Hans Joas

War and Modernity

Studies in the History of Vilolence in the 20th Century
Übersetzer: Livingstone, Rodney

• Gebundenes Buch

Produktbeschreibung

Written by one of Europe's leading social theorists, this book takes up the claims of modernity and confronts them with a stark reality: the ongoing proliferation of war. How can contemporary social and political thought come to terms with this apparent failure of modernity? Throughout the 20th century the global struggle of ideologies put paid to the dream that wars were somehow the relic of a bygone, unenlightened age. But now in the aftermath of the Cold War era, how are we to account for the persistence of war and state violence? Drawing on a wide range of material, from World War I and Vietnam to the Gulf War and the conflicts in the Balkans, Joas engages with current debates in the sociology and politics of war and develops his own distinctive line of argument concerning the role of warfare in modern societies. He aligns himself with figures such as Giddens and Mann in the attempt to establish a new and non-functionalist theory of social change. This compelling and timely study confronts one of the great paradoxes of our era, and Joas's book is a substantial contribution towards a new historico-sociological perspectiveon the twentieth century. It will be of particular interest to students and scholars of sociology and politics, and will appeal to anyone who has puzzled over the persistence of modern war, and the limits of enlightenment as an historical force.

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Produktdetails

• Verlag: Polity Press
• Seitenzahl: 256
• Erscheinungstermin: 27. Januar 2003
• Englisch
• Abmessung: 236mm x 173mm x 23mm
• Gewicht: 494g
• ISBN-13: 9780745626444
• ISBN-10: 0745626440
• Artikelnr.: 21089840

Autorenporträt

Director of the Max Weber Centre for Advanced Cultural and Social Studies, University of Erfurt, and Professor of Sociology and Social Thought at the University of Chicago.

Inhaltsangabe

Preface vii
Introduction: Wars and Values 1
Part I The Modernity of War 27
1 The Dream of a Modernity without Violence 29
2 The Modernity of War: Modernization Theory and the Problem of Violence 43
3 Ideologies of War: The First World War as Reflected in the Contemporary
Social Sciences 55
Part II After War 83
4 After the War: Democracy and Anti-Communism in Berlin after 1945 85
5 After the Cold War: The Collapse of the German Democratic Republic (with
Martin Kohli) 95
6 Sprayed and Betrayed: The Experience of Violence in the Vietnam War and
its Consequences 111
Part III War and Violence in Social Theory 123
7 Between Power Politics and Pacifist Utopia: Peace and War in Sociology
Theory 125
8 Is There a Militarist Tradition in Sociology? 141
9 Sociology after Auschwitz: Zygmunt Bauman's Work and the Problems of
German Self-Understanding 163
10 War the Risk Society? 180
11 War the Teacher? 180
12 Action Theory and the Dynamics of Violence 187
Notes 197
Bibliography 225
Name Index 242
Subject Index 246