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Informationen zum Autor Peter Knapp is professor of sociology at Villanova University. Alan Spector is professor of sociology at Purdue University Calumet. Klappentext Crisis and Change Today provides a solid introduction to Marxist social theory. The work's unique voice is expressed in its Socratic-dialogic approach, structured around forty questions that students have about society and social change. Topics range from theories of history, economics, unemployment, racial oppression, the state, fascism, the collapse of the Soviet bloc, and points of convergence and difference between the dialectical approach and other approaches to social science. The content and tone of the work invites students to evaluate various traditional and current explanations of social institutions and social processes and encourages them to weigh the debates and investigate further.The first edition was very well received (Distinguished Scholarship Award of the Section on Marxist Sociology of the ASA), and the second edition has been thoroughly revised and updated to be relevant for students today. Though the first edition was written during the wake of the fall of the Berlin Wall and the collapse of the Soviet Union, the growing gap between the rich and the poor and the economic crisis have generated more interest in using Marxist analysis both as a tool to analyze and understand capitalism and the weaknesses of past Marxist praxis. Inhaltsverzeichnis List of Figures and TablesPreface to the Second EditionIntroductionChapter 1: Base and Superstructure: Marx's Theory of HistoryIntroduction: Sociology confronts History-Class as the Basis of Social Structure and the Backbone of HistorySection 1.1: Is There a Logic to History? If So, What Is It?Section 1.2: What Is the Basis of Social Structure?Section 1.3: Have States Always Existed?Section 1.4: Have Classes Always Existed?Section 1.5: What Is Feudalism? What Is Liberalism?Section 1.6: What Causes Social Movements and Social Change?Section 1.7: Are Events Inevitable? Was the French Revolution Inevitable?Section 1.8: What Are the Dynamics of the Modern World?Section 1.9: What Are the Fundamental Problems of the Modern World?Section 1.10: Are Classes in the United States Based on Exploitation?Summary and Conclusion: History, Historical Sociology, and Comparative HistoryChapter 2: Surplus Value: Marx's EconomicsIntroduction: Marxist Economics and the Science of Social ChangeSection 2. 1: What Is a Commodity? What Is the Labor Theory of Value?Section 2.2: What Is Surplus Value?Section 2.3: What Is Overproduction? How Can There Be Too Much Food, Housing, or Health Care?Section 2.4: What Are the Dynamics of Production for Profit?Section 2.5: Why Is There Unemployment?Section 2.6: Who Benefits from Racism and Sexism?Section 2.7: How Much Misery Is There in the United States?Section 2.8: Is the United States a Land of Exceptional Mobility? Does It Matter?Section 2.9: Why Are There Economic Depressions?Section 2. 10: Why Has the U.S. Been "Number 1?"Summary and Conclusions: Economics and Political EconomyChapter 3: Class Struggle: Class, Party, and Political TheoryIntroduction: Economic Determinism Versus Political Processes and Ideas-A False DebateSection 3.1: What Is the Basis of a Truly Free Society?Section 3.2: What Are Capitalists' Political Resources Under Capitalism?Section 3.3: What Are the Crucial Political Changes in the World Today?Section 3.4: How Does Capitalist Politics Change?Section 3.5 What Is Fascism?Section. 3.6: What Determines Different Degrees of Destructiveness of Fascism?Section 3.7: What Is a "Dictatorship of the Proletariat"?Section 3.8: What Are the Main Varieties of Marxism?Section 3.9: Why Did Socialism Collapse in the USSR and China?Section 3. 10: What Does the Collapse of Socialist World Powers Mean for Change?Summary and Conclusion: Marxist Political TheoryChapter 4: Applying Dialectics: Some Issues in t...
