Listen free for 30 days
Listen with offer
-
The New Leviathans
- Thoughts After Liberalism
- Narrated by: Justin Avoth
- Length: 5 hrs and 22 mins
Failed to add items
Add to basket failed.
Add to wishlist failed.
Remove from wishlist failed.
Adding to library failed
Follow podcast failed
Unfollow podcast failed
99p for the first 3 months
The New Leviathans
Buy Now for £13.00
No valid payment method on file.
We are sorry. We are not allowed to sell this product with the selected payment method
Listeners also enjoyed...
Summary
Brought to you by Penguin.
Ever since its publication in 1651, Thomas Hobbes' Leviathan has unsettled and challenged how we understand the World. Condemned and vilified by each new generation, Hobbes' cold political vision continues to see through any number of political and ethical vanities.
In his wonderfully stimulating book The New Leviathans, John Gray allows us to understand the World of the 2020s with all its contradictions, moral horrors and disappointments through a new reading of Hobbes' classic work. The collapse of the USSR ushered in an era of near apoplectic triumphalism in the West: a genuine belief that a rational, liberal, well-managed future now awaited humankind and that tyranny, nationalism and unreason lay in the past. Since then, so many terrible events have occurred and so many poisonous ideas flourished, and yet still our liberal certainties treat them as aberrations which will somehow dissolve away. Hobbes would not be so confident.
Filled with fascinating and challenging perceptions, The New Leviathans is a powerful meditation on historical and current folly. As a species we always seem to be struggling to face the reality of base and delusive human instincts. Might a more self-aware, realistic and disabused ethics help us all?
More from the same
What listeners say about The New Leviathans
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
-
Overall5 out of 5 stars
-
Performance5 out of 5 stars
-
Story5 out of 5 stars
- john
- 21-09-23
Typically erudite and brilliant
As usual, J.G. displays a range and depth of knowledge and insight that few can match.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
1 person found this helpful
-
Overall3 out of 5 stars
-
Performance2 out of 5 stars
-
Story3 out of 5 stars
- Anonymous User
- 19-10-23
Not as billed
Gray can write a much better book than this, he has the erudition. Interesting reading of Hobbes but not sure that the horrors of the Soviet Union has much to say about contemporary firms of Liberal thought. Narration - sounds like a fictional John Le Carre don ruminating over his memoirs and musings in some Oxbridge hide away.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
1 person found this helpful
-
Overall5 out of 5 stars
-
Performance5 out of 5 stars
-
Story5 out of 5 stars
- Amazon Customer
- 17-11-23
Captivating from start to finish
I loved this, and have already recommended it to several friends and bought the hard copy. The closest thing I can compare it to is the book version of an Adam Curtis documentary, only with AC being at his essential best.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall3 out of 5 stars
-
Performance5 out of 5 stars
-
Story2 out of 5 stars
- J. Leigh
- 22-11-23
Weak
Very weak. A hodgepodge of miscellaneous quotations, but no serious or sustained argument. Not recommended.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
1 person found this helpful
-
Overall5 out of 5 stars
-
Performance5 out of 5 stars
-
Story5 out of 5 stars
- Paul
- 17-10-23
Outstanding
Extremely perceptive and thought provoking and a well aimed dagger to the horror of the collaboration between governments corporations and the dumb woke
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall5 out of 5 stars
-
Performance5 out of 5 stars
-
Story5 out of 5 stars
- S. Moorcroft
- 24-12-23
A Masterpiece
One of the greatest works of existential literature. The poetry of misanthropic alienation, of the despair and futility at the heart of existence.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars
-
Performance5 out of 5 stars
-
Story5 out of 5 stars
- Amazon Customer
- 03-01-24
Wonderful
I only dropped one star from the over all review because I felt there is an expected level of understanding regarding the political ideals of liberalism which I did not have on starting this book.
However, this informed and well structured essay offers a number of challenges to current thinking that demand attention. I will be seeking out more of John Gray’s work.
The performance is outstanding.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall5 out of 5 stars
-
Performance4 out of 5 stars
-
Story4 out of 5 stars
- Rob Grayson
- 19-10-23
Excellent
Excellent, as always with Gray. His analysis is both illuminating and sobering. The narration is very good overall, though with a small number of puzzling mispronunciations.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars
-
Performance4 out of 5 stars
-
Story4 out of 5 stars
- Stuart Piper
- 14-03-24
Fascinating stuff
While I tend to avoid reductive labels, I'm something towards liberal, and Gray argues against Liberalism in this book. But guess what - it's possible to be interested in, and even enjoy, reading about views which differ to our own. I didn't agree with everything, but there was so much that gave me new viewpoints to consider, and it was a thoroughly enjoyable and fascinating read, which I was inspired to read from seeing John giving some really intellectually stimulating interviews on YouTube. Highly recommend.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall1 out of 5 stars
-
Performance4 out of 5 stars
-
Story1 out of 5 stars
- A
- 03-12-23
Poor
The title is misleading. This is better described as an essay collection on various topics. If taken as a whole, it is a collection of incoherent ramblings only vaguely connected to current affairs. Not worth it.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
1 person found this helpful