Book Description
In this groundbreaking book, the renowned theoretical physicist Lee Smolin argues that physics—the basis for all other science—has lost its way. The problem is string theory, an ambitious attempt to formulate "a theory of everything" that explains all the forces and particles of nature and how the universe came to be. With its exotic new particles and parallel universes, string theory has captured the public"s imagination and seduced many physicists. But as Smolin reveals, there"s a deep flaw in the theory: no part of it has been proven, and no one knows how to prove it. As a scientific theory, it has been a colossal failure. And because it has soaked up the lion's share of funding, attracted some of the best minds, and penalized young physicists for pursuing other avenues, it is dragging the rest of physics down with it. With clarity, passion, and authority, Smolin charts the rise and fall of string theory and takes a fascinating look at what will replace it. A group of young theorists has begun to develop exciting new ideas that are, unlike string theory, testable. Smolin tells us who and what to watch for in the coming years and how we can find the next Einstein. This is a wake-up call, and Lee Smolin—a former string theorist himself— is the perfect person to deliver it.
Customer Reviews:
physics from many angles.......2007-10-05
This book provided several discussions pf physics and quantum theory. its good because the author speaks of the history the the originators of physics theory and the current champions of thought.
A mixed bag.......2007-10-04
At the moment, string theory appears to have many (possibly an infinite number) of "metastable vacua", each of which would allow for a universe with its own laws of physics. (For a brief, comic, yet essentially correct summary of the history of this idea, see Peter Shor's review here. For those who don't know, Shor is a celebrated quantum-information theorist.) According to the (far from established) inflationary model of cosmology, there is a vast collection of universes (the "multiverse") with diverse laws of physics. Which universe we find ourselves in is a matter of random selection, but of course we must be in a "biofriendly" universe, one whose laws of physics allow for the appearance of intelligent life.
The core argument of this book is presented on page 164-165 (US hardcover edition), where Smolin writes, "when it comes to the biofriendliness of our universe, we have at least three possibilities:
"1. Ours is one of a vast collection of universes with random laws.
"2. There was an intelligent designer.
"3. There is a so-far-unknown mechanism that will both explain the biofriendliness of our universe and make testable predictions by which it can be confirmed or falsified.
"Given that the first two possibilities are untestable in principle, it is most rational to hold out for the third possibility. Indeed, that is the only possibility we should consider as scientists, because accepting either of the first two would mean the end of our field."
I find this to be an astonishing argument. First of all, I don't know what "most rational" is supposed to mean. More importantly, to reject a scientific hypothesis for purely personal reasons (it "would mean the end of our field") is at best novel, and at worst absurd.
Very few string theorists are happy that #1 seems, at this point, to be the most likely outcome of string theory, and many hope that #3 will somehow eventually emerge. But to throw out the whole framework, simply because we don't like the result, cannot be said to be a scientific attitude.
One thing you won't learn in this book (unless you read it very carefully, and between the lines) is that the other approaches to quantum gravity advocated by Smolin have not come any closer to predicting specific experimental results than string theory has. Smolin talks about possible violations of special relativity, but these are not (as he admits on page 237) a definite prediction of loop quantum gravity. He has said (again, on Woit's blog) that any quantum field theory in any number of dimensions is compatible with loop quantum gravity. If true, this would make loop quantum gravity even less capable than string theory of picking out our particular laws of physics.
Smolin also discusses issues of sociology in physics. On page 335-336, he asserts that the all the truly negative characterizations of job candidates that he has ever heard have had a component of racism and/or sexism. I am on the faculty of the physics department of a research university, and I can only say that my experience has been entirely different. I have simply never heard a racist or sexist denigration of one scientist by another, nor have I ever felt that anyone was being evaluated by criteria other than merit. I think that there are definitely issues of culture and how we can construct scientific communities that have broader appeal, and that there are physicists who are not as sensitive to these issues as they might be, but I cannot accept Smolin's claim that the relatively small percentage of women and blacks in physics is due to "blatant prejudice".
Finally, Smolin discusses the issues of "seers" vs "craftspeople" in science, and argues that we should be supporting more "seers". Among the existing seers, he lists some (such as Roger Penrose and Gerard 't Hooft) who made their reputations primarily as craftspeople ('t Hooft received the Nobel Prize for his work on the renormalization of gauge theories, and Penrose did celebrated work on the singularity theorems of general relativity). Their record as seers has been less successful; none of their recent ideas on modifications of quantum mechanics have panned out as yet. Smolin laments the fact that more attention is not paid to these forays into alternatives to quantum mechanics. But 't Hooft and Penrose do not agree on what modifications are needed. Other seers identified by Smolin propose violations of special relativity, rather than (or in addition to) violations of quantum mechanics. Perhaps this is all deep thought, but there is little to decide, at this point, which if any of these avenues should be pursued. Most physicists have therefore sensibly adopted a "wait and see" attitude.
Even if we accept Smolin's argument that we need new seers, how are we to find them? Smolin writes (page 353) that in order to discover "the visionaries who ignore the mainstream and follow their own ambitious programs", we should "find at least one accomplished person in the candidate's field who is deeply excited about what the candidate is trying to do". So, the candidate's program had better not be *too* far off the mainstream; there has to be at least one "accomplished person" who is "deeply excited" about it. But if one deeply excited professional is good, wouldn't more be better? Wouldn't that up the odds that the program was, indeed, worthwhile? Oh wait, that would be just what we have now ... a system where there is constant debate, emergent consensus on the most promising approaches, and distribution of research funds primarily (but by no means exclusively!) to those approaches that appear, in the consensus view, to be most promising. To paraphrase Winston Churchill on democracy, this system for distributing funds for science may be the worst ever devised, except for all the others.
So, should you buy the book? I feel that it gives a distorted picture, by emphasizing the weak points of string theory while ignoring the (many more, in my view) weak points of the alternatives. It seems to me that the essence of the book's argument against string theory is captured by the excerpts above, and by Shor's review. Then there is a lot of discussion of groupthink in scientific culture. For me, it doesn't add up to an appealing package, but your mileage may vary.
The Endless Quest Continues .......2007-10-04
I like Lee Smolin and this is a good exposition of the current quandary in Physics. When the mathematicians "hijacked" physics in the 1920's, they created ever-so elegant formulas and abstraction upon abstraction upon abstraction. "Just give me a formula!" was their mantra, and what it all really "means" was not their concern. This is the essence of Bohr's position (no pun intended), and Einstein was not able to answer, even though he knew something was missing.
String theory has many intriguing ideas, and it's supporters should not be easily dismissed. Again and again, we come back to the basic question...particle or wave? Wavicle? Partiwave? String?
Outstanding piece of writing, A must-read for any science enthusiast........2007-09-22
I found this book to be superbly written and full of fascinating insights. I really loved reading it. Many of the longer reviews here do a great job of reviewing the content of the book, so I'll stick to offering my opinion.
