Cosmopolitan Elites and the Making of Globality

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20th century
A01=Leonie Wolters
Author_Leonie Wolters
Category=GTQ
Category=JPF
Category=NHB
communism
elites
eq_bestseller
eq_history
eq_isMigrated=1
eq_isMigrated=2
eq_nobargain
eq_non-fiction
eq_society-politics
fascism
globalization
humanism
ideologies
intellectual history
M.N Roy
nationalism
political history
South Asia

Product details

  • ISBN 9781350373181
  • Weight: 420g
  • Dimensions: 154 x 232mm
  • Publication Date: 21 Aug 2025
  • Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing PLC
  • Publication City/Country: GB
  • Product Form: Paperback
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As ideologies such as communism, fascism and various nationalisms vied for global domination during the first half of the 20th century, this book shows how a specific group of individuals - a cosmopolitan elite - became representatives of those ideologies the world over.

Centering on the Indian intellectual M.N Roy, Cosmopolitan Elites and the Making of Globality situates his life within various social circles that covered several ideological realms and continents. An example of an individual who represented ideologies such as anticolonial nationalism, communism and humanism, Roy is identified as unusual but by no means singular in this capacity, and shows how other elites were similarly able to represent ideologies that sought to make the world anew.

This book explores how Roy and his peers and competitors became a political elite as they cultivated a cosmopolitan reputation that meant they were taken seriously even when speaking of regions outside of their own. By considering the social and performative practices that turned them into credible, global, cosmopolitans, Wolters uncovers the exclusive basis on which the universal claims of world-changing ideologies were made.

Leonie Wolters is a postdoc researcher at the Leibniz Centre for Contemporary History in Potsdam, Germany. Having studied in Utrecht, Edinburgh and Dar es Salaam she has also worked in journalism and created several documentaries for Dutch radio.

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