A secondary source primer that simply, but fairly, reworks previous analyses and critiques.
An Eastern writer describes, analyzes and critiques Western sociologists, thinkers and philosophers from the past and present.
Mohan’s book provides an overview of ideas, beliefs, concepts and theories from some of the most prominent sociological thinkers of the Western world. The summaries of each thinker’s ideas are presented clearly enough, but sometimes the coverage is uneven. The author is unabashed when stating Marx’s prominent place in such texts and offers Marx much more coverage than Durkheim, Comte, Weber and Parsons. Relative contemporaries, such as Mills and Goffman, are given even less attention. It is apparent that theorists such as Freud and Jung are covered less since their realm is more psychological, but the disproportionate coverage of the sociologists seems arbitrary. But considering the number of thinkers covered, this variation of coverage becomes acceptable. The descriptions of thought are often followed by Mohan’s evaluation of that thought, but the evaluations are not significantly distinguished from the descriptions, which makes it occasionally hard to differentiate between strict interpretation of a specific sociologist and Mohan’s impressions of that sociologist. The reader might also be at a loss to determine the context and validity of any such evaluation since the author doesn’t seem to be formally trained in sociology (cited references and notes are from secondary sources and not the sociologists’ original works). The text is occasionally punctuated by some quirky, if not odd, comments, such as Parsons not being able to make it to heaven. This quirkiness, however, is not necessarily a drawback. The many cartoons and caricatures throughout the book underscore the author’s intellectual but wry approach. The suggested audience of reviewers of sociological thought or philosophy is fair enough, especially for those more interested in abstract writing. Mohan often offers concrete examples for such abstractions, but the text’s intention is not modern-day empiricism. Discussion of recent research is not included, so readers interested in this aspect might be better served with various academic texts.
A secondary source primer that simply, but fairly, reworks previous analyses and critiques.Pub Date: Dec. 5, 2007
ISBN: 978-1419683244
Page Count: 284
Publisher: CreateSpace
Review Posted Online: Dec. 13, 2011
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
For Howard Zinn, long-time civil rights and anti-war activist, history and ideology have a lot in common. Since he thinks that everything is in someone's interest, the historian—Zinn posits—has to figure out whose interests he or she is defining/defending/reconstructing (hence one of his previous books, The Politics of History). Zinn has no doubts about where he stands in this "people's history": "it is a history disrespectful of governments and respectful of people's movements of resistance." So what we get here, instead of the usual survey of wars, presidents, and institutions, is a survey of the usual rebellions, strikes, and protest movements. Zinn starts out by depicting the arrival of Columbus in North America from the standpoint of the Indians (which amounts to their standpoint as constructed from the observations of the Europeans); and, after easily establishing the cultural disharmony that ensued, he goes on to the importation of slaves into the colonies. Add the laborers and indentured servants that followed, plus women and later immigrants, and you have Zinn's amorphous constituency. To hear Zinn tell it, all anyone did in America at any time was to oppress or be oppressed; and so he obscures as much as his hated mainstream historical foes do—only in Zinn's case there is that absurd presumption that virtually everything that came to pass was the work of ruling-class planning: this amounts to one great indictment for conspiracy. Despite surface similarities, this is not a social history, since we get no sense of the fabric of life. Instead of negating the one-sided histories he detests, Zinn has merely reversed the image; the distortion remains.
Pub Date: Jan. 1, 1979
ISBN: 0061965588
Page Count: 772
Publisher: Harper & Row
Review Posted Online: May 26, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 1979
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
The value of this book is the context it provides, in a style aimed at a concerned citizenry rather than fellow academics,...
A provocative analysis of the parallels between Donald Trump’s ascent and the fall of other democracies.
Following the last presidential election, Levitsky (Transforming Labor-Based Parties in Latin America, 2003, etc.) and Ziblatt (Conservative Parties and the Birth of Democracy, 2017, etc.), both professors of government at Harvard, wrote an op-ed column titled, “Is Donald Trump a Threat to Democracy?” The answer here is a resounding yes, though, as in that column, the authors underscore their belief that the crisis extends well beyond the power won by an outsider whom they consider a demagogue and a liar. “Donald Trump may have accelerated the process, but he didn’t cause it,” they write of the politics-as-warfare mentality. “The weakening of our democratic norms is rooted in extreme partisan polarization—one that extends beyond policy differences into an existential conflict over race and culture.” The authors fault the Republican establishment for failing to stand up to Trump, even if that meant electing his opponent, and they seem almost wistfully nostalgic for the days when power brokers in smoke-filled rooms kept candidacies restricted to a club whose members knew how to play by the rules. Those supporting the candidacy of Bernie Sanders might take as much issue with their prescriptions as Trump followers will. However, the comparisons they draw to how democratic populism paved the way toward tyranny in Peru, Venezuela, Chile, and elsewhere are chilling. Among the warning signs they highlight are the Republican Senate’s refusal to consider Barack Obama’s Supreme Court nominee as well as Trump’s demonization of political opponents, minorities, and the media. As disturbing as they find the dismantling of Democratic safeguards, Levitsky and Ziblatt suggest that “a broad opposition coalition would have important benefits,” though such a coalition would strike some as a move to the center, a return to politics as usual, and even a pragmatic betrayal of principles.
The value of this book is the context it provides, in a style aimed at a concerned citizenry rather than fellow academics, rather than in the consensus it is not likely to build.Pub Date: Jan. 16, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-5247-6293-3
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Crown
Review Posted Online: Nov. 12, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2017
BOOK REVIEW
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