Harold J. Bershady – författare

A beautifully written, trenchant, and moving memoir, When Marx Mattered follows Harold J. Bershady''s odyssey from childhood through his coming of intellectual age. The wounds and pleasures of his childhood include fear of Nazis, poverty, the joys and constraints of Jewishness, his caring family and love of music, and the confusion surrounding World War II. In this book, Bershady describes his teenage encounter with Marxism and how it provided some understanding of the world and hope for peace.

Bershady gives us a serious portrayal of the evolution of scholarly judgment, but also a social history of the second half of the twentieth century, refracted through the author''s own experiences in which Jewish Americans played an important but under-appreciated part. Along the way, the author corrects the misapprehension that Jewish or non-Jewish American political radicals only evolve into conservatives. Through his own mistakes and hard-won lessons, Bershady shows the power, importance, and morality that intellectual standards play in enabling an intellectual to achieve sound and fair judgments.

Bershady firmly believes that his achievements in the social sciences are grounded in the fact that he also studied philosophy, literature, and history—all of which immeasurably deepened his understanding of social life. The generational portrait in this book is both an homage to those who preceded him and a hope for educational broadening of social science in the generation to come.

A beautifully written, trenchant, and moving memoir, When Marx Mattered follows Harold J. Bershady''s odyssey from childhood through his coming of intellectual age. The wounds and pleasures of his childhood include fear of Nazis, poverty, the joys and constraints of Jewishness, his caring family and love of music, and the confusion surrounding World War II. In this book, Bershady describes his teenage encounter with Marxism and how it provided some understanding of the world and hope for peace.

Bershady gives us a serious portrayal of the evolution of scholarly judgment, but also a social history of the second half of the twentieth century, refracted through the author''s own experiences in which Jewish Americans played an important but under-appreciated part. Along the way, the author corrects the misapprehension that Jewish or non-Jewish American political radicals only evolve into conservatives. Through his own mistakes and hard-won lessons, Bershady shows the power, importance, and morality that intellectual standards play in enabling an intellectual to achieve sound and fair judgments.

Bershady firmly believes that his achievements in the social sciences are grounded in the fact that he also studied philosophy, literature, and history—all of which immeasurably deepened his understanding of social life. The generational portrait in this book is both an homage to those who preceded him and a hope for educational broadening of social science in the generation to come.

The environment within which humans interact has changed dramatically since the Industrial Revolution. However, their expectations stem from the same hopes and dreams people have had from the beginning of humankind. When Men Revolt and Why encourages readers to look closer and more deeply into the relationships between humans and the institutions that have originated to help them realize their full potential.The contributors not only examine people, but also the need to change institutions that have outworn their usefulness. When institutions inhibit rather than facilitate everyone''s desire to live a full life, the result is likely to be violence. This book offers the ideas of many people who have tried to dig deeper into basic causes of violence. Included in this volume are selections by Aristotle, Tocqueville./Marx and Engels, and Brinton. The ideas they espoused still hold vitality.In his new introduction, James Davies talks about the circumstances under which this book was originally published. In Vietnam, a people were fighting for their autonomy. In the United States, many Americans were protesting against American involvement in the Vietnam War. Blacks were marching for their civil rights. Women were fighting for equality. Time has tempered these conflicts.Davies maintains that we remain ignorant of the elemental forces that impel people and nations to resort to violence. We are usually surprised by their anger and shocked by their violence. Davies asserts that we need to learn more about how humans respond to change so as to prepare ourselves for such responses to change. When Men Revolt and Why is as timely as ever as we deal with uncertainty in various areas of the world - the former Yugoslavia, the Middle East, and Ireland, among others. It is especially pertinent for political scientists, historians, and sociologists.

The environment within which humans interact has changed dramatically since the Industrial Revolution. However, their expectations stem from the same hopes and dreams people have had from the beginning of humankind. When Men Revolt and Why encourages readers to look closer and more deeply into the relationships between humans and the institutions that have originated to help them realize their full potential.The contributors not only examine people, but also the need to change institutions that have outworn their usefulness. When institutions inhibit rather than facilitate everyone''s desire to live a full life, the result is likely to be violence. This book offers the ideas of many people who have tried to dig deeper into basic causes of violence. Included in this volume are selections by Aristotle, Tocqueville./Marx and Engels, and Brinton. The ideas they espoused still hold vitality.In his new introduction, James Davies talks about the circumstances under which this book was originally published. In Vietnam, a people were fighting for their autonomy. In the United States, many Americans were protesting against American involvement in the Vietnam War. Blacks were marching for their civil rights. Women were fighting for equality. Time has tempered these conflicts.Davies maintains that we remain ignorant of the elemental forces that impel people and nations to resort to violence. We are usually surprised by their anger and shocked by their violence. Davies asserts that we need to learn more about how humans respond to change so as to prepare ourselves for such responses to change. When Men Revolt and Why is as timely as ever as we deal with uncertainty in various areas of the world - the former Yugoslavia, the Middle East, and Ireland, among others. It is especially pertinent for political scientists, historians, and sociologists.