Ideas Have Consequences

Chicago: University of Chicago Press, [1948]. First Edition. First printing. Octavo (21cm). Blue cloth with spine titles stamped in black and gilt; dustjacket; vi,190pp. Straight and tight, with a few spots of marginal discoloration to text, still Very Good or better. In the original dustwrapper, unclipped (priced $2.75 on front flap), lightly chipped with a few closed tears, darkened on lighter portions, especially rear panel and with a bit of fading to spine; just VG.

A classic of post-War anti-modern conservative thought, in which Weaver advances his concept of "The Great Stereopticon," attributing the degradation and fragmentation of Western Civilization to a loss of belief in hierarchy and absolute truth, beginning with William of Ockham in the 14th century. "There is no term proper to describe the condition in which [modern Man] is now left unless it be 'abysmality'. He is in the deep and dark abysm, and he has nothing with which to raise himself. His life is practice without theory...secretly he hungers for truth but sonsoles himself with the thgought that life should be experimental..." (from the Introduction). Much reprinted, but the first edition has long been an elusive book in any condition; ours a clearly used but still quite presentable copy.