7 used & new from £6.51
See All Buying Options
Have one to sell? Sell yours here
 
 
Setting the People Free: The Story of Democracy
 
See larger image 
Share your own customer images
Publisher: learn how customers can search inside this book.

Setting the People Free: The Story of Democracy (Hardcover)

by John Dunn (Author)
2.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)

Available from these sellers.


1 new from £7.75 6 used from £6.51
Other Editions: RRP: Our Price: Other Offers:
Paperback £9.99 £6.01 17 used & new from £4.19

Customers Who Bought This Item Also Bought

The Life and Death of Democracy

The Life and Death of Democracy

by John Keane
2.3 out of 5 stars (3)  £14.98
Models of Democracy

Models of Democracy

by David Held
5.0 out of 5 stars (1)  £16.09
Globalisation, Democracy and Terrorism

Globalisation, Democracy and Terrorism

by Eric Hobsbawm
3.4 out of 5 stars (5)  £5.99
British Cultural Studies

British Cultural Studies

by Graeme Turner
£18.99
Introducing Cultural Studies

Introducing Cultural Studies

by Ziauddin Sardar
› Explore similar items

Product details

  • Hardcover: 246 pages
  • Publisher: Atlantic Books (12 May 2005)
  • Language English
  • ISBN-10: 1843542110
  • ISBN-13: 978-1843542117
  • Product Dimensions: 23.2 x 15.8 x 2.8 cm
  • Average Customer Review: 2.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
  • Amazon.co.uk Sales Rank: 460,638 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

    •  Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?

Product Description

Review

"'Idiosyncratic, brilliant and very original.' Paul Kennedy 'Stimulating and deft... an impressive and interesting book.' Andrew Roberts, Daily Telegraph 'John Dunn has given us a rare thing: an intellectually aristocratic book written for a profoundly democratic age.' Sunil Khilnani, Financial Times 'Dunn wears his erudition lightly and writes clearly and freshly about some of politics' most venerable questions... Blows a gust of fresh air through the cobwebbed byways of political thought' John Gray, Independent


Product Description

Why does democracy, both as a word and an idea, linger so large in the political imagination today? John Dunn charts its slow but insistent metamorphosis from its roots in Ancient Greece to its overwhelming triumph in the years since 1945. Setting the People Free is an account of this extraordinary idea and its evolution.
See all Product Description

Suggested Tags from Similar Products

 (What's this?)
Be the first one to add a relevant tag (keyword that's strongly related to this product)
 
economist recomd

Your tags: Add your first tag
 
See most popular tags

What Do Customers Ultimately Buy After Viewing This Item?

Setting the People Free: The Story of Democracy
84% buy the item featured on this page:
Setting the People Free: The Story of Democracy 2.0 out of 5 stars (2)
The Life and Death of Democracy
9% buy
The Life and Death of Democracy 2.3 out of 5 stars (3)
£14.98
Modern Revolutions: An Introduction to the Analysis of a Political Phenomenon
3% buy
Modern Revolutions: An Introduction to the Analysis of a Political Phenomenon
£21.84
Beyond Good and Evil: Prelude to a Philosophy of the Future (Dover Thrift)
2% buy
Beyond Good and Evil: Prelude to a Philosophy of the Future (Dover Thrift) 4.7 out of 5 stars (12)
£2.25
Explore similar items
 

Customer Reviews

2 Reviews
5 star:    (0)
4 star:    (0)
3 star:    (0)
2 star:
 (2)
1 star:    (0)
 
 
 
 
 
Average Customer Review
2.0 out of 5 stars (2 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
Share your thoughts with other customers:
Most Helpful Customer Reviews

 
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars the writing sinks the ideas, 25 Aug 2009
By N. J. Phillips "Neil J Phillips" (Chichester, Sussex) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   
This review is from: Setting the People Free: The Story of Democracy (Paperback)
This should be a good book and I'd like to have given it a good review. A one-volume history of democratic theory should be useful not only for undergraduates but also for teachers of citizenship.

Sadly the expression lets this book down. It is laboured and imprecise. Dunn assumes considerable knowledge on the part of the reader sometimes but not at others(he assumes the reader will know the word "cathected" but feels he has to explain "legislator". Dates are given or not given on what seems a random basis. I could go on but there's no real point - if you know enough to folow the author's argument then you don't need the book. What is sad is the lengthy acknowledgement section which lists many people who should have said "There's a good book in here, but it needs to be gone over line by line". Clearly they didn't.
Comment Comment | Permalink | Was this review helpful to you? Yes No (Report this)



 
9 of 24 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars Wordy, repetitive, 26 Sep 2005
By koink "koink" (Australia) - See all my reviews
They used to tell lecturers that the best way to structure a lecture was:
1. Tell them what you are going to tell them.
2. Tell them what you have to say.
3. Then tell them what you have just told them.

This is exactly the structure of this book and of each of its component parts. The result is a book of 246 pages that should have been an essay of 80 pages but probably began (and now ends) life as undergraduate Pol Sci lectures. You can almost hear the drone in the background

The prose is pretentious. Many important passages are written in long ungainly sentences, decked out in unnecessary polysyllabic abstractions.Specific examples are few. A central concept, "the order of egoism", is vaguely defined but worked to death, even though it is little more than veiled right-wing propaganda. And the central theme - the difference in meaning between the word "democracy" and its various practical expressions - is scarcely worthy of such an extensive explication or such high falutin language.

Comment Comment | Permalink | Was this review helpful to you? Yes No (Report this)


Share your thoughts with other customers: Create your own review
 
 
 
Only search this product's reviews


Customer Discussions

This product's forum
Discussion Replies Latest Post
No discussions yet

Ask questions, Share opinions, Gain insight
Start a new discussion
Topic:
First post:
Prompts for sign-in
 


Active discussions in related forums
   
Related forums

Listmania!

Create a Listmania! list

Look for similar items by category

Look for similar items by subject









i.e., each product must be in subject 1 AND subject 2 AND ...

Feedback

Ad

Your Recent History

 (What's this?)

After viewing product detail pages or search results, look here to find an easy way to navigate back to pages you are interested in.