Chapters in this book

1. Frontmatter i
2. Contents ix
3. Foreword xi
4. Editor’s Preface xix
5. Note on References xxvi
6. The Pursuit of the Ideal 1
7. The Decline of Utopian Ideas in the West 21
8. Giambattista Vico and Cultural History 51
9. Alleged Relativism in Eighteenth-Century European Thought 73
10. Joseph de Maistre and the Origins of Fascism 95
11. Appendix: Violence and Terror 178
12. European Unity and Its Vicissitudes 186
13. The Apotheosis of the Romantic Will: The Revolt against the Myth of an Ideal World 219
14. The Bent Twig: On the Rise of Nationalism 253
15. Appendix to the Second Edition 279
16. Index 335