Bruce Mazlish - Böcker

In this book Bruce Mazlish examines the historical origins of sociology, especially in terms of its relationship to the humanities and to economics. He is particularly concerned with how omnipresent substitution of money for personal relations changed the nature of human relations in the nineteenth century. He examines the works of Wordsworth, Edmund Burke, Adam Smith, Thomas Carlyle, and particularly novelists such as Dickens, Elizabeth Gaskell, and George Eliot, and Benjamin Disraeli. Mazlish explores the influence of Darwin and his theories and presents Engels and Marx as precursors of the science of sociology. He then discusses the major founding figures of sociology: August Comte, Ferdinand Tonnies, Georg Simmel, Emile Durkheim, and Max Weber.

"What makes this book stand out is the way in which Mazlish situates sociology in the broader context of late eighteenth- and early nineteenth-century social thought. This is the most interesting treatment I have read of how there came to be a felt need for sociology, of how a place was created in the intellectual firmament for this new science." -Craig Calhoun, University of North Carolina "At a time of the breakdown of sociology, or at least the virtual loss of the idea of historicity within the discipline, this examination of the birth of sociology can provide valuable insight into the current condition no less than the glorious antecedents of a major field of social research...[A New Science] does a great deal to explain how the field of sociology comes to reject connections, and celebrate distinctions: distinctions of class, race, nationality, and the like. And [in] the extended discussions of Marx, Durkheim, Toennies (who is especially deserving and often ignored in the great chain of European sociological beings) and Weber, we get a word picture of some genuine substance and innovation."-Irving Louis Horowitz, History of European Ideas "Although numerous able interpreters have attempted syntheses of the sociological tradition, Mazlish is the first to search so boldly for its ultimate intentions...Beginning students will find this a stimulating, wittily written introduction to the history of sociology." -Harry Liebersohn, American Historical Review "An accessible, fascinating, erudite, and provocative tour de force with a memorable, even gripping, conclusion. It is a must for both college and general libraries." -Choice

From Mary Shelley's Frankenstein to current films like The Terminator about menacing androids, writers have expressed concern about computers and biogenetic creations taking over or altering human life. In this engrossing and lively book, Bruce Mazlish discusses the complex relationship between humans and machines, pondering the implications of humans becoming more mechanical (our bodies increasingly hooked up to artificial parts), and of computer robots being programmed to think. Mazlish argues that just as Copernicus, Darwin, and Freud overturned our illusions of separation from and domination over the cosmos, the animal world, and the unconscious, it is now necessary to relinquish a fourth fallacy or discontinuity--that humans are discontinuous and distinct from the machines they make. Drawing on history and legend, science and science fiction, Mazlish examines how events and individuals have shaped the ways that humans relate to machines. He describes early Greek and Chinese automatons (forerunners of the robot); he discusses the seventeenth-century debate over what was called the "animal machine"; he shows how the Industrial Revolution created a truly mechanical civilization; he looks at what thinkers such as Descartes, Linnaeus, Darwin, Freud, Pavlov, Charles Babbage, T.H. Huxley, and Samuel Butler contributed to our understanding of human nature as contrasted with animal or machine; and he surveys the modern revolutions in biogenetics and computer and brain sciences that have brought humans and machines closer together than ever before. Mazlish argues provocatively that human nature is best understood in the context of the machines and tools we have created and that humans and our creations—computer robots—will eventually evolve into two new species coexisting in a symbiotic relationship.

This groundbreaking work brings together an important collection of essays from an international range of contributors to set globalization in its historical context.Through these thematically focused essays, the history of the world is examined in key themes that transcend national boundaries such as terrorism, the environment, human rights, the information revolution and multinational corporations.This is a fast-growing and definitive new area of historical study, and this book is essential reading for all students with an interest in learning more.

This groundbreaking work brings together an important collection of essays from an international range of contributors to set globalization in its historical context.Through these thematically focused essays, the history of the world is examined in key themes that transcend national boundaries such as terrorism, the environment, human rights, the information revolution and multinational corporations.This is a fast-growing and definitive new area of historical study, and this book is essential reading for all students with an interest in learning more.