I will no doubt read this book again in the future as much of the content was way over my head. However, as with any great book on any subject, this did not prevent me from thoroughly enjoying it and learning a lot. What makes it so great is that each time I read it I will learn more.
I want to thank Lee Smolin for putting the current state of his field in some perspective. I highly, highly recommend this book!
There is hope.......2007-08-30
What can I say? Like Lee Smolin, I too am a recovering mathematician, and this book helped me out the trap. I love mathematics and majored in it at university, but soon fell prey to the seductive sense of omnipotence comes with thinking that one can manipulate reality with equations. I give this book my highest recommendation, especially for those who have become demotivated by the crisis in science. One condition though - don't read it in isolation. Essential companions are Peter Woit's "Not Even Wrong", and my own book "The Virtue of Heresy - Confessions of a Dissident Astronomer". The Virtue of Heresy: Confessions of a Dissident Astronomer
Hilton Ratcliffe
Astrophysicist
Book Description
This book details the battle one must fight to be an independent thinker, showing how an honest reassessment of what it means to be a professional in today's corporate society can be remarkably liberating. Poignant examples from the world of work reveal the workplace as a battleground for the very identity of the individual. Schmidt contends that professional work is inherently political--that the unstated duty of professionals is to maintain strict ideological discipline. Career dissatisfaction evolves as workers lose control over the political component of their creative work.
Customer Reviews:
Very Important Book.......2007-08-03
Disciplined Minds is one of the most important books I have read in quite some time. Conceptually the author captures the great deal of frustration and dissatisfaction of practically every person I know in a professional work environment or in graduate school. It has its flaws, the major one being that while the book gives a framework for dealing with the system of graduate school, its much more difficult to apply it in the corporate system, where your colleagues are much more terrified. Regardless, I would recommend anyone in a graduate or professional program or in the professional work environment to read the book.
Maybe for professors but I'm not sure even for them.......2006-10-24
For me to recommend a book, it has to be right, applicable, and fun to read. This book falls short on all three. Mostly on applicability: it speaks against the dangers of mind-numbing bureaucracy and close-mindedness, claiming American university physics PhD programs as the example. I had hoped for something that talked about the salaried professional once s/he's at work, not the university experience preceding it. If you want to review the worst of academic bureaucracy in order to know how to recognize and deal with it, then read this book. Otherwise skip it and just stay alert for those times when "the system" tries to put one over on you.
Operant conditioning for groupthink........2003-12-05
I found this work fascinating, though my take is different. Observing the Darwin debate over time as a secular critic I was always struck by the way the Intelligent Design movement (which I don't agree with)was able to simply skewer the standard scientific position, even despite their own confusions, as all the bigwigs in science and education were reduced to reiterated press release stuff from the kneejerk Darwin paradigm. How was it possible, I thought, that the entire cadre of scientific experts could not properly defend their own subject or see the clear problems pointed to?
The answer became clear in interactions with some grad students, nervously retreating in genuine fear, knowing full well they had to bite the bullet and lie.
Baffled, since I know little about the academic context, I found this book hit the spot very well in showing how that could be possible.
Very interesting book, although I think some of the examples the author gives don't quite match his very well laid out thesis at the beginning. That's not surprising, his thesis is very intangible, and it is sometimes hard to put one's finger on the actual way it happens.
Preaching to the disaffected.......2003-05-30
Jeff Schmidt's thesis is that professionals are needed by
business and are formed by education. Those who don't fit
in are discarded, not necessarily because they aren't smart
enough, but because they're not conservative enough. Liberal,
independent thinkers are weeded out. Professionals
have to be political, and since the rules are made by
the bosses, they aren't in control and hence lead generally
miserable lives.
The process of making professionals is an "intellectual
bootcamp" with "cold-blooded expulsions and creeping
indoctrination" that "systematically grinds down the student's
spirit" and ultimately produces "employees who do their
assigned work without questioning its goals."
Only the stuffy and conservative professionals can
accommodate, as poorly as they do, to the hierarchical
structure of the business-military complex.
Schmidt got a PhD in physics at UC Irvine, and he draws
examples and conclusions from the weeding out experience
there; in particular, the qualifying exam. This is an
"ordeal" that requires much preparation. Schmidt says that
students who do not submit to the requirement to memorize
solutions from previous exams do poorly, even if they
have a good general background. This is because trick
questions and time pressure only allow students to
regurgitate obscure things they remember. Also, faculty
will sometimes pass a student who fails the test if
that student is playing the game, demonstrating compliance
by submitting to demands of the faculty, and working hard
on a research project.
Schmidt's underlying complaint is that students are selected
to "fill a slot in the corporate-governmental complex -- so
well suited to serve the status quo in an institution
of the status quo", not "to work for social change."
Unfortunately, Schmidt's examples and his general position
are so extreme that most people who have gone through
graduate school in technical fields of science or
engineering will simply respond "That's not my experience,
nor is it the experience of anyone I knew in the PhD
program." Contrary to Schmidt's examples of selfish,
preening, secretive, ego-obscessed professors, most faculty
members in physics departments are generous, open,
inquisitive people, who are deeply interested in their
science and care about their students. Ultimately, the
book becomes boring in its repetition of the theme.
As social science, it relies on a small selection of anecdotes
and fails the test of credibility.
A must read for all students.......2003-01-11
It took me three days to read this book. I could not put it down...I took it with me everywhere and have told everyone I know about it. The level of insight into the motivations of professional training schools is right on the mark. I am currently a graduate student as well as an employee at a major university. I can see first hand the professionalization (read indoctrination) of the graduate student. I can also see with more insight the dynamics that go on in an academic office. I now understand why those in charge of forwarding the ideology of the office are not micromanaged, and those not trusted to forward the accurate ideology are micromanaged. Dr. Schmidt also does an excellent job in describing the role industry and the military has in professional training programs. A professional schools is seen as an extention of the profession, not an extention of the educational institution in which it is housed. There are tremendous forces pushing and pulling on professional training programs to produce the "right" kind of student. Unfortunately the force that wins out is the one with the money...private industry and the military. Students have to be aware that their very futures can be determined by what kind of funding a department receives.
He is right to say that if one does not remain connected to one's values and convictions, one can succumb to the whims of those in power. After depressing you with his accurate interpretation of the role professional schools play in society, he gives instructions on how to fight the indoctrination process.
I'm buying extra copies and giving them away as graduation gifts. A MUST READ for anyone who wants to survive professional school with their conscience intact.
Book Description
Your guide to a higher score on the Praxis II®: Social Studies Content Knowledge Test (0081)
Why CliffsTestPrep Guides?
Go with the name you know and trust
Get the information you need—fast!
