Against The Modern World by Mark Sedgwick
Traditionalism and the Secret Intellectual History of the Twentieth Century
A concise intellectual history of the 20th-century “Traditionalist” or perennialist reaction to modernity, tracing its origins, personalities, ideas and networks; the book maps how a small group of thinkers proposed a return to eternal, sacred principles and hierarchical social orders as an antidote to secularism, liberalism and technological change, and it analyzes their metaphysical claims, syncretic appropriation of religious symbols, and varied political consequences. Sedgwick profiles key figures, shows how their writings circulated across Europe and beyond, and explains why the movement appealed to both spiritual seekers and political reactionaries, while assessing its ambiguous relationship to violence, authoritarianism and contemporary radical currents. The work situates Traditionalism neither simply as nostalgia nor as coherent ideology but as a complex, transnational intellectual current whose influence and contradictions continue to shape anti-modern thought.
- Published
- 2004
- Nationality
- British
- Length
- Unknown
- Pages
- Unknown
- Original Language
- English
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