From a distinguished author in the field, The New Global History is a critical inquiry into the historical process of globalization, which is seen as a distinctly twentieth century phenomenon with its roots in the age of expansion of the early modern world. Cutting across disciplinary boundaries, The New Global History offers a fresh, overarching view of the process of globalization that is always empirically based and discusses the most important themes, such as policy, trade, cultural imperialism and warfare. Bruce Mazlish argues that globalization is not something that the West has imposed upon the rest of the world, but the result of the interplay of many factors across continents. Students of history, politics and international studies, will all find this a valuable resource in the pursuit of their studies.

From a distinguished author in the field, The New Global History is a critical inquiry into the historical process of globalization, which is seen as a distinctly twentieth century phenomenon with its roots in the age of expansion of the early modern world. Cutting across disciplinary boundaries, The New Global History offers a fresh, overarching view of the process of globalization that is always empirically based and discusses the most important themes, such as policy, trade, cultural imperialism and warfare. Bruce Mazlish argues that globalization is not something that the West has imposed upon the rest of the world, but the result of the interplay of many factors across continents. Students of history, politics and international studies, will all find this a valuable resource in the pursuit of their studies.

A ground-breaking 2005 exploration of multinational corporations that differs from other books on the subject by offering the reader a totally global perspective of multinationals without portraying them simply as economic entities. Written by experts on various aspects of the history, development, cultural and social implications of the multinational corporation, the book paints a compelling and coherent picture of the way these businesses affect almost all areas of our existence. As we might expect, the multinational company is shown to play a major role in the globalization that is reshaping so much of our lives.

A ground-breaking 2005 exploration of multinational corporations that differs from other books on the subject by offering the reader a totally global perspective of multinationals without portraying them simply as economic entities. Written by experts on various aspects of the history, development, cultural and social implications of the multinational corporation, the book paints a compelling and coherent picture of the way these businesses affect almost all areas of our existence. As we might expect, the multinational company is shown to play a major role in the globalization that is reshaping so much of our lives.

"Civilization" is a constantly invoked term. It is used by both politicians and scholars. How useful, in fact, is this term? Civilization and Its Contents traces the origins of the concept in the eighteenth century. It shows its use as a colonial ideology, and then as a support for racism. The term was extended to a dead society, Egyptian civilization, and was appropriated by Japan, China, and Islamic countries. This latter development lays the groundwork for the contemporary call for a "dialogue of civilizations." The author proposes instead that today the use of the term "civilization" has a global meaning, with local variants recognized as cultures. It may be more appropriate, however, to abandon the name "civilization" and to focus on a new understanding of the civilizing process.

"Civilization" is a constantly invoked term. It is used by both politicians and scholars. How useful, in fact, is this term? Civilization and Its Contents traces the origins of the concept in the eighteenth century. It shows its use as a colonial ideology, and then as a support for racism. The term was extended to a dead society, Egyptian civilization, and was appropriated by Japan, China, and Islamic countries. This latter development lays the groundwork for the contemporary call for a "dialogue of civilizations." The author proposes instead that today the use of the term "civilization" has a global meaning, with local variants recognized as cultures. It may be more appropriate, however, to abandon the name "civilization" and to focus on a new understanding of the civilizing process.

The Paradox of a Global USA describes the vexed relationship between the United States and globalization. On the one hand, the U.S. has vociferously promoted modernization and open markets, both central components of the process of globalization. On the other hand, it appears to be resolutely determined not to live within an institutional framework of globalized authority. As the world's only superpower, the United States is often perceived as championing its own narrow national sovereignty—for example, by opposing the Kyoto Protocol and the International Criminal Court, and by taking action in Iraq outside the auspices of the UN. The book treats the paradox of American exceptionalism and globalization as a "local" happening within the broader process of globalization. These essays analyze the ways in which the USA has both played a role in, and reacted against, emerging present-day globalization.Examples are drawn from the fields of history, political science, cultural studies, and economics, making this collection one of the very few to link together so diverse a group of authors and approaches to the subject of global USA.