Written by test-prep specialists
About the contents:
Introduction
- Overview of the exam
- How to use this book
- Proven study strategies and test-taking tips
- Tactics for answering multiple-choice questions, plus practice examples with answers and explanations
Part I: Subject Review
- Focused review of all exam topics: world history, United States history, government/political science/civics, geography, economics, and the behavioral science fields of sociology, anthropology, and psychology
Part II: 2 Full-Length Practice Examinations
- Like the actual exam, each practice exam includes 130 multiple-choice questions, with sections on each of the 6 categories
- Complete with answers and explanations for all questions
Test-Prep Essentials from the Experts at CliffsNotes®
Customer Reviews:
Virtually useless.......2007-09-20
This book was pretty much worthless in preparing for the exam. The actual exam was much harder than the practice versions in the book, which almost always had at least one "ridiculous" choice that you could eliminate easily. Not so on the real test. And the content review is kind of laughable. If you're not conversant with the content, you're not going to get there by reading a few bullet points about history or economics. I don't know if there are any viable alternatives, but I would steer clear of this one.
Not Helpful.......2007-08-28
This study guide is not very useful for the Praxis II exam. The book is not organized like the exam what so ever. I would stick with purchasing the Praxis guide books or Kaplan, insist of this one.
Not bad, but I wish I had chosen a different test prep book.......2007-07-14
I chose Chiffs TestPrep because I like the English TestPrep book so much, but I did not like this one nearly as well. I found the content review to be a bit "skimpy", e.g. they would mention many events assuming you would know what they were. I found I was going to other resources to expand on much of the information in the book. I recognize there is a lot of material to cover, but it might have been nice to have more detail in the content review. My chief complaint is the answer section. Many of the answers are explained by telling you to use the process of elimination to come to the right answer--but they usually don't say WHY to eliminate some answers or detail why the right answer was right other than to say the others were wrong.
I haven't taken this Praxis exam yet, but I guess it was good enough for me not to feel I need to buy another exam review book before I sit for the exam...but I wish I had looked at other options before I bought this book.
Decent review - for people who don't have much time to prepare.......2007-06-14
This book was a decent purchase. I waited until the week before (more like couple of days before) to review anything for this test. It provided a pretty basic review that was substantial to my test. It reviewed the basic materials covered in the test. A couple of questions on the actual test were actually covered directly in the prep book. Most of the other questions on the test could be answered from inference on the review materials in this book. This test was not easy, but it was not impossible. The 0081 test is very extensive. It covers a lot of material and a lot of different subjects. If you have trouble in a few of the certain subjects focus maily on those specific subjects. Purchase a short review book on the specific subject material that you think you will have the most trouble with. If you only need to review certain subjects, this book is very helpful. My input is: Use this book for basic review, and purchase other subject specific books for the areas you will struggle in.
Terrable Study guide.......2007-06-11
i used this bookt o study for teh Praxis 2 social studies content knowledge. none of the questiosn on teh text came from this book. In fcat this book really did not cover anything that was asked on the actual test. Save yoruself some money and time and dont buy this book. It was a waist of time and engery on my part to use this book as a study guide.
Book Description
With a new preface by the author, this reissue of Thomas Sowell's classic study of decision making updates his seminal work in the context of The Vision of the Anointed. Sowell, one of America's most celebrated public intellectuals, describes in concrete detail how knowledge is shared and disseminated throughout modern society. He warns that society suffers from an ever-widening gap between firsthand knowledge and decision making -- a gap that threatens our very freedom because actual knowledge gets replaced by assumptions based on an abstract and elitist social vision of what ought to be.
Knowledge and Decisions, a winner of the 1980 Law and Economics Center Prize, was heralded as a "landmark work" and selected for this prize "because of its cogent contribution to our understanding of the differences between the market process and the process of government." In announcing the award, the center acclaimed Sowell, whose "contribution to our understanding of the process of regulation alone would make the book important, but in reemphasizing the diversity and efficiency that the market makes possible, [his] work goes deeper and becomes even more significant." "In a wholly original manner [Sowell] succeeds in translating abstract and theoretical argument into a highly concrete and realistic discussion of the central problems of contemporary economic policy." --F. A. Hayek "This is a brilliant book. Sowell illuminates how every society operates. In the process he also shows how the performance of our own society can be improved." --Milton Friedman
Customer Reviews:
Pseudo-academic polemics.......2007-09-30
I can't fault a book for having an opinion. I can fault it for disguising a dogmatic political agenda as serious intellectual analysis. Some people may be deceived because the tone is so boring, they may think the discussion is dry, dispassionate and sincere. The major premise of the book, that knowledge has a cost, is uncontroversial. Sowell then elaborates his opinions, but the connection to the theme is frequently tenuous and seldom considers counterarguments (unless Sowell has a counter-counterargument neatly prepared.)
He does have a justification for every viewpoint, but many arguments are weak. On the whole, it reads as a compilation of his opinions, supporting the Republicans at every turn, without regard to his supposed premises.
If you're interested in an 800 page debate handbook rambling over every subject, (say you're Rush Limbaugh or are running for Congress), this book provides intelligent-sounding arguments. To anybody else, it shows the value of paid ideologues to trick the masses into thinking that the elite know something. They don't want you to slog through this intimidatingly tedious book, just to believe in it. There's no need.
Impressed by honest conservatism.......2006-07-14
In this day of spurious conservatives seeking political power by any means, Sowell's conservatism deserves attention. If you are ready to be challenged, read it!
Anointed.......2004-08-01
Dr. Sowell offers a very readable argument for the proposition that people should make political choices on the basis of what is actually good for them, and not on the basis of what their self-appointed "betters" think that they ought to want. Required reading for anyone whose political feet are not already set in concrete. Love it or hate it, it will force you to think. (Your brain is more important than your abs.)
This book is excellent, but must be read VERY carefully........2002-01-22
I have read about 12 of Thomas Sowell's books now, give or take. They do tend to be over-wrought with detail, but in this case it may be that he really did need as many pages as he used to say what he did and could have used more by filling in specific examples.
Kudos to Sowell for using the very accurate idea of *social behavior* as a basis for explaining intergroup difference (rather than something so tenuous as IQ), and the separation of the actions of specific agencies from "society." Most writers do not bother to clearly delimit their operational terms and working notions. Also particularly clever was his observation of how institutions work as a matter of *self-interest* and create problems because it is in their best interest to have these problems.
The book must be read LINE by LINE. When he uses some of his very abstract statements to characterize a social process it is often NOT filled in with details. A theme that appears in many of his books is: "If it has happened once, it will happen again independent of settings." While you go through and read some of his statments, you will have to think back through your experiences of life and see if you have seen the same situation. And THAT is what makes this book take such a long time to read--expect it to take a month if read properly.
The index is excellent and I found it particularly useful for referencing subjects like black IQ research and things like that. Well researched if nothing else, and it goes a LONG way in explaining current situations by extrapolations of things in the book itself.
Perhaps it could have been made just a bit easier to read. Again: this is NOT light reading, and while it is chock full of information, it is WAY over the heads of most people.
