Mandarins of the Future : Modernization Theory in Cold War America

Nils Gilman

ISBN 10: 0801886333 / ISBN 13: 9780801886331

Published by Johns Hopkins University Press, 2007

About this Item

nach der Bestellung gedruckt Neuware - Printed after ordering - Ideas about how to 'modernize,' particularly when developed countries apply them to countries less fortunate, clearly have consequences, intended and unintended. Modernization theory must be among the most important constructs of the twentieth century, certainly in the story of the social sciences. Nils Gilman here offers the first (or second) attempt to treat its development as a problem in intellectual history. The dimensions of the problem call for special ambition and competence, and Gilman has turned in a highly creditable performance. His study ranges from concepts of 'modernism' to the post-World War II/Cold War American sense of global mission and responsibility. Gilman examines rising energy levels at the most prestigious university departments in the social sciences, with an entire chapter exploring Talcott Parsons and the Harvard social relations program and another on Walt Rostow and the attempt to rationalize foreign aid/foreign policy at MIT. Gilman thus supplies the background and context for the nation's 'generous' Third World programs during the period of competition with the Soviet Union-and the same for our most grievous postwar blunder, the notion that our power and good intentions could save the South Vietnamese from poverty, themselves, and the post-colonialists to the north. 'Nils Gilman effectively charts the development of 'Modernization theory' in American intellectual life after World War II, examining the intstitutional networks that usstained it and helped make it a keystone of academic and foreign-policy discourse in the 1950s and early 1960s.' --Howard Brick, Washington University, St. Louis 'Gilman provides not only the fullest history of modernization theory, and its linkages to actual government policy formation, we have to date, but he explores in depth a fascinating slice of American intellectual history in the 1960s and early 1970s. His analysis of foundation and academic politics and their interface with government agencies is detailed, original and compelling. . . . He also has some provocative things to say about its resurrection, however uncertain, following the collapse of commmand communism in Eastern Europe. . . . No serieous author (or teacher) will be able to tackle this subject without considering his arguments and mastering his history of one of the most influential ideologies of the late 20th century.' --Michael Adas, Rutgers University 'Wonderfully written . . . based on marvelous archival work. The [sections] on the Social Science Research Council committess and and on the internal workings of gropus at MIT and elsewhere is simply terrific. . . . [Gilman's] interviews with Gabirel Amond, Albert Hirschmann, and others were very successful.' --David A. Hollinger, University of California, Berkeley.

Seller Inventory # 9780801886331

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Mandarins of the Future : Modernization Theory in Cold War America
• Publisher: Johns Hopkins University Press
• Publication Date: 2007
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0801886333
• ISBN 13: 9780801886331
• Binding: Taschenbuch
• Condition: Neu
• Dimensions: 229W x 152H x 20D millimeters 229 millimeters width by 152 millimeters height by 20 millimeters depth
• Weight: 559 grams

About this title

Synopsis

Because it provided the dominant framework for "development" of poor, postcolonial countries, modernization theory ranks among the most important constructs of twentieth-century social science. In Mandarins of the Future: Modernization Theory in Cold War America Nils Gilman offers the first intellectual history of a movement that has had far-reaching and often unintended consequences.

After a survey of the theory's origins and its role in forming America's postwar sense of global mission, Gilman offers a close analysis of the people who did the most to promote it in the United States and the academic institutions they came to dominate. He first explains how Talcott Parsons at Harvard constructed a social theory that challenged the prevailing economics-centered understanding of the modernization process, then describes the work of Edward Shils and Gabriel Almond in helping Parsonsian ideas triumph over other alternative conceptions of the development process, and finally discusses the role of Walt Rostow and his colleagues at M.I.T. in promoting modernization theory during the Kennedy and Johnson administrations. By connecting modernization theory to the welfare state liberalism programs of the New Deal order, Gilman not only provides a new intellectual context for America's Third World during the Cold War, but also connects the optimism of the Great Society to the notion that American power and good intentions could stop the postcolonial world from embracing communism.

About the Author

Nils Gilman is an independent scholar and practitioner at the Global Business Network in San Francisco.