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Formations of Modernity is a major introductory textbook offering an account of the important historical processes, institutions and ideas that have shaped the development of modern societies. This challenging and innovative book maps the evolution of those distinctive forms of political, economic, social and cultural life which characterize modern societies, from their origins in early modern Europe to the nineteenth century. It examines the roots of modern knowledge and the birth of the social sciences in the Enlightenment, and analyses the impact on the emerging identity of the West of its encounters through exploration, trade, conquest and colonization, with other civilizations .
Designed as an introduction to modern societies and modern sociological analyses, this book is of value to students on a wide variety of social science courses in universities and colleges and also to readers with no prior knowledge of sociology. Selected readings from a broad range of classical writers (Weber, Durkheim, Marx, Freud, Adam Smith, Montesquieu, Hobbes, Locke, Rousseau) and contemporary thinkers (Michael Mann, E.P. Thompson, Edward Said) are integrated in each chapter, together with student questions and exercises.
List of contents
Preface.
Introduction.
1 The Enlightenment and the Birth of Social Science: Peter Hamilton .
2 The Development of the Modern State: David Held .
3 The Emergence of the Economy: Vivienne Brown .
4 Changing Social Structures: Class and Gender: Harriet Bradley .
5 The Cultural Formations of Modern Society: Robert Bocock .
6 The West and the Rest: Discourse and Power: Stuart Hall .
Acknowledgements.
Index
About the author
Stuart Hall, geboren 1932, britischer Soziologe, ist der Begründer der weltweit gelehrten Cultural Studies. Für ihn muss Theorie im Befreiungsinteresse politisch eingreifend sein. Er befasst sich mit Kultur und kultureller Identität in der heutigen Zeit und berührt damit zwangsläufig Fragen der Macht.
Summary
Formations of Modernity is a major introductory textbook offering an account of the important historical processes, institutions and ideas that have shaped the development of modern societies.
