The Open Society and Its Enemies

New One-Volume Edition

By: Karl Popper

Narrated by: Liam Gerrard

One of the most important books of the twentieth century, Karl Popper's The Open Society and Its Enemies is an uncompromising defense of liberal democracy and a powerful attack on the intellectual origins of totalitarianism. Popper was born in 1902 to a Viennese family of Jewish origin. He taught in Austria until 1937, when he emigrated to New Zealand in anticipation of the Nazi annexation of Austria the following year, and he settled in England in 1949. Before the annexation, Popper had written mainly about the philosophy of science, but from 1938 until the end of the Second World War he focused his energies on political philosophy, seeking to diagnose the intellectual origins of German and Soviet totalitarianism. The Open Society and Its Enemies was the result.

An immediate sensation when it was first published in two volumes in 1945, Popper's monumental achievement has attained legendary status on both the Left and Right and is credited with inspiring anticommunist dissidents during the Cold War. Arguing that the spirit of free, critical inquiry that governs scientific investigation should also apply to politics, Popper traces the roots of an opposite, authoritarian tendency to a tradition represented by Plato, Marx, and Hegel.

©1994 The University of Klagenfurt/Karl Popper Library (P)2019 Tantor

Clear, long-view philosophical argument against Plato/Hegel/Marx

It is pretty impossible for me to evaluate the quality of the philosophy, but the construction and argumentation is very good. The narration is top-notch for flow and cadence and clarity. A difficult series of topics very well presented, and re-listenable for consideration.

A Thorough Defense of Pluralism

Popper's magnum opus has unfortunately become as relevant today as it ever was. this genealogy of totalitarian thought is worth the read for all of us worried about Western Civilization's increasing authoritarianism and it's securitatian political grammar.

Thoughtful and engaging

A thorough critique of the philosophies of Plato and Hegel and their contributions to the development of totalitarianism.

Riveting development of ideas

As Karl Popper stated in the conclusion, this subject was not his main interest nor expertise. But it's a wonderful development and summary of ideas of some influential characters from ancient Greece to our own time.
It's much aided by his main area of interest which was the epistemology of science. Of course, he is well known for his "black swan" metaphor, and also the idea that a valid scientific hypothesis or theory must be falsifiable, but he went way beyond that. This background helped Popper to understand and then to explain the dubiousness of historicism, which he shows was handed down from Plato, to Hegel, to Marx, and to current adherents. He really blasts Hegel, for one.
Lots to absorb out of a pretty long book; will have to listen again.
I hope Audible makes more of his books available.

eye opener

Give the book a try. you will get so much from it. History is such a great mystery with a great story to tell