In 'The Dragons of Expectations', Robert Conquest returns to damn the terrible delusions and pernicious optimism that have caused so much bloodshed in the last century. His is a landmark defence of civilisation that illuminates the political degradations and intellectual fetishes of our current era.
Conquest has devoted a lifetime to exposing the political and mental distortions that spawn and appease tyranny, leading all too often to death and destruction. Whether discussing the political thinking of ancient Greece, the corrosive effect of ideological socialism, or the inanities of the European Union, Conquest assesses the ravages of our past, the absurdities of our present, and the pitfalls that lie in our future. In an analysis that ranges from the failures of the Enlightenment to the nature of Democracy, Stalinism and Liberalism, Conquest masterfully shows how false nostrums have affected academe, politicians and the public, and how our weakness for ideological certainty has caught us in a ruinous cycle of totalitarianism and war.
Conquest remains an astute and keenly critical observer of contemporary culture and politics. Devoting more than half of 'The Dragons of Expectation' to an assessment of the world situation at the beginning of the 21st century, Conquest explores a possible future for Britain and the United States and the likely fate of civilisation itself.
