Ill Fares the Land
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- $8.99
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- $8.99
Publisher Description
Something is profoundly wrong with the way we think about how we should live today.
In Ill Fares The Land, Tony Judt, one of our leading historians and thinkers, reveals how we have arrived at our present dangerously confused moment. Judt masterfully crystallizes what we've all been feeling into a way to think our way into, and thus out of, our great collective dis-ease about the current state of things.
As the economic collapse of 2008 made clear, the social contract that defined postwar life in Europe and America - the guarantee of a basal level of security, stability and fairness -- is no longer guaranteed; in fact, it's no longer part of the common discourse. Judt offers the language we need to address our common needs, rejecting the nihilistic individualism of the far right and the debunked socialism of the past. To find a way forward, we must look to our not so distant past and to social democracy in action: to re-enshrining fairness over mere efficiency.
Distinctly absent from our national dialogue, social democrats believe that the state can play an enhanced role in our lives without threatening our liberties. Instead of placing blind faith in the market-as we have to our detriment for the past thirty years-social democrats entrust their fellow citizens and the state itself.
Ill Fares the Land challenges us to confront our societal ills and to shoulder responsibility for the world we live in. For hope remains. In reintroducing alternatives to the status quo, Judt reinvigorates our political conversation, providing the tools necessary to imagine a new form of governance, a new way of life.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
James Adams delivers a noteworthy performance in this audio version of Judt s manifesto on how humanity has arrived at a potentially disastrous place in history and how we must rework out contract with society and the state to preserve our economy and our environment for future generations. Adams s reading is compelling and confident; he is elucidative without being didactic. With a steady pace and reflective tone, he expertly brings to the reader the late Judt s cri de coeur for the Left to revitalize and reorganize itself. A Penguin Press hardcover.
Customer Reviews
Superlative Retort
I'll Fares the Land is a exemplary argument for the need of the left to use moral persuasion in their battle against conservative ideologues who have lost their way in the battle to retain community and an ethical and well balanced economy that promotes equality and places the role of government above the private unaccountable efforts of the private sector. It correctly points out that the pendulum of deregulation and privatization has gone too far in destroying (in the name of liberty) the social fabric of Western society. As we look to true conservatism, it is ironic that a return to many of our social democratic historical roots found in the 20th century may just offer us a way out of many of the perplexing and destructive trends of the 21st century. First, we must study our history and retain what has worked instead of rejecting all those hard-fought battles against the extremes of our past.