RECKLESS MIND, THE

The Reckless Mind is a study of how a number of important 20th-century European intellectuals came to support tyrannical regimes and totalitarian political ideas. Lilla demonstrates how the convulsions of the 20th century shaped the political sensibilities of important thinkers who were so deluded by the ideologies of the time that they closed their eyes to brutality, coercion, and state-sponsored terror. He suggests that although the threat of tyranny seems to have receded, its possible allure continues to challenge independent inquiry. Profiles of Martin Heidegger, Carl Schmitt, Walter Benjamin, Alexandre Kojeve, Michel Foucault, and Jacques Derrida are included.