The Paradox of a Global USA describes the vexed relationship between the United States and globalization. On the one hand, the U.S. has vociferously promoted modernization and open markets, both central components of the process of globalization. On the other hand, it appears to be resolutely determined not to live within an institutional framework of globalized authority. As the world's only superpower, the United States is often perceived as championing its own narrow national sovereignty—for example, by opposing the Kyoto Protocol and the International Criminal Court, and by taking action in Iraq outside the auspices of the UN. The book treats the paradox of American exceptionalism and globalization as a "local" happening within the broader process of globalization. These essays analyze the ways in which the USA has both played a role in, and reacted against, emerging present-day globalization.Examples are drawn from the fields of history, political science, cultural studies, and economics, making this collection one of the very few to link together so diverse a group of authors and approaches to the subject of global USA.

The story of James and John Stuart Mill is one of the great dramas of the 19thcentury. In the tense yet loving struggle of this extraordinarily influential father and son, we can see the genesis of evolution of Liberal ideas-about love, sex, and women, wealth and work, authority and rebellion-which ushered in the modern age. The result of more than a decade of research and reflection, this is a study of the relationship between James Mill, the self-made utilitarian philosopher who tried (with only partial success) to shape his son in his own image. Mazlish integrates psychology and intellectual history as part of his larger and continuing effort to spur deeper understanding of the character, limitations, and possibilities of the social sciences.John Stuart Mill's rebellion against a joyless, loveless upbringing, one in strict accordance with the principles of Utilitarianism, was rooted ina powerful Oedipal struggle against his father's authority. Mazlish describes this rebellion as playing an important role in the genesis of classical nineteenth century liberalism. Behind this intellectual development were the women in Mills' life: Harriet the mother, never mentioned by her son in his autobiography, and Harriet Taylor, with whom Mill lived in a scandalous, if chaste, ménage a trois. It was this long relationship which informed his famous essay 'The Subjection of Women,' one of the most eloquent feminist statements ever written. A work of brilliant historical research and psychological insights, James and John Stuart Mill shows how the nineteenth-century struggle of fathers and sons shaped the social transformation of society.

Over the past five hundred years, historians and other social scientists have perceived an extraordinary occurance: the transition from the Middle Ages, via the Renaissance, to modernity. Equally remarkable has been the transition taking place in the last fifty years from modernity to globalization, a period marked by increasing interdependency and interconnectivity, as evidenced by events such as the advent of the computer. Bruce Mazlish argues that in order to understand ourselves in the world today we need to know more about the nature of both concepts.Mazlish discusses the transition in terms of "reflections." Rather than adding to the enormous amount of archival research that already exists, he instead examines slices of modernity the way of seeing, the sense of self, for example as if under a microscope. He sees modernity as strongly marked by its insistence on freedom of political and religious thought and the rights of man (later expanded to include women). Such changes did not happen all at once, but as a gradual development. While some prefer to contemplate the transition from the modern to the global as a continuous, seamless development, Mazlish argues that post-WWII developments are best understood in terms of a break or a "rupture."Illustrating that the process was further accelerated by the computer revolution and the launching of artificial satellites, Mazlish places the events of 1989 in the framework of globalization. He concludes by inquiring further into the significance of the transition from modernity to globalization and its impact upon thought and identity.

Who was the real Richard Nixon and why did he behave the way he did? In this innovative work, a distinguished historian, trained in psychoanalysis, unravels the riddle of Nixon's singularly opaque political personality. Neither a political biography, nor a clinical psychoanalysis, at the time of its initial publication, In Search of Nixon launched a new genre of scholarship; the "psycho-historical inquiry." Mazlish offers insight into the subtle interplay between Nixon the man and Nixon the public figure.Why, for example, did Nixon have such personal difficulties in making decisions? Knowing how the young Nixon learned to cope with the problems of his childhood, what can we infer about his unpredictable decisions on Communist China, inflation, and the Supreme Court? Bruce Mazlish applies psychoanalysis to history in order to understand Nixon's behaviour, decisions, and political stance. He explains why Nixon characteristically projected personal crises onto the political arena as, for example, in the famous Checkers speech, or in the Haynsworth-Carswell affair. And he examines why, conversely, political questions such as pacifism, abortion, and subversion had such a peculiarly personal meaning for him.

