Politics of Humiliation – How do We Save Us from our Liberal Selves?

Abstract

The concept of the Enlightenment, its offer, its cohesiveness and its intentions have been fruitful areas of investigation and analysis almost since human history was conscious of it. Ute Frevert’s The Politics of Humiliation sees this paradigm as a leading protagonist in a history of shame and humiliation stretching from the eighteenth century to the present day. The Enlightenment gave us the enduring concept of human dignity, and it is the task of historians like Frevert to produce an inventory, or balance sheet, of how successful the subsequent period of history was in living up to these ideals. Similarly, we are persuaded to consider how much our contemporary world measures up in its promotion of human dignity.