An Archaeology of the Political: Regimes of Power from the Seventeenth Century to the Present

Elías Palti

Published by Columbia University Press 2017

An Archaeology of the Political

Regimes of Power from the Seventeenth Century to the Present

Elías Palti

In the series Columbia Studies in Political Thought / Political History

https://doi.org/10.7312/palt17992

Overview
Contents

About this book

In An Archaeology of the Political, Elías José Palti argues that the realm of the political is not a natural, transhistorical entity. Instead, he claims that the horizon of the political arose in the context of a series of changes that affirmed the power of absolute monarchies in seventeenth-century Europe. He traces its development from this period through a succession of redefinitions accompanying alterations in regimes of power and up to the present, thus providing a genealogy of the concept.

A historical-conceptual perspective on the concept of "the political"

Author / Editor information

Elías José Palti is principal researcher for the National Scientific and Technical Research Council (Argentina), a professor at both the Universidad Nacional de Quilmes and the Universidad Nacional de Buenos Aires, and the director of the Center for Intellectual History at the National University of Quilmes. He is a 2009 Guggenheim Fellow and the author of ten books in Spanish and many articles in different languages.

Reviews

Martin E. Jay, University of California, Berkeley:
At a time when confidence in virtually all traditional modes of governance is rapidly eroding, the historical roots of our current dilemma have to be exposed before any prospect can exist of viable solutions. In this bold and ambitious survey of Western political theory and practice since the 17th century, which draws its lessons from European and Latin American history, as well as baroque and modern art, Elias Palti provides a ruthlessly incisive analysis of the sources of our unfolding crisis. An Archaeology of the Political exemplifies the power of conceptual history at its best not only to illuminate the past, but also perhaps light the way a better future.

María Pía Lara, Universidad Autonoma de Mexico:
Palti's book is the best expression of the need to reconsider theology in light of its historical link to the Baroque.

Federico Finchelstein, The New School for Social Research:
This is a key book that fills significant gaps in the scholarship of the long conceptual history of the political.

Mark Thurner, Institute of Latin American Studies, School of Advanced Study, University of London:
A tour de force. Palti's concise conceptual history of 'the political' dethrones our most cherished ideas about what political modernity is and where it came from.

Jeremy I. Adelman, Henry Charles Lea Professor of History and Director of the Global History Lab at Princeton University:
Elías Palti's book is one of the most original interpretations of the political (as opposed to politics) in many years. His conceptual history is a longue durée account of practices of representation of the divine, the sovereign, the people, war, and the search for a basic unity of the world. As we consider whether we have come to the end of this long quest, this book can be read as the story of our journey.

Topics

Frontmatter Publicly Available Download PDF	i
Contents Publicly Available Download PDF	vii
Series Editor’s Foreword Dick Howard Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	ix
Acknowledgments Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	xv
Introduction: A Conceptual History of the Political— The Archaeological Project Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	xvii
1. The Theological Genesis of the Political Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	1
2. The Tragic Scene Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	32
3. The Discourse of Emancipation and the Emergence of Democracy as a Problem Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	66
4. The Rebirth of the Tragic Scene and the Emergence of the Political as a Conceptual Problem Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	110
Conclusion: The End of a Long Cycle— The Second Disenchantment of the World Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	167
Notes Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	181
Bibliography Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	221
Index Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	233

Language: English
Publisher: Columbia University Press
Audience: Professional and scholarly;
Pages
- Main content: 272
Illustrations
- Other: 6 b&w photographs and 4 figures

eBook

Published: March 14, 2017
ISBN: 9780231542470