Power Tends To Corrupt : : Lord Acton's Study of Liberty / / Christopher Lazarski.

• Superior document: Title is part of eBook package: De Gruyter Cornell University Press Backlist 2000-2013
• VerfasserIn: Lazarski, Christopher,
• Place / Publishing House: Ithaca, NY : : Cornell University Press, , [2021]; ©2012
• Year of Publication: 2021
• Language: English
• Physical Description: 1 online resource (340 p.)

Lord Acton (1834–1902) is often called a historian of liberty. A great historian and political thinker, he had a rare talent to reach beneath the surface and reveal the hidden springs that move the world. While endeavoring to understand the components of a truly free society, Acton attempted to see how the principles of self-determination and freedom worked in practice, from antiquity to his own time. But though he penned hundreds of papers, essays, reviews, letters and ephemera, the ultimate book of his findings and views on the history of liberty remained unwritten. Reading a book a day for years he still could not keep pace with the output of his time, and finally, dejected, he gave up. Today, Acton is mainly known for a single maxim, power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.In Power Tends to Corrupt, Christopher Lazarski presents the first in-depth consideration of Acton's thought in more than fifty years. Lazarski brings Acton's work to light in accessible language, with a focus on his understanding of liberty and its development in Western history. A work akin to Acton's overall account of the history of liberty, with a secondary look at his political theory, this book is an outstanding exegesis of the theories and findings of one of the nineteenth century's keenest minds.

Table of Contents

Frontmatter -- Contents -- Preface -- Introduction -- 1-Acton's Life and Mission -- PART ONE-THE FOUNDATION OF LIBERTY -- 2-Liberty's Ancient Roots -- 3-A Bumpy Road to Success -- 4-The Great Reversal -- PART TWO-ANGLO-AMERICAN LIBERTY -- 5-English Liberty -- 6-The High Point of Liberty -- 7-The American Experience -- PART THREE-THE LIBERTY OF REVOLUTIONARY DREAMS -- 8-The French Revolution -- PART FOUR-CIVIC VERSUS CIVIL LIBERTY -- 9-Acton's Ideal Polity and Its Alternatives -- Conclusions -- Notes -- Selected Bibliography -- Index