This book is *required reading* for young black Americans. If paid careful attention to, it will do great things to break some of the bad habits that have infected us for a long time now. Really, it is a good book for any people who are looking for concrete reasons for group differences. And maybe in the case of the readers who would be the greatest beneficiaries of it (black Americans, from my view), it would undo some of the damage caused to young Blacks by Black Studies departments across the nations.
Feel free to email me with any questions/ comments.
Knowledge can be costly..........2001-06-19
This is indeed one of Sowell's tomes. Knowledge costs are different for different people. Some knowledge is extremely costly to acquire in both time and money. Articulation may not be an expression of knowledge, but a talent for using words; however, some incorrectly think that if someone has good articulation, then he must know what he is speaking of.
Sometimes the most important decision to be made is WHO is to make a decision. The further away from the knowledge on which the decision must be based the "decider" is, the less informaiton he has and he is more likely to make an incorrect decision. This explains the folly of most regulation: generally speaking, regulators cannot know what it is they are regulating. Shocking as this might be, but it takes sometimes years - maybe decades - for one person to gain knowledge in some areas of patient treatment, but yet people in the FDA regulate the medical industry anyway with the total impossibility of them ever knowing even a fraction of a percentage of what they are regulating! Of course, this is not unique to the medical field, but applies to all fields - regulators are too far away from the correct KNOWLEDGE to make some types of decisions. This fact of knowledge is inescapable, permanent, and nobody can change it.
Sowell also shows the effects of insurgent movements on social policy and how the movements still exist long after they have outlived their usefulness - beyond their point of diminishing returns. He also shows how the courts really screwed up the judicial system by crusading for social causes instead of interpreting the constitution. In the quest for "solving" problems, many social insurgent groups forget that some problems will never be solved and we just have to live with the necessary trade-offs such situations present to us - some of these groups forget that their "solutions" create other problems that they did not forsee. They forgot that life's problems is weighing trade-offs and some "solutions" replace one problem with another.
The theme, for the most part, is coming to terms with a fact of life: we must decide what trade-offs we want to live with. We cannot perfectly manage all of the information out there, and some of the information is too costly to get for some people. We must balance what we know against the chances of what we do not know. Much is left to chance and that is life.
Book Description
This book reformulates the sociological subdiscipline known as the sociology of knowledge. Knowledge is presented as more than ideology, including as well false consciousness, propaganda, science and art.
Customer Reviews:
Social Construction: a concept who's time has come.......2007-03-29
The book establishes the concept, practice and impacts of social construction theory: a theory of human interaction, relating, and community building. We are beginning to understand that rational choice theory is limited, its bounded not only by the idea that individual human thought is restricted and not omniscient, but further restricted by a retro-evolutionist position that although seemingly "natural" posits mankind in an animal survival mentality. Not untrue, but not the whole story. The whole story is one of trans-rationality in which evolution unites perception and conception of reality into what may, in fact, be omniscient. The bounds of our "bounded rationality" may be boundless established only by our imagination and practical application of social collaboration most effectively operationalized as language: we language our world. We say it is so, and then work to construct the potential of the utterance. If nothing else, it takes the victimization out of survival and ushers in a new definition of adult human potential and also redefines the practicality of accountability.
Makes you think, not decipher.......2007-03-12
A very thought-provoking book. It really challenges you, but in a friendly way. The writing is crystal clear, warm and often witty. No need to "crack the code" of terminology: you get straight at the ideas. THAT is where the challenge is.
Berger and Luckmann have crafted a fascinating argument, drawing on earlier sociological classics (Weber and Durkheim in particular) but also incorporating key insights and concerns from phenomenology, exitentialism, and pragmatism. So there's a pedigree. But you don't need to be confident about or even familiar with Berger and Luckmann's predecessors to understand and appreciate this work. It stands alone as a classic in its own right.
In fact, I appreciate the earlier works more AFTER having read the Social Construction of Reality. That's probably because Berger and Luckmann are so skilled and generous in explaining the best of what other theorists have to offer.
Contemporary pragmatism anticipated.......2006-12-24
This book published in 1966 is still good reading forty years later. The authors express indebtedness to Durkheim and Weber, and they are incurable Romantics in their philosophy of science like Parsons, who was also influenced by Durkheim and Weber. Berger's Romanticism is manifest in his Invitation to Sociology: A Humanistic Perspective. And in this book the authors also describe sociology of knowledge as "humanistic" as opposed to scientific. American academic sociology has yet to outgrow this anachronistic philosophy of science.
The idea that consideration of the social origins of knowledge is relevant to judgments of validity is common to both Karl Mannheim and the Frankfurt School. To validity Berger and Luckmann add ontology. Thus this book is interesting as an anticipation of many central aspects of the contemporary pragmatist philosophy of language and of science, during the years that contemporary pragmatism was still in its formative period with the pioneering writings of such as Quine, Hanson and Feyerabend.
The authors say in the "Introduction" that their basic thesis is that reality is socially constructed, and that the sociology of knowledge must analyze the processes in which this construction occurs (p. 1). The constructional process consists in the social processes of institutionalization and the creation of language that "legitimizes" the institutionalized behavior patterns.
The most relevant thesis of contemporary pragmatism that is basic to their thesis is the doctrine that Quine calls "ontological relativity." This is the thesis that the real is characterized by the semantics of terms defined relativistically in the system of sentences believed to be true, or what Quine calls the "web of beliefs."
The authors say that the edifice of legitimization is built upon language and uses language as its instrumentality (p. 60). They distinguish four levels of legitimization (p. 87-89). The most fundamental level is the "incipient" level that builds legitimating explanations and justifications into the meanings of the vocabulary. The other levels are the theoretical level, the level consisting of a body of knowledge, and the supreme level that integrates all experience into a "symbolic universe" and integrates the whole institutional order of the society.
They elaborate that legitimization maintains the reality of the socially constructed universe in two ways: therapy and annihilation. Since reality is socially defined, giving deviate reality constructions a "negative ontological status" can annihilate them. And the authors add that to understand the state of the socially constructed universe at any given time or its change over time, one must understand the social organization that permits the definers to do their defining.
Google my book titled History of Twentieth-Century Philosophy of Science at my web site philsci with free downloads.
Thomas J. Hickey, Econometrician
Social Construction of Reality.......2006-07-10
This critical work is a cornerstone in the study of being human. Recommended for anyone interested in sociology, psychology, philosophy, or human communication. Easy to read, easy to understand. This work is often cited in scholarly literature. It is so profound, it's almost a religious experience.
A Must Read.......2006-06-10
The Social Construction of Reality (1967)
Peter Berger and Thomas Luckmann
The Social Construction of Reality is a canonical text in the symbolic interactionist paradigm and a must read for any sociologist, especially those interested in identity construction, socialization, and social power. The basis of the text concerns the sociology of knowledge; a tradition which can be traced to nineteenth century Germany philosophy. That said, Berger and Luckmann contribute to the existent scholarship concerning the sociology of knowledge by explicating with unmatched precision and detail the ways in which knowledge is socially constituted and how knowledge and the resultant social institutions (based from such knowledge) create an `objective reality,' thus enabling a `reality' (e.g. institutional order) to exist independently of our subjectivity.
