Descripciones mejoradas de Syndetics:

How have societies changed over the past 5,000 years? Welcome to the brief, manageable macro-sociology text that takes your students on a journey to answer this question.

This book, the only brief and affordable macro-sociology text available for undergraduates, describes how societies have changed over the past five thousand years. The discussion focuses on the idea that industrial societies, despite their great success, have created a new set of recurring and unsolved problems which will serve as a major impetus for further social change. This book explores development through historical narrative and examines the globalization/development paradox through in-depth case studies.

Tabla de contenidos provista por Syndetics

• Preface(p. ix)
• 1 Evolution and Early Human Societies(p. 1)
• Physical and Cultural Evolution: Differences and Similarities(p. 1)
• Causes of Change in Early Societies(p. 10)
• From Collecting, Hunting, and Fishing to Agriculture(p. 12)
• Reference Notes(p. 16)
• 2 Agrarian Societies(p. 17)
• The Invention of the State(p. 18)
• Class, Status, and Force: Increasing Inequality and Making It Hereditary(p. 22)
• Nomads, Migrants, and Other Raiders(p. 25)
• Great Cultures: The Moral Basis of Agrarian Civilizations(p. 29)
• The Problem of Administration and the Cycle of Political Decay and Reconstruction(p. 33)
• The Conservatism of Village Life(p. 40)
• The Demographic Cycle in Agrarian Societies(p. 42)
• The Potential for Rapid Innovation: The Importance of Peripheries(p. 46)
• The Limits of Analogy: Societies Are Not Species, and Cultural Evolution Is Not Biological(p. 52)
• Reference Notes(p. 55)
• 3 The Rise of the West(p. 59)
• Europe's Ecological Advantages(p. 62)
• Religious Discordance and Political Stalemate: The Basis for Western Rationalization(p. 65)
• Science, Knowledge, and Exploration in China and Western Europe(p. 67)
• The Growth of European Empires and the Transformation of the Economy(p. 71)
• Overcoming the Agrarian Population Cycle(p. 72)
• The Invention of Nationalism and Its Consequences(p. 75)
• The Legitimation of Commerce: The Ideological Basis of the Industrial Revolution(p. 77)
• Reference Notes(p. 80)
• 4 The Modern Era(p. 85)
• Industrial Cycles(p. 88)
• Internal and International Social Consequences of Modernization and Industrial Cycles(p. 97)
• Economic Class and Political Power in Modern Societies(p. 102)
• Political Ideologies and Protests: Two Centuries of Revolutions(p. 110)
• The Unending Effort to Adapt to Modernity(p. 119)
• Ecological Pressures Persist(p. 121)
• Reference Notes(p. 123)
• 5 Toward a Theory of Social Change(p. 129)
• Why Change Occurs(p. 133)
• The New or the Old? The Paradox of Institutional Resistance to Change(p. 139)
• Freedom or Control? The Dilemma of the Modern Era(p. 141)
• Reference Notes(p. 144)
• Bibliography(p. 149)
• Index(p. 155)
• About the Author(p. 165)

Notas de autor provistas por Syndetics

Daniel Chirot is Professor of International Studies and Sociology at the University of Washington′s Henry M. Jackson School of International Studies. He has written other books about global social change as well as specialized works on the social history and politics of Eastern Europe. His most recent work is called Modern Tyrants: The Power and Prevalence of Evil in Our Age.