The Civilizing Process stands out as Norbert Elias' greatest work, tracing the 'civilizing' of manners and personality in Western Europe since the Middle Ages, and showing how this was related to the formation of states and the monopolization of power within them. It comprises the two volumes originally published in English as The History of Manners and State Formation and Civilization, now, in a single volume, the book is restored to its original format and made available world-wide to a new (...) generation of readers.In this new edition, the original text is extensively revised, corrected, and updated. The Revised Edition reveals anew and afresh the greatness of Elias' masterpiece. (shrink)

The Protestant ethic — a moral code stressing hard work, rigorous self-discipline, and the organization of one's life in the service of God — was made famous by sociologist and political economist Max Weber. In this brilliant study (his best-known and most controversial), he opposes the Marxist concept of dialectical materialism and its view that change takes place through "the struggle of opposites." Instead, he relates the rise of a capitalist economy to the Puritan determination to work out anxiety over (...) salvation or damnation by performing good deeds — an effort that ultimately discouraged belief in predestination and encouraged capitalism. Weber's classic study has long been required reading in college and advanced high school social studies classrooms. (shrink)

This book offers a conversation with Nietzsche rather than a consideration of the secondary literature, yet it takes to task many prevalent approaches to his work, and contests especially the way we often restrict our encounter with him to ...

The question concerning technology.--The turning.--The word of Nietzsche: "God is dead."--The age of the world picture.--Science and reflection.

This volume brings together six essays by a group of distinguished scholars in a stimulating and lucid investigation into the meaning of evil in the light of postmodern thought and the enormous cultural and social changes of the modern age.

This book is an unrivalled indictment of the banality of mass culture - Adorno's finest essays are collected here, offering the reader unparalleled insights ...

Jewish Identity and Civilizing Processes examines the history of Jewish experience in Western Europe, from the early Middle Ages to the twentieth century, using the sociological theory and method of Norbert Elias. Attention is focused on the notion of interdependence and the intertwining processes of the civilization of behaviour and character and the formation of modern states as these specifically affected Jewry and help to shed light on the problem of anti-Semitism.