The Open Society and Its Enemies: The Spell of Plato (Volume 1)

In Popper's words, this book "attempts to show that our civilization has not yet fully recovered from the shock of its birth - the transition from the tribal or 'closed society', with its submission to magical forces, to the 'open society' which sets free the critical powers of man. It attempts to show that the shock of this transition is one of the factors that have made possible the rise of those reactionary movements which have tried, and still try, to overthrow civilization and to return to tribalism. And it suggests that what we call nowadays totalitarianism belongs to a tradition which is just as old or just as young as our civilization itself. It tries thereby to contribute to our understanding of totalitarianism, and of the significance of the perennial fight against it."

Published 1966, Routledge Paperback.

Binding of book is loose. Signs of wear and tear, on edges of covers of book. Heavy foxing on back cover. Some foxing on edges of book. Signs of shelfwear on bottom edge. Heavy foxing on insides of covers. A few annotations in pencil. Pages in very good condition, with minimal foxing on certain pages.