Democratic Ideals and Reality: A Study in the Politics of Reconstruction (Classic Reprint)

Democratic Ideals and Reality delves into the world of geopolitics in the immediate aftermath of the Great War but reflects even the tiniest realities of daily life. Halford John Mackinder was unusually prescient in noting the tremendous potential and danger of changing population demographics across the world and within Europe. He notes the new freedom of mankind to engage in large-scale idealism, where previously the capacity to spend time in building an ideology had been solely devoted to scrabbling for the means of survival.

From the modern perspective it is easy to see Mackinder's anxiety about large populations across Europe, engaged in politics but without the education the author considered necessary for prudent decision making. With palpable unease this work recalls young men campaigning to cement self-rule in Ireland, the rapid growth of cities and the laissez-faire attitude of centralised modern nation states to this enormous era of social and industrial development.

In thinking about the effects and origins of these social changes Mackinder does not flinch from reflecting in depth on the inner workings of British society. In an age of fragmented communities it is fascinating to see Mackinder's early misgivings about urban workers, atomised and disconnected and an elevated set of elites who detach themselves from their local communities and as a result create a fractured society. Each reader must face up to the author's questions about the direction of his world and determine for themselves whether society has confirmed his fears in the years since this work.

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