POLITICS AND THE SOCIAL SCIENCES

by Seymour Lipset ‧ RELEASE DATE: Oct. 23, 1969

Most of these ten essays touch upon Lipset's own important work on the social-bases of political behavior. There are respectable contributions (Greenstein on ""personality and politics,"" for one), but the aggregate impression is somewhat sterile. The dangers of grafting political studies onto an inadequate sociology is recurrently discussed. The end of crude ""behavioralism"" is frequently alluded to, while questions of data analysis, models and statistical work are-prominent. One reason for the book's dullness is probably a lack of application to distinct questions . . . but then the anthropology contribution is quite specific and quite dull. The book's pedagogical value seems limited not only by its low accessibility but by its composition. Lindenfeld's Reader In Political Sociology (1967), for instance, had a breadth of contributors, a solidity of topics, and a better-organized presentation of methodological issues. This collection seems principally destined for academic specialists.

Pub Date: Oct. 23, 1969

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Oxford

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 1969

Categories: NONFICTION