Political Realism in Apocalyptic Times

Apocalyptic rhetoric creates dangerous politics; three great thinkers show how clear-eyed realism is our best hope.

Alison McQueen (Author)

9781316606544, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 16 August 2018

249 pages, 6 b/w illus.
23 x 15.3 x 1.5 cm, 0.4 kg

'McQueen does an excellent job at bringing together diverse thinkers and new interpretations under the aegis of the realist tradition. For those who see a sharp line between religion and politics, McQueen has offered a work that uses certain religious ideas to explain political philosophy. In fact, a fair reading of McQueen suggests that the line between religion and politics is actually quite blurry, with ideas traversing back and forth. With Political Realism in Apocalyptic Times, McQueen has done a service to the fields of international affairs, political theology, and all those interested in the use of political rhetoric.' Steven Lane, Reading Religion

From climate change to nuclear war to the rise of demagogic populists, our world is shaped by doomsday expectations. In this path-breaking book, Alison McQueen shows why three of history's greatest political realists feared apocalyptic politics. Niccolò Machiavelli in the midst of Italy's vicious power struggles, Thomas Hobbes during England's bloody civil war, and Hans Morgenthau at the dawn of the thermonuclear age all saw the temptation to prophesy the end of days. Each engaged in subtle and surprising strategies to oppose apocalypticism, from using its own rhetoric to neutralize its worst effects to insisting on a clear-eyed, tragic acceptance of the human condition. Scholarly yet accessible, this book is at once an ambitious contribution to the history of political thought and a work that speaks to our times.

1. Introduction
2. Understanding the apocalypse
3. Machiavelli's Savonarolan moment
4. Hobbes 'At the Edge of Promises and Prophecies'
5. Morgenthau and the postwar apocalypse
6. Conclusion.

Subject Areas: International organisations & institutions [LBBU], International relations [JPS], Political science & theory [JPA], History of ideas [JFCX]