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Power in the 21st Century: Conversations with John Hall

ISBN: 978-0-745-65322-8

June 2011

Polity

180 pages

Description
Michael Mann is one of the most influential sociologists writing today. His three-volume work The Sources of Social Power, the third volume of which has just been completed, has transformed our way of thinking about power and has rewritten the history of human societies. No one interested in understanding how the modern world was shaped, how we got to where we are today, and where we're likely to be heading can afford to ignore this modern classic. Michael Mann is, as John Hall aptly describes him, "a Max Weber for our times."

In this new book Michael Mann reflects on the meaning of his project as a whole, both as a contribution to social theory and as a guide to the options and constraints that face the contemporary world now and in the near future. He gives sustained attention to the situation of the United States, the nature of the challenge that may come from China, the unrestrained and perhaps unrestrainable power of finance, and the looming crisis of environmental degradation.

This concise and accessible book is the ideal introduction to the work and thought of one of the most original social scientists in the world today. Students and scholars will find the book invaluable, and general readers will find in this book a clear and masterful guide to the key challenges we face in the years and decades ahead.

About the Author
Michael Mann is Professor of Sociology at UCLA
Features
  • Michael Mann is one of the top sociologists in the world today, and probably the leading figure in comparative and historical sociology.
  • He’s particularly well known for his projected trilogy on the sources of social power, a sociological history of societies from the beginning to the present, the first two volumes of which appeared in 1986 and 1993 and the third is due to appear in 2011 or 2012.
  • This book is based on a series of conversations between Michael Mann and John Hall. The conversations explore Mann’s highly influential account of power and enable Mann to develop his views on the changing forms of global power in the late 20th and early 21st centuries, covering topical themes like the end of the Cold War, the rise of the American empire, the growing power of China and India, the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, the global financial crisis and the looming environmental crisis.
  • This topical and wide-ranging book provides the reader with a very accessible analysis by one of the world’s leading social scientists of the major forces that have shaped our world over the last half-century.