Fanaticism

On the Uses of an Idea

By: Alberto Toscano

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Paperback | 29 August 2017 | Edition Number 1

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Paperback
304 Pages

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21.0 x 14.0 x 2.9

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A genealogy of fanaticism—unearthing its long history, before it became a tool in the Clash of Civilizations

It is commonplace to hear fanaticism described as a deviant or extreme variant of an already irrational set of religious beliefs, an assertion that helps to demonize convictions outside political orthodoxy.

Alberto Toscano’s compelling and erudite counter-history explodes this accepted convention by exploring the critical role fanaticism played in the formation of modern politics and the liberal state. Showing how fanaticism results from a failure to formulate an adequate emancipatory politics, this illuminating history sheds new light on an idea that continues to dominate debates about faith and secularism.

This expanded edition includes new material that revisits the idea of fanaticism as it operates at the limits of the liberal political imaginary, highlighting its relation to fraternal violence, political purity and the refusal of compromise, as well as its centrality to times of social crisis and international conflict.

About the Author

Alberto Toscano is Reader in Critical Theory and Co-Director of the Centre for Philosophy and Critical Theory at Goldsmiths University, London. He is the author of The Theatre of Production: Philosophy and Individuation Between Kant and Deleuze, and (with Jeff Kinkle) Cartographies of the Absolute. He edited The Italian Difference: Between Nihilism and Biopolitics with Lorenzo Chiesa, and has translated several works by Alain Badiou, as well as Antonio Negri, Furio Jesi and Franco Fortini. He is on the editorial board of the journal Historical Materialism, and is series editor of The Italian List for Seagull Books.

Industry Reviews

"Succinct yet expansively allusive in scope, dense yet highly readable, Fanaticism is a multi-levelled investigation into the role that the idea of the fanatic has played in political discourse." - Mark Fisher, Frieze "A tour de force in every sense-Toscano wipes the smug smiles off the self-righteous faces of the New Philosophers." - Mike Davis, author of Planet of Slums "By the end he has at irrefutably demolished our lazy opposition between rational-moderate liberalism and "fanatical" religion; while his sorrowful comparison of modern blowhards with "the great reactionaries of yesterday" is a slyly humorous touch." - Steven Poole, Guardian

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