The story of James and John Stuart Mill is one of the great dramas of the 19thcentury. In the tense yet loving struggle of this extraordinarily influential father and son, we can see the genesis of evolution of Liberal ideas-about love, sex, and women, wealth and work, authority and rebellion-which ushered in the modern age. The result of more than a decade of research and reflection, this is a study of the relationship between James Mill, the self-made utilitarian philosopher who tried (with only partial success) to shape his son in his own image. Mazlish integrates psychology and intellectual history as part of his larger and continuing effort to spur deeper understanding of the character, limitations, and possibilities of the social sciences.John Stuart Mill's rebellion against a joyless, loveless upbringing, one in strict accordance with the principles of Utilitarianism, was rooted ina powerful Oedipal struggle against his father's authority. Mazlish describes this rebellion as playing an important role in the genesis of classical nineteenth century liberalism. Behind this intellectual development were the women in Mills' life: Harriet the mother, never mentioned by her son in his autobiography, and Harriet Taylor, with whom Mill lived in a scandalous, if chaste, ménage a trois. It was this long relationship which informed his famous essay 'The Subjection of Women,' one of the most eloquent feminist statements ever written. A work of brilliant historical research and psychological insights, James and John Stuart Mill shows how the nineteenth-century struggle of fathers and sons shaped the social transformation of society.

In this book of absorbing stories, Bruce Mazlish illuminates the lives of intellectual and political leaders with the penetrating light of psychohistory and in doing so illuminates our own lives as well. A pioneer in this field, Mazlish demonstrates that study of the origins of leaders their personal history can help us understand their work, and that only in a study of their context, can we grasp their impact on events.Mazlish brings the insights of psychoanalysis to bear on a wide spectrum of leaders, beginning with those who created the theories of psychoanalysis: Darwin, who began to uncover the story of the human species; Freud, whose theory of individual behavior was rooted in Darwin's evolutionary biology; and Nietzsche, whose philosophy can be seen as a precursor to Freud. He studies intellectual leaders whose work stimulated political change: Marx, who inspired a revolution and "a great secular religion"; Thoreau, who fantasized independence within a dependent life; Jevons, whose economic theories reflected a private tension between ambition and duty; and Weber, a man of reason and passion, whose theories emerged from personal traumas.A section on political leadership examines polar opposites: the raging mystic but opportunist Khomeini; and Orwell, whose hatred for totalitarianism was less fierce than his passive fear. A final section on the psychohistory of groups focuses on the United States, exploring the polarities of American life, its light-dark dichotomies. Mazlish finds that these ambivalences explain "the American psyche" from the Puritan's melancholy conscience and Washington's sense of parental betrayal that compelled a break with the father-mother country to Nixon's uncritical self-righteousness and his conviction of being always under attack.

Why have the great revolutionary leaders of modern times from Robespierre to Lenin and Mao Tse-tung‘so often been ascetics, austere "puritans" with few emotional ties? What functions, political as well as personal, do these ascetic traits perform for the modern revolutionary leader and for his followers?Noted historian and author Bruce Mazlish is convinced that, beginning in the nineteenth century, the needs of modernizing revolutions have produced a distinct new type of political leader, the revolutionary ascetic. This individual's denial of personal pleasures and commitments both enables him to perform politically necessary, if personally repulsive, revolutionary acts, and to command the allegiance of his more worldly followers.Starting with Cromwell and the religious ascetics of the Puritan Revolution, Mazlish shows, in a series of fascinating personality sketches, how this asceticism first became secularized with the French Revolution and then in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries was put to the service of a new kind of "total" modernizing revolution in Russia, China, and elsewhere. In two remarkably vivid portraits of Lenin and Mao Tse-tung, Mazlish shows us precisely how two of the century's best-known revolutionaries consciously and unconsciously used their personal asceticism to induce revolutionary change.

