|  | Joas, Hans
War and Modernity
Studies in the History of Vilolence in the 20th Century
Translated by Livingstone, Rodney
 1. Edition December 2002
71.90 Euro
2002. 256 Pages, Hardcover
ISBN 978-0-7456-2644-4 - John Wiley & Sons
Also available as Softcover. |
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| Detailed description
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.
From the contents
Preface.
Introduction: War and Values.
Part I The Modernity of War.
1. The Dream of a Modernity without Violence.
2. The Modernity of War: Modernization Theory and the Problem of Violence.
3. Ideologies of War: The First World War as Reflected in the Contemporary Social Sciences.
Part II After War.
4. After the War: Democracy and Anti-Communism in Berlin after 1945.
5. After the Cold War: The Collapse of the German Democratic Republic (with Martin Kohli).
6. Sprayed and Betrayed: the Experience of Violence on the Vietnam War and Its Consequences.
Part III: War and Violence in Social Theory.
7. Between Power Politics and Pacifist Utopia: Peace and War in Sociological Theory.
8. Is there a Militarist Tradition in Sociology?.
9. Sociology after Auschwitz: Zygmunt Bauman's Work and the Problems of German Self-Understanding.
10. War and the Risk Society.
11. War the Teacher?.
12. Action Theory and the Dynamics of Violence.
Notes.
Bibliography.
Name Index.
Subject Index
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