Aldous Huxley: The Political Thought of a Man of Letters

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Aldous Huxley: The Political Thought of a Man of Letters argues that Huxley is not a man of letters engaged in politics, but a political thinker who chooses literature to spread his ideas. His preference for the dystopian genre is due to his belief in the tremendous impact of dystopia on twentieth-century political thought. His political thinking is not systematic, but this does not stop his analysis from supplying elements that are original and up-to-date, and that represent fascinating contributions of political theory in all the spheres that he examines from anti-Marxism to anti-positivism, from political realism to elitism, from criticism of mass society to criticism of totalitarianism, from criticism of ideologies to the future of liberal democracy, from pacifism to ecological communitarianism. Huxley clearly grasped the unsolved issues of contemporary liberalism, and the importance of his influence on many twentieth-century and present-day political thinkers ensures that his ideas remain indispensable in the current liberal-democratic debate. Brave New World is without doubt Huxleys most successful political manifesto. While examining the impassioned struggle for the development of all human potentialities, it yet manages not to close the doors definitively on the rebirth of utopia in the age of dystopia.

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Alessandro Maurinis new book, Aldous Huxley: The Political Thought of a Man of Letters (Lanham: Lexington Books, 2017) successfully draws out Huxleys own views, and places him in the context of early twentieth-century political philosophy. Maurinis book will be of interest both to fans of Huxleys work, and scholars engaged with questions of technology and totalitarianism.... Maurinis Aldous Huxley: The Political Thought of a Man of Letters is an engaging and illuminating portrait of one of the twentieth-centurys most important literary thinkers. Maurini carefully outlines those who influence Huxley, and those whom Huxley influences, demonstrating that Huxleys literary offerings come with a philosophical purpose behind them.... Maurinis book does an admirable job showing the complexity of Huxleys navigation of the worlds of political philosophy and literature. It will be of value to any scholar seeking greater understanding of the continuing legacy of twentieth-century anti-utopian political thought. * VoegelinView *
Here for the first time we have a critical appraisal of Huxley's political thought.Maurini, with an excellent knowledge of the broad corpus of Huxley's work, reveals why Huxley was not only a novelist but a political theorist whose views remain relevant. Readers will find this masterful analysis of Huxley's political theories timely and engaging. -- Dana Sawyer, Maine College of Art
A book-length study of Aldous Huxleys political philosophy has long been a desideratum in Huxley criticism: Alessandro Maurini fills this gap with a perceptive analysis of Huxleys development as a political thinker, from his radical scepticism of any ideologies (including democracy) la Vilfredo Pareto via his pacifism of the mid-1930s to his later warnings against the misuse of science and technology at the hands of dictators and oligarchies, in conjunction with his plea for a kind of ecological communitarianism towards the end of his career: this is, all in all, a stimulating book with many good insights and even new findings, such as Maurinis concluding rediscovery of the dissentious debate between Huxley and the Italian philosopher Giuseppe Prezzolini in 1958 about the future of mankind. -- Bernfried Nugel, University of Mnster

Author Bio

Alessandro Maurini works at the University of Turin.