Berger and Luckmann define `reality' as a `phenomena that we recognize as having a being independent of our own volition' (page 13). The crux of their text (the various tenets of which won't be duplicated here) rest on the empirical assertion that human existence operates in a particular context of direction, order, and stability. Interaction (one facet of this order) then is confined to the ordering of constructed social reality; the ontology of which, Berger and Luckman argue is empirically knowable, however they contend is part of the future writing on the subject as this is not the focus of their theoretical premise.
Berger and Luckmann argue, among other things, that the structure of everyday life is indeed ordered maintained through a symbolically constituted language system which they contend originates in everyday life through face-to-face interactions with significant others (e.g. primary socialization) and other members of society (e.g. secondary socialization). Language in this instance is capable of, ``making present' a variety of objects that are spatially, temporally, and socially absent from the `here and now,'' the embodiment of which concerns definitions (sometimes competing ones) that collectively serve as definers of social reality (page 54).
The primary focus of this text concerns teasing out what exactly constitutes the `reality of everyday life' specifically spotlighting the ways in which it is socially constructed and how knowledge (e.g., `common sense,'norms, values, etc., the totality of which is contained under the auspices of what they dub the `typification of habitualization') of human existence then guides conduct associated with particular routines and processes associated with everyday life; thus allowing for the reification of an existent albeit human created reality.
This text is a very interesting and at times challenging read and is highly recommended to the budding (or if missed), seasoned sociologist.
SUGGESTIONS FOR FURTHER READING
Blumer, Herbert. 1969. Symbolic Interactionism. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall.
Brissett, Dennis and Charles Edgley (eds). 1990. Life as Theater: A Dramaturgical
Source Book. New York, NY: Aldine de Gruyter.
Charon, J.M. 1979. Symbolic Interactionism: An Introduction, An Integration.
Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall.
Cooley, Charles Horton. 1983. "Looking Glass Self." In Human Nature and the Social
Order. New Brunswick, NJ: Transaction Publishers, Pp. 183-185.
Goffman, Erving. 1959. The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life. New York, NY:
Doubleday Press.
Mead, George Herbert. 1934. Mind, Self and Society. Chicago, IL: University of
Chicago Press.
Product Description
The thesis of Webster Tarpley's 911 Synthetic Terror: Made in USA has been enthusiastically received with its working model of the 9/11 plot: a covert network of moles, patsies, and a commando cell in the privatized intelligence services, backed by corrupt political and corporate media elites. Buttressed by historical examples like the Baader-Meinhof Gang and the Gunpowder Plot, this model makes it clear how such a monstrous false-flag or self-terror exploit is possible even under a largely benign government. That paradox is the incredibility gap that has made most Americans reject the evidence about 9/11 as paranoid fantasy. Tarpley brings decades of expertise to the 9/11 issue. In 1978 he exposed the terrorist Red Brigades as patsies of Italy's fascist P2 shadow government, and 9/11 is on the same pattern. The forthright subtitle, Made in USA, is backed up by an analysis of key figures who behave like moles working for the insidious network. 9/11 Synthetic Terror highlights the salient points of sheer physical impossibility of the official 9/11 conspiracy theory. It makes clear that figures like Osama bin Laden are patsies, dupes or double agents, selected for their ethnic coloring as the basis for launching a "Clash of Civilizations," and how absurd it is to imagine that such tools of US intelligence agencies could turn around and infiltrate or overwhelm US defenses unaided. Tarpley shows that the wars on the Islamic world, the Soviet-Afghan, Kosovo and Chechen conflicts, as well as US-UK-NATO synthetic terror incidents like 9/11, Beslan or 3/11 in Madrid, have been contrived to continue the Cold War, in pursuit of the centuries-long campaign for Anglo hegemony over Eurasia and the world. The preface to the second edition explains the significance and superiority of "MIHOP" vs "LIHOP," and the many drills on 9/11 and on 7/7, which were cover and conduit for those false-flag operations. The third edition preface makes clear that 9/11 is the only issue that can stop a new world war and the descent into a police state. It shows up the cowardice of the "left gatekeepers" on this score. The analysis of Moussaoui on trial as a classic weak-minded patsy -- part double agent, part fanatic -- again shows the unique power of Tarpley's mole-patsy model to debunk the lies put out by the war party. For a principled refutation of the 9/11 propaganda myth in all its parts, Tarpley'A bombshell, brilliant book - I strongly recommend 911 Synthetic Terror. Should be required reading for all honest truth seekers, s work is indispensable.
Customer Reviews:
Tour De Force !.......2007-08-05
This book is packed with information which probably means that if you are a beginning truth seeker, you would want to start out with something such as David Ray Griffins books as they are a little easier to read.
Think for yourself, and QUESTION!.......2007-07-09
I heard this guy speak. He gives a moderately entertaining romp through a lot of true information, and more. 95% of what he says is plausible (if questionable). Perhaps 50% of what I heard, I know to be true. But plenty of his stuff is a shotgun blast of information which only SEEMS convincing by its voluminousness, but in fact has no evidence. Take his (and Tex Marrs') claim about "angel is next". This refers to a threat supposedly delivered to Bush by moles in his staff, entailing a threat on air force 1, and nuclear war by compromised launch codes on 9/11. He gives a whole rapt story, with twists and turns and lots of insider details. It's not totally impossible, and could make fine fiction, but has no evidence whatsoever.
There's too much crucial, true, and verifiable information out there to waste your time on this in-depth far-out fantasy garbage. I wouldn't trust this man to give me a weather report.
The search for Truth is one step at a time.......2007-07-09
I love to devour books. I leave my local library with no less than two or three volumes after each visit. Sometimes I wonder if I ever race through literature too quickly. Occasionally a book crops up that can be sifted through within a few hours, depending on its type, although I always try to keep pages of notes on hand if I misplace or forget key facts or points. Webster Tarpley's "9/11 Synthetic Terror: Made in USA" is not one of those books. Quite the contrary, I recommend this book to be studied ponderously, pored over hours at a time, critically dissected and examined, not to mention cross-referenced by numerous other sources, whether they be unauthorized or obscure. Supposedly, we live in the "Information Age", yet the most unverifiable of claims and propositions confuse and sway more efficiently than ever before, and the populace hardly diligently deciphers what is true. Partisan politics, not to mention rigid principles ("liberal" and "conservative") can dampen even the freshest and inquisitive of minds. That kind of reader will not enjoy Tarpley's book.
I personally do not subscribe to any one conspiracy theory, precisely because there are so many, and thus hundreds that follow sweeping conclusions based on the stretching of facts, outright absurdness, and lack of relevant evidence. I, however, cannot outright dismiss the conspiratorial views regarding the tragic day of September 11 because I so often come across pertinent points. The groups propagating such theories ask the correct questions most of the time, whether or not they embrace the correct conclusion. Rather, I believe piecing together the facts from a variety of authors and sources into a sound theoretical framework appears to be the only way to acquire the truth behind the 9/11 attacks that is free from dogma or ideology (although many of these authors and sources do just that).
