Fundamentalism, Sectarianism, And Revolution: The Jacobin Dimension Of Modernity

Fundamentalism, Sectarianism, and Revolution is a major comparative analysis of fundamentalist movements in cultural and political context, with an emphasis on the contemporary scene. Leading sociologist S. N. Eisenstadt examines the meaning of the global rise of fundamentalism as one very forceful contemporary response to tensions in modernity and the dynamics of civilizations. He compares modern fundamentalist movements with the protofundamentalist movements which arose in the great “Axial Civilizations” in pre-modern times; he shows how the great revolutions in Europe which arose in connection with these movements shaped the political and cultural programs of modernity; and he contrasts post-World War II Muslim, Jewish, and Protestant fundamentalist movements with communal national movements, notably in Asia. The central theme of the book is the distinctively Jacobin features of fundamentalist movements and their ambivalent attitude to tradition: above all their attempts to essentialize tradition in an ideologically totalistic way. S. N. Eisenstadt is Rose Isaacs Professor Emeritus of Sociology at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and Senior Fellow, The Van Leer Jerusalem Institute. He has served as a visiting professor at numerous universities, including Harvard, Stanford, MIT, Chicago, Michigan, Washington, Oslo, Zurich, and Vienna. He is the recipient of a number of awards, among them the International Balzan Prize in Sociology and the McIver award of the American Sociological Association. He is the author of numerous books and articles; his recent publications include Power, Trust and Meaning (1995) and Japanese Civilization (1996). Fundamentalism, Sectarianism, and Revolution Cambridge Cultural Social Studies Series editors:  .  , Department of Sociology, University of California, Los Angeles, and  , Department of Sociology, University at Albany, State University of New York. Titles in the series   , Virtuosity, charisma, and social order 0 521 41397 4 hardback      (eds.), Social postmodernism 0 521 47516 3 hardback 0 521 47571 6 paperback   , The simulation of surveillance 0 521 55081 5 hardback 0 521 55561 2 paperback  . , The religious and Romantic origins of psychoanalysis 0 521 44401 2 hardback 0 521 55560 4 paperback  , The search for political community 0 521 48286 0 hardback 0 521 48343 3 paperback      , To rule Jerusalem 0 521 44046 7 paperback  . , French revolutionary syndicalism and the public sphere 0 521 56359 3 hardback  , Identity, interest and action 0 521 56314 3 hardback  , The playing self 0 521 56401 8 hardback 0 521 56482 4 paperback  , Challenging codes 0 521 57051 4 hardback 0 521 57843 4 paperback  . , Nationalism and literature 0 521 57002 6 hardback 0 521 57912 0 paperback  . , Screening the Los Angeles “riots” 0 521 57087 5 hardback 0 521 57814 0 paperback  . , Nation and commemoration 0 521 57404 8 hardback 0 521 57432 3 paperback  , The embryo research debate, 0 521 57180 4 hardback 0 521 57683 0 paperback   , Jews in Germany after the Holocaust 0 521 58219 9 hardback 0 521 58809 X paperback  , Territorial ambitions and the gardens of Versailles 0 521 49674 6 hardback 0 521 59959 8 paperback  . , The New Public 0 521 48146 5 hardback 0 521 48493 6 paperback  .   and  .  (eds.), Outsider art 0 521 58111 7 hardback 0 521 58921 5 paperback  , Queer fictions of the past 0 521 59101 5 hardback 0 521 59907 5 paperback  , Di