The Truth in Hell and Other Essays on Politics and Culture, 1935-1987

The Truth in Hell and Other Essays on Politics and Culture, 1935-1987 PDF Author: Hans Speier
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
ISBN: 0195058755
Category : Communication
Languages : en
Pages : 381

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Book Description
These essays by one of the pioneers of sociology are grouped in five categories: social theory, war and militarism, public opinion and propaganda, the history of literature, and ""the present and the future""

The Truth in Hell and Other Essays on Politics and Culture, 1935-1987

The Truth in Hell and Other Essays on Politics and Culture, 1935-1987 PDF Author: Hans Speier
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
ISBN: 0195058755
Category : Communication
Languages : en
Pages : 381

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Book Description
These essays by one of the pioneers of sociology are grouped in five categories: social theory, war and militarism, public opinion and propaganda, the history of literature, and ""the present and the future""

War in Social Thought

War in Social Thought PDF Author: Hans Joas
Publisher: Princeton University Press
ISBN: 0691150842
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 336

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Book Description
Argues that sociologists have either ignored or grappled with the idea of war and examines the reasons behind this denial of the violent nature of the human race.

Honor: A Phenomenology

Honor: A Phenomenology PDF Author: Robert L. Oprisko
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1136274189
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 271

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Book Description
Honor is misunderstood in the social sciences. The literature lacks both accuracy and precision in its conceptual development such that we no longer say what we mean because we have no idea what we’re saying. We use many terms to mean honor and mean many different ideas when we refer to honor. Honor: A Phenomenology is designed to fix all of these problems. A ground-breaking examination of honor as a metaphenomenon, this book incorporates various structures of social control including prestige, face, shame and affiliated honor and the rejection of said structures by dignified individuals and groups. It shows honor to be a concept that encompasses a number of processes that operate together in order to structure society. Honor is how we are inscribed with social value by others and the means by which we inscribe others with social honor. Because it is the means by which individuals fit in and function with society, the main divisions internal (within the psyche of the individual and external (within the norms and institutions of society). Honor is the glue that holds groups together and the wedge that forces them apart; it defines who is us and who them. It accounts for the continuity and change in socio-political systems.

The Nervous Liberals

The Nervous Liberals PDF Author: Brett Gary
Publisher: Columbia University Press
ISBN: 9780231113656
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 348

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Book Description
Today few political analysts use the term "propaganda." However, in the wake of World War I, fear of propaganda haunted the liberal conscience. Citizens and critics blamed the war on campaigns of mass manipulation engaged in by all belligerents. Beginning with these "propaganda anxieties," Brett Gary traces the history of American fears of and attempts to combat propaganda through World War II and up to the Cold War. The Nervous Liberals explores how following World War I the social sciences--especially political science and the new field of mass communications--identified propaganda as the object of urgent "scientific" study. From there his narrative moves to the eve of WWII as mainstream journalists, clerics, and activists demanded greater government action against fascist propaganda, in response to which Congress and the Justice Department sought to create a prophylaxis against foreign or antidemocratic communications. Finally, Gary explores how free speech liberalism was further challenged by the national security culture, whose mobilization before World War II to fight the propaganda threat lead to much of the Cold War anxiety about propaganda. Gary's account sheds considerable light not only on the history of propaganda, but also on the central dilemmas of liberalism in the first half of the century--the delicate balance between protecting national security and protecting civil liberties, including freedom of speech; the tension between public-centered versus expert-centered theories of democracy; and the conflict between social reform and public opinion control as the legitimate aim of social knowledge.

Philosophy Between the Lines

Philosophy Between the Lines PDF Author: Arthur M. Melzer
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
ISBN: 022617512X
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 472

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Book Description
“Shines a floodlight on a topic that has been cloaked in obscurity . . . a landmark work in both intellectual history and political theory” (The Wall Street Journal). Philosophical esotericism—the practice of communicating one’s unorthodox thoughts “between the lines”—was a common practice until the end of the eighteenth century. Despite its long and well-documented history, however, esotericism is often dismissed today as a rare occurrence. But by ignoring esotericism, we risk cutting ourselves off from a full understanding of Western philosophical thought. Walking readers through both an ancient (Plato) and a modern (Machiavelli) esoteric work, Arthur M. Melzer explains what esotericism is—and is not. It relies not on secret codes, but simply on a more intensive use of familiar rhetorical techniques like metaphor, irony, and insinuation. Melzer explores the various motives that led thinkers in different times and places to engage in this strange practice, while also exploring the motives that lead more recent thinkers not only to dislike and avoid this practice but to deny its very existence. In the book’s final section, “A Beginner’s Guide to Esoteric Reading,” Melzer turns to how we might once again cultivate the long-forgotten art of reading esoteric works. The first comprehensive, book-length study of the history and theoretical basis of philosophical esotericism, Philosophy Between the Lines is “a treasure-house of insight and learning. It is that rare thing: an eye-opening book . . . By making the world before Enlightenment appear as strange as it truly was, [Melzer] makes our world stranger than we think it is” (George Kateb, Professor of Politics, Emeritus, at Princeton University). “Brilliant, pellucid, and meticulously researched.” —City Journal

Propaganda and the Jesuit Baroque

Propaganda and the Jesuit Baroque PDF Author: Evonne Levy
Publisher: Univ of California Press
ISBN: 9780520928633
Category : Architecture
Languages : en
Pages : 372

