Setting the People Free: The Story of Democracy

Description

Why does democracy, both as a word and an idea, linger so large in the political imagination today? John Dunn charts its slow but insistent metamorphosis from its roots in Ancient Greece to its overwhelming triumph in the years since 1945. Setting the People Free is an account of this extraordinary

John Dunn is Professor of Political Theory at King's College, Cambridge. He is the author of a number of titles, among them The Cunning of Unreason and Western Political Theory in the Face of the Future, and a fellow of the British Academy.

"'Idiosyncratic, brilliant and very original.' Paul Kennedy 'Stimulating and deft... an impressive and interesting book.' Andrew Roberts, Daily Telegraph 'John Dunn has given us a rare thing: an intellectually aristocratic book written for a profoundly democratic age.' Sunil Khilnani, Financial Times 'Dunn wears his erudition lightly and writes clearly and freshly about some of politics' most venerable questions... Blows a gust of fresh air through the cobwebbed byways of political thought' John Gray, Independent