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  1. Home
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  3. The Sources of Social Power
  • Cited by 1636
  • Volume 1: A History of Power from the Beginning to AD 1760
  • Michael Mann, London School of Economics and Political Science
Publisher:
Cambridge University Press
Online publication date:
December 2009
Print publication year:
1986
Online ISBN:
9780511570896
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511570896
Subjects:
Social Theory, Regional and World History: General Interest, History, Sociology
Information

Book description

This is the first part of a three-volume work on the nature of power in human societies. In it, Michael Mann identifies the four principal 'sources' of power as being control over economic, ideological, military, and political resources. He examines the interrelations between these in a narrative history of power from Neolithic times, through ancient Near Eastern civilisations, the classical Mediterranean age, and medieval Europe, up to just before the Industrial Revolution in England. Rejecting the conventional monolithic concept of a 'society', Dr. Mann's model is instead one of a series of overlapping, intersecting power networks. He makes this model operational by focusing on the logistics of power - how the flow of information, manpower, and goods is controlled over social and geographical space-thereby clarifying many of the 'great debates' in sociological theory. The present volume offers explanations of the emergence of the state and social stratification.

Reviews

‘ … an impressively learned, wise and judicious study. It is a major work - perhaps a great work - and will be a landmark, for sure.’

William H. McNeill - University of Chicago

‘ … a very considerable accomplishment. There is no doubt in my mind that the book is an important contribution to comparative sociology.’

Anthony Giddens - King’s College, Cambridge

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