Tag: Sociology
Highlights from The Communist Manifesto (Karl Marx & Friedrich Engels)
From our journey through random or quality (or random quality) books, here are some highlights from Karl Marx’s and Friedrich Engels’s The Communist Manifesto (1848).
Emphasis as it appears in the original work may be missing, and our own edits, though marked, may be broad. Important: By sharing these highlights we neither endorse nor recommend respective authors and their views. Assume that we know little of the authors, and that we have nuanced views on the matter—as with all our book recommendations.
The history of all hitherto existing societies is the history of class struggles.
The Sociology Book (Big Ideas Simply Explained) (Sam Atkinson)
The Sociology Book (Big Ideas Simply Explained): Learn more at Amazon or at Goodreads.
“The Sociology Book takes on some of humankind’s biggest questions: What is society? What makes it tick? Why do we interact in the way that we do with our friends, coworkers, and rivals?
The Sociology Book profiles the world’s most renowned sociologists and more than 100 of their biggest ideas, including issues of equality, diversity, identity, and human rights; the effects of globalization; the role of institutions; and the rise of urban living in modern society
Easy to navigate and chock-full of key concepts, profiles of major sociological thinkers, and conversation starters galore, this is a must-have, in-a-nutshell guide to some of the most fascinating questions on earth. Continue reading…
The Crowd: A Study of the Popular Mind (Gustave Le Bon)
The Crowd: A Study of the Popular Mind: Learn more at Amazon or at Goodreads.
“The Crowd: A Study of the Popular Mind (French: Psychologie des Foules; literally: Psychology of Crowds) is a book authored by Gustave Le Bon that was first published in 1895.
In the book, Le Bon claims that there are several characteristics of crowd psychology: ‘impulsiveness, irritability, incapacity to reason, the absence of judgement of the critical spirit, the exaggeration of sentiments, and others…’ Le Bon claimed that ‘an individual immersed for some length of time in a crowd soon finds himself—either in consequence of magnetic influence given out by the crowd or from some other cause of which we are ignorant—in a special state, which much resembles the state of fascination in which the hypnotized individual finds himself in the hands of the hypnotizer.’”
Authority (Richard Sennett)
Authority: Learn more at Amazon or at Goodreads.
“This book is a study of both how we experience authority and how we might experience it differently. Sennett explores the bonds that rebellion against authority paradoxically establishes, showing how this paradox has been in the making since the French Revolution and how today it expresses itself in offices, in factories, and in government as well as in the family. Drawing on examples from psychology, sociology, and literature, he eloquently projects how we might reinvigorate the role of authority according to good and rational ideals. Continue reading…
The Behavior of Crowds (Everett Dean Martin)
The Behavior of Crowds: Learn more at Amazon or at Goodreads.
“Since the publication of Le Bons book, The Crowd, little has been added to our knowledge of the mechanisms of crowd-behavior. As a practical problem, the habit of crowd-making is daily becoming a more serious menace to civilization. Events are making it more and more clear that, pressing as are certain economic questions, the forces which threaten society are really psychological.
Interest in the economic struggle has to a large extent diverted attention from the significance of the problems of social psychology. Continue reading…
The Art of Loving (Erich Fromm)
The Art of Loving: Learn more at Amazon or at Goodreads.
“A classic in its own time… The original self-help treatise that has inspired countless numbers of men and women throughout the world. Learn how love can release hidden potential and become life’s most exhilarating experience. In this fresh and candid work, renowned psychoanalyst Erich Fromm guides you in developing your capacity for love in all its aspects: romantic love, love of parents for children, brotherly love, erotic love, self-love, and love of God. The Art of Loving has been continuously in publication since 1956 and has sold over 6 million copies. Continue reading…
The Other Manifesto (of Mankind) (Anonymous)
The Other Manifesto (of Mankind): Learn more at Amazon or at Goodreads.
“Alternative ideas for how our world could look like, and how we could all live. Read and download The Other Manifesto for free at theothermanifesto.org.”
New Books Playground says: The Other Manifesto (of Mankind) is extremely important and extremely short. Continue reading…
Public Opinion (Walter Lippmann)
Public Opinion: Learn more at Amazon or at Goodreads.
“In what is widely considered the most influential book ever written by Walter Lippmann, the late journalist and social critic provides a fundamental treatise on the nature of human information and communication. As Michael Curtis indicates in his introduction to this edition. Public Opinion qualifies as a classic by virtue of its systematic brilliance and literary grace. The work is divided into eight parts, covering such varied issues as stereotypes, image making, and organized intelligence. The study begins with an analysis of ‘the world outside and the pictures in our heads,’ a leitmotif that starts with issues of censorship and privacy, speed, words, and clarity, and ends with a careful survey of the modern newspaper. Continue reading…