{"product_id":"voltaire-s-bastards-the-dictatorship-of-reason-in-the-west-by-john-ralston-saul","title":"'Voltaire’s Bastards: The Dictatorship of Reason in the West' by John Ralston Saul","description":"\u003ch4\u003eJohn Ralston Saul’s sprawling intellectual history argues that the modern West did not inherit the Enlightenment’s reason so much as hollow it out.\u003c\/h4\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eWhat began as a tool for resisting superstition and arbitrary power, he claims, hardened into an administrative faith: rule by experts, systems, bureaucracies and professional elites who present political choices as matters of technical necessity. Across government, business, education and culture, rationality becomes less a means of judgment than a language for avoiding responsibility.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe argument is deliberately panoramic, ranging from Voltaire, the Jesuits and nationalism to corporate management and twentieth-century geopolitics. Saul is often sweeping, sometimes theatrical, and his historical connections do not always withstand close pressure. But the book’s attack on managerialism, technocracy and institutional self-protection remains unnervingly recognisable. It is best read not as neutral history but as an ambitious polemic about how systems acquire authority by pretending they have escaped ideology. For readers interested in political thought, institutional power and critiques of the modern administrative state.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003ePenguin Books, 1993, second printing paperback. Light edge wear and creasing; pages mildly age-toned.\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"bower studio","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":45894738542675,"sku":null,"price":15.0,"currency_code":"AUD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0689\/0268\/2707\/files\/Untitleddesign-2026-08-01T132027.227.png?v=1785554470","url":"https:\/\/bowerbooks.com\/products\/voltaire-s-bastards-the-dictatorship-of-reason-in-the-west-by-john-ralston-saul","provider":"bower books","version":"1.0","type":"link"}