Jacob Talmon between Zionism and Cold War Liberalism

Abstract

The paper focuses on the problematic relationship between Talmon's liberalism and Zionism. My argument is that Talmon's nationalism (Zionism included)-historicist, romantic, visionary-lived in permanent tension with his liberalism-empiricist, pluralist, pragmatic. His critique of totalitarian democracy, reflecting his British experience, emerged independently from his Zionism, grounded in Central European nationalism. The two represented different worlds. Talmon lived in both, serving as an ambassador in-between them, without ever bringing them together.The essay's first section describes the political education of the young Jacob Talmon (ne´e Flajszer) and the making of The Origins of Totalitarian Democracy. It demonstrates the independence of Talmon's Cold War liberal project from his Zionism. The second section places Talmon in the context of Cold War liberal discourse, showing how integral his critique of revolutionary politics was to contemporary liberalism. The third illustrates the tensions between Talmon's view of Jewish history and his liberalism, between his Zionism and his critique of revolutionary politics. Focusing on Talmon's analyses of nationalism, it highlights the ambiguity of his Zionism. r

A pessimistic liberalism: Jacob Talmon’s suspicion and the birth of contemporary political thought

“…Talmon’s work is paradigmatic of this trend in liberal thought, leading some scholars to suggest that he was, in fact, a ‘leading representative of Cold War liberals’ (Hacohen, 2008: 147). 5 This was partly due to Talmon’s immersion in a British intellectual culture that produced a significant amount of Cold War liberals (Hacohen, 2008: 150).…”

“…Talmon’s work is paradigmatic of this trend in liberal thought, leading some scholars to suggest that he was, in fact, a ‘leading representative of Cold War liberals’ (Hacohen, 2008: 147). 5 This was partly due to Talmon’s immersion in a British intellectual culture that produced a significant amount of Cold War liberals (Hacohen, 2008: 150). However, Talmon was an exemplary figure in his own right in the culture of suspicion and pessimism that emerged from within this tradition, particularly in the way that Talmon’s genealogical studies of the development of liberal democracy highlighted just how easily optimism and messianism could spiral out of control, particularly when, pace Johann Gottfried Herder, ‘the whole was more real, and came before the parts’ of a society; true democratic totalism’ (Talmon, 1968: 100).…”