The Riddle of the Modern World

What conditions the chances of liberty, wealth and equality at the start of the third Christian millennium? Why did human civilizations develop so slowly for thousands of years, and then transform themselves during the last three hundred? This study of four great thinkers who lived between 1689 and 1995, Montesquieu, Adam Smith, De Tocqueville, and Ernest Gellner, weaves their lives and works together and through their own words shows how they approached the question of the nature of man, his past and his future.

Autorentext

ALAN MACFARLANE is Professor of Anthropological Science at the University of Cambridge and a Fellow of King's College, Cambridge. He was elected a Fellow of the British Academy in 1986. His previous books include Marriage and Love in England 1300-1840 (1986), The Culture of Capitalism (1987), The Savage Wars of Peace (1997).

Zusammenfassung
This study of four great thinkers who lived between 1689 and 1995, Montesquieu, Adam Smith, De Tocqueville, and Ernest Gellner, weaves their lives and works together and through their own words shows how they approached the question of the nature of man, his past and his future.

Inhalt
Acknowledgements References, Conventions and Measures The Riddle of the Modern World LIBERTY Baron de Montesquieu's Life and Vision Liberty and Despotism The Defence of Liberty WEALTH Adam Smith's Life and Vision Growth and Statis Of Wealth and Liberty From Predation to Production EQUALITY Alexis de Tocqueville's Life and Vision 'America' as a Thought Experiment Liberty, Wealth and Equality AN ANSWER TO THE RIDDLE? Ernest Gellner and the Conditions of the Exit The Riddle Resolved? Index