The Sources of Social Power: Volume 1, A History of Power from the Beginning to AD 1760 - Hardcover

Mann, Michael

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0521308518 ISBN 13: 9780521308519

Publisher: Cambridge University Press, 1986

Synopsis

This is the first part of a three-volume work on the nature of power in human societies. In it, Michael Mann identifies the four principal 'sources' of power as being control over economic, ideological, military, and political resources. He examines the interrelations between these in a narrative history of power from Neolithic times, through ancient Near Eastern civilisations, the classical Mediterranean age, and medieval Europe, up to just before the Industrial Revolution in England. Rejecting the conventional monolithic concept of a 'society', Dr. Mann's model is instead one of a series of overlapping, intersecting power networks. He makes this model operational by focusing on the logistics of power - how the flow of information, manpower, and goods is controlled over social and geographical space-thereby clarifying many of the 'great debates' in sociological theory. The present volume offers explanations of the emergence of the state and social stratification.

About this title

Review

' ... an impressively learned, wise and judicious study. It is a major work - perhaps a great work - and will be a landmark, for sure.' William H. McNeill, University of Chicago

' ... a very considerable accomplishment. There is no doubt in my mind that the book is an important contribution to comparative sociology.' Anthony Giddens, King's College, Cambridge

Book Description

This is the first part of a three-volume work on the nature of power in human societies. In it, Michael Mann identifies the four principal 'sources' of power as being control over economic, ideological, military, and political resources.

Edition details

• Publisher: Cambridge University Press
• Publication date: 1986
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0521308518
• ISBN 13: 9780521308519
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 560