This sweeping inquiry into the present condition of the human sciences addresses the central questions: What sort of knowledge do the human sciences claim to be offering? To what extent can that knowledge be called scientific? and What do we mean by "scientific" in such a context?In this wide-ranging book, one of the most esteemed cultural historians of our time turns his attention to major questions about human experience and various attempts to understand it "scientifically." Mazlish considers the achievements, failings, and possibilities of the human sciences--a domain that he broadly defines to include the social sciences, literature, psychology, and hermeneutic studies.In a rich and original synthesis built upon the work of earlier philosophers and historians, Mazlish constructs a new view of the nature and meaning of the human sciences. Starting with the remote human past and moving through the Age of Discovery to the present day, Mazlish discusses the sort of knowledge the human sciences claim to offer. He looks closely at the positivistic aspirations of the human sciences, which are modeled after the natural sciences, and at their interpretive tendencies. In an analysis of scientific method and scientific community, he explores the roles they can or should assume in the human sciences. His approach is genuinely interdisciplinary, drawing upon an array of topics, from civil society to globalization to the interactions of humans and machines.

This sweeping inquiry into the present condition of the human sciences addresses the central questions: What sort of knowledge do the human sciences claim to be offering? To what extent can that knowledge be called scientific? and What do we mean by "scientific" in such a context?In this wide-ranging book, one of the most esteemed cultural historians of our time turns his attention to major questions about human experience and various attempts to understand it "scientifically." Mazlish considers the achievements, failings, and possibilities of the human sciences--a domain that he broadly defines to include the social sciences, literature, psychology, and hermeneutic studies.In a rich and original synthesis built upon the work of earlier philosophers and historians, Mazlish constructs a new view of the nature and meaning of the human sciences. Starting with the remote human past and moving through the Age of Discovery to the present day, Mazlish discusses the sort of knowledge the human sciences claim to offer. He looks closely at the positivistic aspirations of the human sciences, which are modeled after the natural sciences, and at their interpretive tendencies. In an analysis of scientific method and scientific community, he explores the roles they can or should assume in the human sciences. His approach is genuinely interdisciplinary, drawing upon an array of topics, from civil society to globalization to the interactions of humans and machines.

Over the past five hundred years, historians and other social scientists have perceived an extraordinary occurance: the transition from the Middle Ages, via the Renaissance, to modernity. Equally remarkable has been the transition taking place in the last fifty years from modernity to globalization, a period marked by increasing interdependency and interconnectivity, as evidenced by events such as the advent of the computer. Bruce Mazlish argues that in order to understand ourselves in the world today we need to know more about the nature of both concepts.Mazlish discusses the transition in terms of "reflections." Rather than adding to the enormous amount of archival research that already exists, he instead examines slices of modernity—the way of seeing, the sense of self, for example—as if under a microscope. He sees modernity as strongly marked by its insistence on freedom of political and religious thought and the rights of man (later expanded to include women). Such changes did not happen all at once, but as a gradual development. While some prefer to contemplate the transition from the modern to the global as a continuous, seamless development, Mazlish argues that post-WWII developments are best understood in terms of a break or a "rupture."Illustrating that the process was further accelerated by the computer revolution and the launching of artificial satellites, Mazlish places the events of 1989 in the framework of globalization. He concludes by inquiring further into the significance of the transition from modernity to globalization and its impact upon thought and identity.

