Making History - Couverture souple

Callinicos, Alex

Couverture souple

ISBN 10 : 0745601804 ISBN 13 : 9780745601809

Editeur : Polity Press, 1989

Synopsis

'Men make history, but . . . they do not make it in the circumstances chosen by themselves' (Marx). Making History is about the question, central to social theory, of how human beings and their 'circumstances' – above all social structures – are related. Drawing on classical Marxism, analytical philosophy, and recent historical writing, it seeks to avoid two unacceptable extremes – that of dissolving human subjects into social structures (for example, post-structuralism), and that of individual action, as many of the new school of 'analytical Marxists' do.

Among those discussed are Althusser, Anderson, Cohen, Elster, Foucault, Giddens and Habermas. Alex Callinicos elaborates his account of social structure and human agency by considering recent developments in historical sociology, notably the work of Brenner and Mann, and by offering an extended commentary on Walter Benjamin's Theses on the Philosophy of History.

Making History will be welcomed by students in social and political theory, sociology, politics and Marxist theory.

A propos du livre

Présentation de l'éditeur

The problem of historical change has come to assume central importance among English-speaking social scientists in the past ten to 15 years. Much attention has been focused on how we relate institutions and institutional change to actions, and how we think of history as the outcome of this process. This book takes a fresh look at both Marxist and non-Marxist positions in this debate, examining in detail the work of Hobsbawm, Thompson, Cohen, Althusser, Giddens and Habermas amongst others. The author argues that both functionalism and methodological individualism, and the various attempts to reconcile these extremes, are untenable. Drawing on classical Marxism, analytical philosophy and recent historical work, he has produced a contribution to the debate, which could affect profoundly its terms in the future. The work is aimed at undergraduates and graduates in social and political theory, sociology, politics and Marxist theory.

Biographie de l'auteur

Alex Callinicos, D.Phil. (1979) in Philosophy, University of Oxford, is Professor of Politics at the University of York (UK). He has written widely about Marxism and social theory. His most recent books are Social Theory (1999), Equality (2000), Against the Third Way (2001) and An Anti-Capitalist Manifesto (2003), all published by Polity.

Détails de l'édition

• Éditeur: Polity Press
• Date d'édition: 1989
• Langue: anglais
• ISBN 10: 0745601804
• ISBN 13: 9780745601809
• Reliure: Broché
• Nombre de pages: 288
• Coordonnées du fabricant: non disponible
• Personne responsable: non disponible