The spirit of the age - David Selbourne

Offers an appraisal of contemporary history, in particular the years 1989-1992 and analyzes recent phenomena which will permanently affect our political and cultural future. Topical issues such as the population explosion, mass mobility, increasing violence, the destruction of the environment, AIDS and the crisis of civic order are discussed, and the implications of the collapse of the communist system in Eastern Europe and consequently of the ideal of a socialist utopia are examined. Selbourne looks at the difficulty of finding direction and political identity in a time of increasing confusion, and considers how the civic bond might be restored in a world of strangers.;Depth and insight are added by an enquiry into the influence of Jewish thought and culture on our history. Selbourne, himself a Jew, attributes the creation of utopias which were bound for failure, such as that of Marxist socialism, to the traditions of Jewish sensibility and thought. However, he also maintains that Jews - from Moses and Christ to Marx - have shed a moral and intellectual light upon the world.;This book also offers projections about our future and an informed enquiry into the influences of different cultural and religious beliefs.