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How Abstract Utopianism Dangerously Distorts Reality |
| Section: BOOK WORLD / REVIEWS |
| Author: William Anthony Hay |
| Publication:
The World & I Online |
| Issue Date: 1/1/2006 |
| Size: 1,129 Words, 7,632 Characters |
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THE DRAGONS OF EXPECTATION: REALITY AND DELUSION IN THE COURSE OF HISTORY
By Robert Conquest
Norton, $24.95, 256 pages
A cliche warns that perfection can become the enemy of the good, and the message beyond this pithy statement underlies the wide-ranging analysis that Robert Conquest presents in his latest book, "Dragons of Expectation: Reality and Delusion in the Course of History." Philosophers have sought to understand the forms expressed in particular phenomena since Plato's day in ancient Greece, but the search for abstract essence can blind observers to the reality before their own eyes.
If this thought seems no more than a truism, Conquest sharply retorts that it has escaped the attention of many intelligent people and brought no end of t...
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... of the present discontents. Although many in the academy today would condemn Conquest as a reactionary, he raises important questions in "The Dragons of Expectation" that deserve answers. It will be interesting to see what responses his challenge might draw from those who now dominate the commanding heights of scholarship and culture in the West.
Copyright © 2005 The Washington Times, LLC.
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Publication Details
(The World & I Online) |
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The World & I Online is a
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articles by scholars and experts in the areas of Global Studies,
Liberal Arts, Fine & Applied Arts, General Science, and Spanish.
Originally published monthly in print as The World & I, our site
includes the complete contents since 1986 and continues to publish
a new issue online each month. |
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