In this book of absorbing stories, Bruce Mazlish illuminates the lives of intellectual and political leaders with the penetrating light of psychohistory and in doing so illuminates our own lives as well. A pioneer in this field, Mazlish demonstrates that study of the origins of leaders—their personal history—can help us understand their work, and that only in a study of their context, can we grasp their impact on events.Mazlish brings the insights of psychoanalysis to bear on a wide spectrum of leaders, beginning with those who created the theories of psychoanalysis: Darwin, who began to uncover the story of the human species; Freud, whose theory of individual behavior was rooted in Darwin's evolutionary biology; and Nietzsche, whose philosophy can be seen as a precursor to Freud. He studies intellectual leaders whose work stimulated political change: Marx, who inspired a revolution and "a great secular religion"; Thoreau, who fantasized independence within a dependent life; Jevons, whose economic theories reflected a private tension between ambition and duty; and Weber, a man of reason and passion, whose theories emerged from personal traumas.A section on political leadership examines polar opposites: the raging mystic but opportunist Khomeini; and Orwell, whose hatred for totalitarianism was less fierce than his passive fear. A final section on the psychohistory of groups focuses on the United States, exploring the polarities of American life, its light-dark dichotomies. Mazlish finds that these ambivalences explain "the American psyche"—from the Puritan's melancholy conscience and Washington's sense of parental betrayal that compelled a break with the father-mother country to Nixon's uncritical self-righteousness and his conviction of being always under attack.

Why have the great revolutionary leaders of modern times—from Robespierre to Lenin and Mao Tse-tung—so often been ascetics, austere "puritans" with few emotional ties? What functions, political as well as personal, do these ascetic traits perform for the modern revolutionary leader and for his followers?Noted historian and author Bruce Mazlish is convinced that, beginning in the nineteenth century, the needs of modernizing revolutions have produced a distinct new type of political leader, the revolutionary ascetic. This individual's denial of personal pleasures and commitments both enables him to perform politically necessary, if personally repulsive, revolutionary acts, and to command the allegiance of his more worldly followers.Starting with Cromwell and the religious ascetics of the Puritan Revolution, Mazlish shows, in a series of fascinating personality sketches, how this asceticism first became secularized with the French Revolution and then in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries was put to the service of a new kind of "total" modernizing revolution in Russia, China, and elsewhere. In two remarkably vivid portraits of Lenin and Mao Tse-tung, Mazlish shows us precisely how two of the century's best-known revolutionaries consciously and unconsciously used their personal asceticism to induce revolutionary change.

Who was the real Richard Nixon and why did he behave the way he did? In this innovative work, a distinguished historian, trained in psychoanalysis, unravels the riddle of Nixon's singularly opaque political personality. Neither a political biography, nor a clinical psychoanalysis, at the time of its initial publication, In Search of Nixon launched a new genre of scholarship; the "psycho-historical inquiry." Mazlish offers insight into the subtle interplay between Nixon the man and Nixon the public figure.Why, for example, did Nixon have such personal difficulties in making decisions? Knowing how the young Nixon learned to cope with the problems of his childhood, what can we infer about his unpredictable decisions on Communist China, inflation, and the Supreme Court? Bruce Mazlish applies psychoanalysis to history in order to understand Nixon's behaviour, decisions, and political stance. He explains why Nixon characteristically projected personal crises onto the political arena—as, for example, in the famous Checkers speech, or in the Haynsworth-Carswell affair. And he examines why, conversely, political questions such as pacifism, abortion, and subversion had such a peculiarly personal meaning for him.

In Globalization and Transformation, Bruce Mazlish examines developments in contemporary warfare, economy, technology, and religion as fundamental factors in human experience that have accelerated global change in recent years. Continuing the analysis he began in Reflections on the Modern and the Global, Mazlish delves into human history, examining who we were so as to help us understand who we are today.Early in the volume, Mazlish highlights the British historian Geoffrey Barraclough, who foresaw the trajectory of world events that gave rise to the "New Global History." He also examines humanity's progress, reminding us of contemporary globalization's precursors: the theories of Charles Darwin; the concept of the global and the local coupled with inquiry into the concept of parts and wholes; merchant empires, such as the English and Dutch East India companies that crisscrossed the ocean in pursuit of profits and power; anti-globalization; and the linkage of globalization to the very concept of humanity.Though globalization is a complex concept, and versatile in its applications, Mazlish focuses on its transformational characteristics, noting that globalization's impact is not uniform across society's culture, politics, or economics. Some parts of the world have yet to accept the challenge to their past traditions. These stimulating essays offer new insights into a major phenomenon of our time.