What the book's author does is exactly this: combing the external facts, the puzzling discrepancies, historical evidences, public testimony, important documents, etc. and constructing each part into a plausible theoretical framework. From what I conducted during other research, I think Tarpley's essential thesis is correct. It is that the U.S. government secretly holds an elite oligarchy, or a "network or faction of like-minded plotters which cuts across the institutions transversally" (pg. 104). They hold influential positions as a hidden government inside the elected one. The group may not populate just the intelligence agencies, the Pentagon, or the White House, but also the privatized public sector, which acts as its center of gravity. The oligarchy deploys a select amount of "moles", which may not be everywhere, but are nonetheless strategically placed to carry out core objectives. The corporate media participates also, complicit with the magicians directing the show. These core objectives numerously appear throughout the course of history, especially the twentieth century, such as the many attempts to assassinate French president Charles de Gaulle and Operation Northwoods, in which planned attacks on key U.S. targets would justify an invasion of Castro's Cuba.
How does this relate to 9/11? Tarpley himself dismisses the official media story as the ultimate conspiracy theory of them all, and unveils these facts:
+ Six of alleged 11 hijackers receive training at U.S. military bases (pg.179)
+ Mohammed Atta: Not a radical Islamist, but a promiscuous playboy and frequent cocaine user hooking up at topless bars and drinking vodka for three hours (pg. 178)
+ Could hijackers fly the planes? Atta and Marwan Al Shehhi had to receive supplemental lessons due to sub-par performance, according to an instructor associated with the Jones Aviation Flying Service (pg. 183)
+ Instructors at Maryland Freeway Airport acknowledged that, despite 600 log hours, Pentagon hijacker Hani Hanjour was incapable of finishing his flight training (pg. 183)
+ The hijackers, instead of choosing direct ways to their targets, flew long detours (pg. 188)
+ Training needed to pilot 757s or 767s required special precision and "super training" not offered at Huffman Aviation, where the Flight 11 and Flight 175 hijackers received lessons (pg. 191)
Although I do not recall whether Tarpley mentioned it in the book or not, but on September 10, 2001, then Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld announced that $2.3 TRILLION could not be accounted for in the Pentagon budget. Obviously, the story vanished the next day. Tarpley also discloses lesser-known factoids of equal importance, including the fact that live fly, NORAD exercises were conducted on 9/11, some that even resembled hijacked airliners (pg. 207). On page 213, Tarpley writes how blips and dummy hijacks occurred, thus confusing loyal air controllers on 9/11. Why, exactly? So government moles could carry out their ordered operations.
There is so much more to this work than I let on in this review. Suffice to say, whatever your political background, this is one of the most important books regarding current events that I ever read. A lot of the information, I admit, made my head swirl, even when I gasped and cringed throughout what I read. At the end of the book, I felt depressed and sorrowful. I expressed pity at the American people, of whom most this book will never find, and how so quickly we abandoned our Founding Fathers' dream of a constitutional republic of a well-informed and hardworking independent people. President Reagan, leaving all conceptions of this book behind about various government officials aside, said, "Trust but verify." We forgot. Will we be forgiven again?
Comprehensive Review of 9/11.......2007-07-08
Tarpley provides a thorough analysis of the 9/11 and how the tragedies could have happened. This book is a must read for those interested in the 9/11 truth issues.
The book goes into great detail about logistics of the attacks. Tarpley shows his experience as a historian and the amount of time he used to research into the issues.
One of, if not THE finest minds in the fight for freedom.......2007-05-26
If you've recently become aware of the 911-truth movement and were lucky enough to stumble upon Webster Griffin Tarpley's book "Synthetic Terror", then let me say that there is no finer book or video on the subject. Mr. Tarpley is virtually uniquely insightful in matters of transgressions against the body politic by the Oligarchy(s) and to say his research is exhaustive is an understatement. I only wish that he had more works available and was more visible in the media. To those who thirst for more Webster Tarpley like myself, you must read his essays on the history of the Venetian Oligarchy and it's post Cambrai war transplantation to Great Britain and the Netherlands. I would love to hear him address the connection of this group to the creation of the stock corporation, which along with private banks and intelligence agencies have become the chief tool of control and oppression of the ruling class in modern times.
Average customer rating:
- Excellent Primer
- Foucault 101 - don't stop your education here.
- untitled
- Brilliant Thought, Not Brilliantly Presented
- Illuminating Interviews
|
Power/Knowledge: Selected Interviews and Other Writings, 1972-1977
Michel Foucault
Manufacturer: Pantheon
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Similar Items:
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Discipline & Punish: The Birth of the Prison
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The Archaeology of Knowledge & The Discourse on Language
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The Foucault Reader
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The Order of Things: An Archaeology of Human Sciences
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The History of Sexuality: An Introduction
ASIN: 039473954X
Release Date: 1980-11-12 |
Book Description
Michel Foucault has become famous for a series of books that have permanently altered our understanding of many institutions of Western society. He analyzed mental institutions in the remarkable Madness and Civilization; hospitals in The Birth of the Clinic; prisons in Discipline and Punish; and schools and families in The History of Sexuality. But the general reader as well as the specialist is apt to miss the consistent purposes that lay behind these difficult individual studies, thus losing sight of the broad social vision and political aims that unified them.
Now, in this superb set of essays and interviews, Foucault has provided a much-needed guide to Foucault. These pieces, ranging over the entire spectrum of his concerns, enabled Foucault, in his most intimate and accessible voice, to interpret the conclusions of his research in each area and to demonstrate the contribution of each to the magnificent -- and terrifying -- portrait of society that he was patiently compiling.
For, as Foucault shows, what he was always describing was the nature of power in society; not the conventional treatment of power that concentrates on powerful individuals and repressive institutions, but the much more pervasive and insidious mechanisms by which power "reaches into the very grain of individuals, touches their bodies and inserts itself into their actions and attitudes, their discourses, learning processes and everyday lives"
Foucault's investigations of prisons, schools, barracks, hospitals, factories, cities, lodgings, families, and other organized forms of social life are each a segment of one of the most astonishing intellectual enterprises of all time -- and, as this book proves, one which possesses profound implications for understanding the social control of our bodies and our minds.
Customer Reviews:
Excellent Primer.......2006-08-11
Excellent preliminary introduction to the thought of French philosopher Michel Foucault, who was situated at the forefront of French post-modernity and post-structuralism during the 1960's, grouped with other intellectuals such as Derrida, Lacan, Althusser, and Delueze.
For Foucault, (as it exists in modern societies) power is not an entity to be acquired, it is an instrument that is continually exercised. Power operates as knowledge through discourse, confession, observation, surveillance, etc. "Power for Foucault is not an omnipotent causal principle, or shaping spirit but a perspective concept" (245). Power is used and applied, not obtained.
