The Age of Ideology

After the great revolutions of 1776 in America and 1789 in France modern nations began to express political struggle as a conflict between Left and Right a spectrum of ideologies including socialism liberalism conservatism nationalism and later communism and fascism among others. These dominant ideologies reflected the themes of industrial society powerful nation-states and the era of class politics. Today however a series of rapid social and political transformations have provoked a world-wide crisis of ideologies. New technology threatens the traditional social structure of heavy industry. Increased globalization challenges the sovereignty of the nation-state and class divisions appear less salient. In light of these changes do modern ideologies have anything to say to us as citizens of the world today? The Age of Ideology analyzes the contemporary relevance of the main ideologies that have been central to political struggle over the past two centuries. Believing the postmodern critique of ideologies as inadequate for dealing with society''s problems John Schwarzmantel argues convincingly that political ideologies still provide essential organizing frameworks for political debate and action.