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Book Description
In this provocative revisionist work, Evonne Levy brings fresh theoretical perspectives to the study of the "propagandistic" art and architecture of the Jesuit order as exemplified by its late Baroque Roman church interiors. The first extensive analysis of the aims, mechanisms, and effects of Jesuit art and architecture, this original and sophisticated study also evaluates how the term "propaganda" functions in art history, distinguishes it from rhetoric, and proposes a precise use of the term for the visual arts for the first time. Levy begins by looking at Nazi architecture as a gateway to the emotional and ethical issues raised by the term "propaganda." Jesuit art once stirred similar passions, as she shows in a discussion of the controversial nineteenth-century rubric the "Jesuit Style." She then considers three central aspects of Jesuit art as essential components of propaganda: authorship, message, and diffusion. Levy tests her theoretical formulations against a broad range of documents and works of art, including the Chapel of St. Ignatius and other major works in Rome by Andrea Pozzo as well as chapels in Central Europe and Poland. Innovative in bringing a broad range of social and critical theory to bear on Baroque art and architecture in Europe and beyond, Levy’s work highlights the subject-forming capacity of early modern Catholic art and architecture while establishing "propaganda" as a productive term for art history.

The New Middle Classes

The New Middle Classes PDF Author: Arthur J. Vidich
Publisher: NYU Press
ISBN: 0814787770
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 417

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Book Description
In America's much-touted classless society, the middle class—decried by some as a mythical construct and heralded by others as the embodiment of the American dream--has always occupied a central and controversial position. This book explores the origins of the new middle classes that emerged in the 20th century, revealing the relationship of these classes to capitalism, bureaucracy, and politics. The book is divided into four parts, addressing: the theoretical problems and historical changes brought on by the emergence of the new middle classes; status and the psychology of class; the middle class in America; and the lifestyles and political orientations of the middle classes in the United States.

Karl Mannheim's Sociology As Political Education

Karl Mannheim's Sociology As Political Education PDF Author: David Kettler, David Kettler, Colin Loader
Publisher: Transaction Publishers
ISBN: 9781412827133
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 268

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Book Description


Karl Mannheim's Sociology as Political Education

Karl Mannheim's Sociology as Political Education PDF Author: Colin Loader
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1351324942
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 361

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Book Description
German professors and academic intellectuals are often blamed for their passivity or complicity in the face of the anti-Republican surge of the late Weimar years, culminating in the National Socialist rise to power. Karl Mannheim was a preeminent member of a vital minority committed to making German universities contribute to democratization. Mannheim argued that traditional German emphasis on the cultivation of individuals rooted in a certain high culture had to be adapted to a more egalitarian, socially complex community. He advocated teaching of sociology to create social awareness to inspire informed political judgments. Karl Mannheim's Sociology as Political Education situates Mannheim in the Weimar debates about sociology in the university. It shows how his project of political education for democracy informs his work as well as his relations with liberal, fascist, and orthodox Marxist thinkers. In advancing his educational strategy, Mannheim had to contend, with influential figures who attacked sociology as a mere political device to undermine cultural and national values for the sake of narrow interests and partisanship. He also had to overcome the objections of fellow sociologists, who felt the discipline would prosper only if it could persuade other academics that it made no claim to educational goals beyond the reproduction of technical findings. He had to separate himself from proponents of a politicized sociology. Mannheim argued that sociology should respond to problems that actually confronted individuals in their lives, be tolerant of difference and distance, and support efforts to generate agreement rather than encourage competition. Sociological thought had to be rigorous, critical, and attentive to evidence, but also congruent with the ultimate responsibility of individuals to fashion their lives through their acts. Karl Mannheim's Sociology as Political Education is a joint effort by two authors who have written separately on Karl Mannheim's sociological work and who write from different disciplines and traditions of commentary. The Mannheim who emerges from this volume is remarkably contemporary. In particular, he supports arguments that the threat to academic integrity is feared less in sociology than in certain areas of cultural studies. Certainly the issue of academic politicization was better understood by Mannheim in his time than it is by either side of the debate today.

Leo Strauss and the Politics of Exile

Leo Strauss and the Politics of Exile PDF Author: Eugene Sheppard
Publisher: Brandeis University Press
ISBN: 1611687691
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 327

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Book Description
Born in rural Hesse, Germany, Leo Strauss (1899-1973) became an active Zionist and philosopher during the tumultuous and fractious Weimar Republic. As Eugene R. Sheppard demonstrates in this groundbreaking and engaging book, Strauss gravitated towards such thinkers as Franz Rosenzweig, Martin Heidegger, and Carl Schmitt as he sought to identify and overcome fundamental philosophical, political, and theological crises. The rise of Nazism impelled Strauss as a young Jewish ŽmigrŽ, first in Europe and then in America, to grapple with--and accommodate his thought to--the pressing challenges of exile. In confronting his own state of exile, Strauss enlisted premodern Jewish thinkers such as Moses Maimonides and Baruch Spinoza who earlier addressed the problem of reconciling their competing loyalties as philosophers and Jews. This is the first study to frame Strauss's political philosophy around his critique of liberalism and the problem of exile. Sheppard follows Strauss from Europe to the United States, a journey of a conservative Weimar Jew struggling with modern liberalism and the existential and political contours of exile. Strauss sought to resolve the conflicts of a Jew unwilling to surrender loyalty to his ancestral community and equally unwilling to adhere to the strictures of orthodox observance. Strauss saw truth and wisdom as transcending particular religious and national communities, as well as the modern enlightened humanism in which he himself had been nurtured. In his efforts to navigate between the Jewish and the philosophical, the ancient and the modern, Berlin and New York, Strauss developed a distinctively programmatic way of reading and writing "between the lines." Sheppard recaptures the complexity and intrigue of this project which has been ignored by those who both reject and claim Strauss's legacy.