The Sources of Social Power
The Sources of Social Power
Looking for an inspection copy?
This title is not currently available for inspection.
Replaced by:
9781107635975This 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 & endorsements
' … 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
Product details
February 2011Adobe eBook Reader
9780511826856
0 pages
0kg
9 b/w illus. 11 tables
This ISBN is for an eBook version which is distributed on our behalf by a third party.
Table of Contents
- Preface
- 1. Societies as organized power networks
- 2. The end of general social evolution: how prehistoric peoples evaded power
- 3. The emergence of stratification, states, and multi-power-actor civilisation in Mesopotamia
- 4. A comparative analysis of the emergence of stratification, states, and multi-power-actor civilisations
- 5. The first empires of domination: the dialectics of compulsory cooperation
- 6. 'Indo-Europeans' and iron: expanding, diversified power networks
- 7. Phoenicians and Greeks: decentralized multi-power-actor civilisations
- 8. Revitalized empires of domination: Assyria and Persia
- 9. The Roman territorial empire
- 10. Ideology transcendent: the Christian ecumene
- 11. A comparative excursus into the world religions: Confucianism, Islam, and (especially) Hindu caste
- 12. The European dynamic: I. The intensive phase, A. D. 800–1155
- 13. The European dynamics: II. The rise of coordinating states, 1155–1477
- 14. The European dynamic: III. International capitalism and organic national states, 1477–1760
- 15. European conclusions: explaining European dynamism - capitalism, Christendom, and states
- 16. Patterns of world-historical development in agrarian societies
- Index.
