Imprint Academic book covers compared

The new book (co-edited with András Körösényi and Gabriella Slomp) by Joseph V. Femia, Professor of Political Theory at the University of Liverpool and a former Senior Research Associate of SCIS, has just been published by Imprint Academic. The book's title is "Political Leadership in Liberal and Democratic Theory".

Released on 1 December 2009, precisely a year after my own collection "Anti-Democratic Thought" was published by Imprint Academic, it is interesting to note – and quite likely no one but me would note – that the new book cover shows the exact same picture of an ancient Greek temple that is to be seen on my own book.

One feels compelled to compare.

As good as some of the Imprint Academic cover art may be, the design of the Femia book belongs squarely into the category "awful". While the cover of my own book (to be seen in the left-hand column of this blog) is held in shiny blue, possibly promising a new day and the advent of a non-democratic future, and the temple can symbolize both democratic and anti-democratic political forms that were in existence in ancient Greece, the derivative new cover, held in black and white, plasters Abraham Lincoln and Nelson Mandela across the temple's base and pillars and somehow manages to have Winston Churchill float in the air above the building like a giant balloon.

www.booksonix.com/imprint/bookshop/title.php?9781845401726

Here anyway the publisher's description: "The working hypothesis of this book is that the issue of leadership is neglected by mainstream democratic and liberal theories. This deficiency has especially become evident in the last three or four decades, which have witnessed a revival of deontological liberalism and radical theories of participatory and 'deliberative' democracy. The contributors examine, discuss and evaluate descriptive, analytical and normative arguments regarding the role of leadership in liberal and democratic theory. The volume seeks to provoke debate and to foster new research on the significance and function of leaders in liberal democracies. The book (as a whole and in its constitutive chapters) works on two levels. First, it aims to expose the lack of systematic treatment of leadership in mainstream liberal and democratic theory. Second, it explores the reasons for this neglect. Overall, the book tries to convince the reader that liberal and democratic theories should revive the issue of leadership."

P.S. I'm currently also awaiting Alexandre J.M.E. Christoyannopoulos' monograph "Christian Anarchism: A Political Commentary on the Gospel", which was scheduled for publication by Imprint Academic on 1 January 2010, but does not seem to have been released yet. In 2008, Alex contributed a chapter, "Tolstoy's Anarchist Denunciation of State Violence and Deception", to my "Anti-Democratic Thought":

http://books.google.com/books?printsec=frontcover&id=KkMdJtaaeOYC