the current revival in realism in international affairs.

    Reviews

    '[Guilhot] is masterful in his descriptions of ideas within realism, and how they are connected to the roots and development of the theory. His analysis of the evolution of the concept of ‘security dilemma’ is fascinating, and he digs up the classical Christian roots of early theorists. He argues that Herbert Butterfield provides sociological justifications of human predicament and that the eastern and western blocs avoided war because each was unsure of the others’ intention, as each was ‘beset by the devils of fear’. The book is a compelling read for anyone interested in the history of theory.'

    Sumantra Maitra Source: International Affairs

    Refine List

    Actions for selected content:

    Select all | Deselect all
    • View selected items
    • Export citations
    • Download PDF (zip)
    • Save to Kindle
    • Save to Dropbox
    • Save to Google Drive

    Save Search

    You can save your searches here and later view and run them again in "My saved searches".

    Please provide a title, maximum of 40 characters.
    Cancel
    ×

    Contents

    Contents

    Metrics

    Altmetric attention score

    Full text views

    Total number of HTML views: 0
    Total number of PDF views: 0 *
    Loading metrics...

    Book summary page views

    Total views: 0 *
    Loading metrics...

    * Views captured on Cambridge Core between #date#. This data will be updated every 24 hours.

    Usage data cannot currently be displayed.

    Accessibility standard: Unknown

    Why this information is here

    This section outlines the accessibility features of this content - including support for screen readers, full keyboard navigation and high-contrast display options. This may not be relevant for you.

    Accessibility Information

    Accessibility compliance for the PDF of this book is currently unknown and may be updated in the future.