This volume serves as a useful compendium to the ideas outlined in Foucault's major works, (i.e. Madness and Civilization, Discipline and Punish, the Order of Things, Archeology of Knowledge, Birth of the Clinic, etc.). It is mostly a gathering of lectures and interviews with various scholars in the field of the history of systems of thought. The first essay (On Popular Justice) is a discussion with a Maoist organization about the applicability of people's courts and the use and relativity of the concept of justice. One gets the impression that Foucault is not entirely at home with this material. The second essay (Prison Talk) is an explication of the major ideas posited in Discipline and Punish, particularly the development of Bentham's Panopticon and the transmission of power as surveillance. A fascinating read, and one of Foucault's great breakthroughs in the social sciences. The third essay (Body/Power) provides further information about Discipline and Punish. The fourth essay (Questions of Geography) is very interesting as Foucualt is backed into a corner by the interviewer for failing to address questions of space in his analysis of power in the age or reason. It is fun to watch Foucault's thinking shift here throughout the course of the interview; initially he is quite hostile to the idea of examining geographical material as a means to access power relations, but he finishes with tremendous enthusiasm for the idea. The fifth essay (Two lectures) is a lecture course primarily concerned with Marxism and the social sciences more broadly. The sixth essay (Truth/Power) is another interview about power and the dissemination of knowledge and information and the dynamics of power as transmitted via discourse. The seventh essay (Power and Strategies) basically outlines the workings of power in totalitarian communist societies (esp. the USSR), and the usage of the gulags as a means of inducing docility and subordination. The eighth essay (The Eye of Power) is another explication of power as a mode of surveillance. The ninth essay (The Politics of Health in the 19th century) is not particularly interesting; in it, Foucault analyses the power relations implicit in public hospitals and medical treatment (further elaborated in Birth of the Clinic). The tenth essay is a very helpful summary of the major ideas posited in the History of Sexuality, an extraordinarily difficult and important text. Additionally, the eleventh essay (the Confession of the Flesh) provides further explication into the subsequent volumes of Foucault's massive history (which he sadly failed to complete).
Naturally, any serious student of Foucault should turn to his original texts in order to fully grasp his philosophical outlook, yet this collection should serve as a useful conduit for new readers to his rich and complex body of work.
Foucault 101 - don't stop your education here........2005-08-16
Power/Knowledge is an excellent introduction to and distillation of the thought of Michel Foucault. It's much more functional than The Foucault Reader, which offers a few key essays ("What Is Enlightenment?", "Nietzsche, Genealogy, and History", etc.) mixed with book excerpts, and may be more gentle to the first-time reader than diving into one of Foucault's full-length works.
This book offers the colloquial Foucault, as it is mostly interviews where "The Fox" is asked to explain and expand upon his concepts and theories. Sprinkled in are the occasional lecture ("Two Lectures" is a fragment of the recently released "Society Must Be Defended") and debate, such as the book's opening salvo of Foucault and the Maoists, where we see the somewhat rare portrait of Foucault in direct political engagement. You even get a glimpse of Foucault's sense of humor at the end of "The Confession of the Flesh".
These fragments are useful for understanding Foucault's key concerns, such as the diffuse and productive nature of power and the Nietzschean historical contingency in universal truth claims. However, this book should not serve as the last word on Foucault: from here the reader is advised to make their way into his oeuvre. It's not a bad idea to begin with Foucault's most famous works, such "hard" studies of historical practices as Discipline and Punish, Madness and Civilization, and The History of Sexuality: An Introduction. From there one can move into the more challenging works such as The Order of Things and The Archeology of Knowledge. The sky's the limit.
So Power/Knowledge is a solid point of departure for those interested in Foucault - but don't get lulled into thinking it's all you need. Remember: the map is not the terrain.
untitled.......2004-04-15
I don't know how to rate most of Foucault's work because quite frankly I don't understand most of it. I read some of his primary material and didn't get it. I read some secondary material and I still didn't completely get it. A friend then introduced me to some philosophy comic books. He had the whole series including Hegel, Nietzsche, and Kierkegaard to name a few. I now understand the objective and nature of his works yet still can't grasp the nuance of it. Perhaps I'm grasping for greater meaning that doesn't exist, but chances are that I'm just too dumb.
His work is incredibly hard to understand, more tedious to read then Dickens and Dostoevsky combined, and very incoherent. None the less, I'm afraid to give it poor marks out of fear that the intellectuals will brand me a mental midget. On the same line, I'm afraid to engage anyone in conversation about Foucault out of fear that my shallow-comic-book-level understanding of his text will be exposed.
Ultimately, I think this really takes away from his work. He has a lot of insightful things to write. But if you can't communicate them what is the purpose? Read the text and get the comic books. Study your signs and make sure you obey traffic laws.
Brilliant Thought, Not Brilliantly Presented.......2003-10-19
Don't get me wrong - Foucault is an absolutely brilliant thinker and modern philosopher. His methods of utilizing classical thought and analysis in the study of modern problems (at least up to the mid-20th century) are fascinating and hugely insightful. He knows the causes and effects of power in all its manifestations, and he applies this knowledge to all manner of intriguing contemporary issues such as struggles against the state, the prison system, health care, sexuality, and geopolitics. (I would be especially interested in Foucault's take on the modern American prison-industrial-political complex.)
The problem with this book is in the presentation. I don't agree with other reviewers who state that this is a good summary or compendium of Foucault's works, because of its very fragmentary nature. Each of the chapters here can be considered distillations of Foucault's thoughts on key subjects. Most of the chapters are structured as interviews or dialogues but with no surrounding context. We have no explanation of who the interviewers are or from which angle they have approached Foucault's works. The chapters begin abruptly, often with the feel of an interview in progress, with no introductory explanations of the context for that portion of Foucault's efforts. Similarly, the chapters end abruptly with no wrapping up or conclusive explanations of the matter at hand. One chapter consists of two "lectures" given at different times, with zero explanation of the purpose of Foucault's visit to wherever the lecture was delivered, who the audience was, or the environment in which Foucault's presence was utilized.
Therefore this book is not a good summary because it only leaves you with fragmentary details of far more vast philosophical masterpieces, with no surrounding context or supplementary information. You can get a passable introduction to Foucault's general ideas here, but for true knowledge you will have to tackle his proper dissertations. The best examples with relevance for contemporary thought are "Madness and Civilisation," "Archeology of Knowledge," and others. [~doomsdayer520~]
Illuminating Interviews.......2002-07-06
The collection of interviews contained in this volume is a great guide to anyone interested in examining the work of Michel Foucault, whose work broke new ground through his sustained examination of the interplay between the forces of pwer and the production of knowledges. For those who have previously read works such as The History of Sexuality or Discipline and Punish, this volume is sure to have many jewels that both clarifies and compliments the ideas presented in those works.
