Despre “Diavolul in istorie” la University of Chicago, Committee on Social Thought

The John U. Nef Committee on Social Thought at the University of Chicago announces a public lecture:

“The Devil in History: A 20^th-Century Lesson”

 By

Vladimir Tismaneanu

Professor of Political Science, University of Maryland.

Author of the highly acclaimed book The Devil in History,

University of California Press, 2012.

 “An ambitious and challenging rereading of twentieth-century history.” – John Gray, Times Literary Supplement

 “Mr. Tismaneanu has produced a definitive account of the origins, the appeal, the doctrinal foundations and the political technology of history’s two bloodiest political faiths” – Leon Aron, Wall Street Journal

“Vladimir Tismaneanu’s The Devil in History is mandatory reading for those interested in the crucial questions of morality and politics posed by the comparison of Nazism and Stalinism.” – Norman M. Naimark, Robert and Florence McDonnel Professor of Eastern European Studies, Stanford University

 Monday, February 18, 2013 at 4:30 PM

Foster 505

(1130 E. 59^th Street)

http://ceeres.uchicago.edu/content/vladimir-tismaneanu-%E2%80%9C-devil-history-20th-century-lesson%E2%80%9D

“Blindness to the true nature of Communism is an inability to accept that radical evil can come from the pursuit of progress.”– John Gray

“This is a book about the incarnation of diabolically nihilistic principles of human subjugation and conditioning in the name of presumably pure and purifying goals. It is not a historical treatise (although history is present on every page), but rather a political-philosophical interpretation of how maximalist utopian aspirations can lead to the nightmares of Soviet and Nazi camps epitomized by Kolyma and Auschwitz.”–From “The Devil in History”

“The Communist International’s propaganda machine defended human rights against the abominable atrocities perpetrated by the Nazis, obscuring the fact that, until 1939, most mass crimes in Europe were in fact committed by Stalinists in the USSR.”–from “The Devil in History”

“On the path to permanent transformation, both Communism and Fascism engineered (or, rather, aimed at) the extinction of the individual by inventing equally binding criteria of faith, loyalty, and status crystallized into a master political myth.”–from “The Devil in History”