Customer Reviews

War, Peace, And The Social Order (Foundations of Social Inquiry)

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Although Brian Fogarty's War and Peace and the Social Order probably is intended for sociologists and for classroom use, I fall into neither category and read and enjoyed the entire book. It's interesting, well written, and flows smoothly. Fogarty understands the basic principle of writing: he begins each paragraph with a topic sentence and follows it with several supporting examples. These illustrations are one of the great strenghs of the book: they include comparisons between older, traditonal societies and modern ones, movements such as civil rights and the women's equality movement, and the cooperation of the German people with the Nazi's during WW II, etc. The second chapter is heavy on theory and the fifth chapter on the military industrial complex is mindbogglingly complex, but that seems to be the way things are with military mathematics.These chapters are necessary, however, and the reader shouldn't ignore them just because they require effort. The book as a whole is an excellent mesh of theory and concrete examples. The author provides a wide variety of illustrations on ways to achieve peace through non-violent social justice movements i.e. Ghandi's "change of heart." Fogarty handles a big topic in a small book. He does it well. His book is an excellent tool for a citizen who cares about his or her society to become educated on an imporant subject and to learn how to act congruent with that that knowledge.