Spanning an important period in Foucault's development the interviews included here deal with essential themes for anyone interested in the trajectory of Foucault's work and social concern, French philosophy or literary theory in general. Themes expanded upon includes discussions of the discrusive role of discourse(s) in shaping the parameters of power and the concommitant boundries of knowledge that such a relationship implies; the symbolic, metaphoric and noumenal implications of the body as both flesh and as a site for the inscription of various repessive regimes; or the nature and evolution of the influence of panoptical surveillance in all of its varied formulations.
Part and parcel to Foucault's thinking in this area is the necessary representation of the body as both a dynamic physicality and at the same time a living palimpest onto which the ideologies of culture and society are written--sometimes forcibly, but more often through self-reproduction and latent self-repession. For those who want to know these ideologies are promulgated in panaoptical society, this book will provide many provocative answers as well as an indispensible aide to untangling the complex web of ideas that Foucault used to explicate the structure of modern society.
Book Description
What role can and should social work play in child welfare services? Responding to what many consider a crisis in the child welfare system, Critical Issues in Child Welfare is a comprehensive overview of the policies, programs, and practices that define the field, with an emphasis on the role of social work.
Joan Shireman looks at the community context of child welfare, noting changes over time, and the role of social work in the development of services to children and families. Next, she establishes a framework for child welfare services and examines the complexities of the system and its relationships to public and voluntary agencies and the judicial system. Finally, the book surveys core services, including supportive services to families, child protection, foster care and other out-of-home care, adoption, and services to at-risk youth. Each chapter concludes with a section identifying and exploring a critical issue in child welfare services, such as family violence, permanency planning, racism in the system, child care, and the recruitment, education, and retention of child welfare workers.
Book Description
Why, Ann Laura Stoler asks, was the management of sexual arrangements and affective attachments so critical to the making of colonial categories and to what distinguished ruler from ruled? Contending that social classification is not a benign cultural act but a potent political one, Stoler shows that matters of the intimate were absolutely central to imperial politics. It was, after all, in the intimate sphere of home and servants that European children learned what they were required to learn of place and race. Gender-specific sexual sanctions, too, were squarely at the heart of imperial rule, and European supremacy was asserted in terms of national and racial virility.
Stoler looks discerningly at the way cultural competencies and sensibilities entered into the construction of race in the colonial context and proposes that "cultural racism" in fact predates its postmodern discovery. Her acute analysis of colonial Indonesian society in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries yields insights that translate to a global, comparative perspective.
Book Description
In Black Feminist Thought, Patricia Hill Collins explores the words and ideas of Black feminist intellectuals as well as those African-American women outside academe. She not only provides an interpretive framework for the work of such prominent Black feminist thinkers as Angela Davis, Alice Walker, and Audre Lorde, but she shows the importance of self-defined knowledge for group empowerment. In the tenth anniversary edition of this award-winning work, Patricia Hill Collins expands the basic arguments of the first edition by adding several important new themes. A new discussion of heterosexism as a system of power, an expanded treatment of images of Black womanhood, U.S. Black feminism's connections to Black Diasporic feminisms, and more attention to the importance of social class and nationalism all appear in the new edition. In addition, the new edition includes recent developments in black cultural studies, especially black popular culture, as well as recent events and trends such as the Anita Hillhearings and the backlash against affirmative action.
Customer Reviews:
feminist thought and female chauvinist pigs.......2007-10-05
The book were in excellent condition and did not take long to arrive at home earlier than expected.
a great introduction to Black Feminist literature............2007-06-01
I knew little about the Black Feminist movement, when I first read this book over four years ago. It was part of a list of required books for a Black and Indigenous women's course through the school of Women's Studies. This school of thought has more involved in it than meets the eye. For starters, according to the very compelling and highly researched studies of Patricia Hill Collins, it came about in the face of great discrimination against, not only, African-Americans and women, but especially African-American women. They were looked down upon and objectified, due to their race, the means in which many African-Americans were forceably brought to the United States, as slaves (fodder for wealthy, white slave owners in their fields and in their children's nurseries, as well as their kitchens).
What works so well in its book is the acute insight and detail that Collins brings to her body of work. This book is really beautifully put together, and we get a sense of the evolution of Black Feminist Thought, through time. It's unbelievable to me that not more people have heard of this book, and I really think a formal movement needs to be started in schools throughout the country, to bring interracial consciousness to the masses, through literature. Read this book today.
Great Book for All People.......2004-01-26
I'm a gay white male and I loved this book! Collins does an amazing job presenting her compelling thesis, and I continue to thank Sociology in general for being the most daring, critical-thinking academic discipline ever. It's no surprise sociologists like Collins dare to speak out on gay rights issues (see her section on homophobia/heterosexism) - sociology is the only area of thought that consistently questions the status quo. In a day in age where so many (though by no means all!) African-American (heterosexuals) are horribly anti-gay and increasingly pro-greed/pro-capitalism, Collins stands out as a heroine for all peoples. I am still waiting for an openly gay hip-hop artist!! How cool would that be? I recommend this book to absolutely anyone. Five stars!
Inspired.......2001-08-01
Patricia Hill Collins exemplifies a practitioner's and theorist's point of view on black feminism as it relates to Africa American and our African sisters. She references critical and inspiring data and quotes from a varied repetoire of authors, historians, and philosophers. The author explains the context and format of her subject upon initial reading. This book also draws commonalities among the issues and concerns among African American women and our international sisterhood (i.e., African, Carribean, etc.,) It illustrates the social and cultural values among all groups, the commonalities among the values while focusing on the African American feminist aspect. This is a must read for any person, be it woman or not, African American or other. It brings about a social and cultural understanding that is pertinent to the "holonomy" of understanding and appreciating varied cultural, social and historical values and experiences while commencing to the building of community. Please add this title to your collection of literature. You won't be disappointed; if for nothing more than to open your world to receive another perspective.
Insightful.......2000-05-02
Collins'analysis of black feminism is an enlightening piece of literature that forces its readers to chanllenge main stream assumptions and discover the underlying mechanisms of racism and sexism in America. To create this effect, she uses a range of feminist perspectives form the calm subtleties of Angela Davis to the slightly boisterous philosopy of Bell Hooks. Nevertheless, by displaying these perspectives equally Collins shows that the struggle for equally is not an individual struggle but one that requires collectively. This book is intensely thought provoking and it is guaranteed to give its readers profound insight into black feminism.
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- Wiring 1-2-3
- The Horror Movie Survival Guide
- Teach Yourself Polish Complete Course Package
- The Maze
- Why Didn't I Learn This in College
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- Beyond Fundraising: New Strategies for Nonprofit I
Not Even Wrong: The Failure of String Theory And the Search for Unity in Physical Law
The Road to Reality: A Complete Guide to the Laws of the Universe
Warped Passages: Unraveling the Mysteries of the Universe's Hidden Dimensions
The Cosmic Landscape: String Theory and the Illusion of Intelligent Design
Many Worlds in One: The Search for Other Universes
