Description
Book SynopsisExamines Irving Babbitt's unique contribution to understanding the quality of foreign policy leadership in a democracy, as he showed that a democratic nation's foreign policy is a product of the moral and cultural tendencies of the nation's leaders and that the substitution of expansive, sentimental Romanticism for the religious and ethical traditions of the West would lead to imperialism.
Trade ReviewThe author does a masterful job of laying out Babbitt's views on the sources of imperialism in mistaken notions of human character and, especially, failures of personal and national self-control. The result is a substantial contribution to political theory properly understood, to our understanding of an important but too-little-known political philosopher, and most interestingly to the developing field of International Relations theory." - Bruce Frohnen, Ohio Northern University
"This book is timely in light of recent political developments that question the once unassailable normative status of liberal democracy. Babbitt develops a theory of the moral-cultural dangers associated with the democratic spirit. As an expert on Babbitt's thinking and one who is versed in contemporary IR theory, Dr. Smith is well-positioned to serve this need." - Ryan R. Holston, Virginia Military Institute
