Rediscoveries and Reformulations: Humanistic Methodologies for International Studies (Cambridge Studies in International Relations) [Hardcover]

Hayward R. Alker (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 28, 1996 | ISBN-10: 0521461308 | ISBN-13: 978-0521461306

In this book Hayward Alker presents his principal methodological "rediscoveries" of the past twenty years. He provides a rich set of "humanistic" alternatives to the conventional scientific approaches within international studies, and social science more generally. He offers a reinterpretation of premodern, modern, and postmodern thinkers from Aristotle to Connolly, and argues that the humanistic and scientific modes of inquiry can be integrated into a rigorous, philosophically rationalized methodology for international studies.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"Indeed, vicarious voyagers may find the zest and courage that shines through this extraordinary book all the reason they need to venture out on their own." Nicholas Onuf, American Political Science Review

Book Description

Offering a reinterpretation of premodern, modern, and postmodern thinkers from Aristotle to Connolly, this text argues that the humanistic and scientific modes of inquiry can be integrated into a rigorous, philosophically rationalized methodology for international studies.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 488 pages
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press (June 28, 1996)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0521461308
• ISBN-13: 978-0521461306
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 6.3 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 2.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,412,887 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Flawed and fragmented presentation of some brilliant ideas, November 14, 2010

By 

Yessong "alankk" (Washington, DC United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Rediscoveries and Reformulations: Humanistic Methodologies for International Studies (Cambridge Studies in International Relations) (Hardcover)

This is a mixed bag of sometimes splendid, sometimes tedious, and pretty much always difficult-to-access essays. The writing is too often impenetrable upon first (and second, and even third) take, but the unifying theme is there and -- by providing a nuanced counterweight to (simple-minded) notions of what "plain meanings" are in seminal political science texts -- it has real value. Over the course of his career, Alker became a leading "problematizer" of inherited understandings of historical theorists and their writings. In the end, he was rarely effective in communicating his ideas with clarity, but those who stick with a book like this one can find true gems of insight. It is useful to learn that -- and how -- seemingly canonical documents such as the Melian Dialogue may contain far more lessons than the lazier thinkers among us are happy to assume.

4 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Voyaging Between Abstractions Ain't that Informative, September 28, 2002

By A Customer

This review is from: Rediscoveries and Reformulations: Humanistic Methodologies for International Studies (Cambridge Studies in International Relations) (Paperback)

The author is concerned with somehow creating connections to the world of humanistic interpretations of international relations and voyaging between these various interpretations and the more formal interpretations of logical and economic analysis. The collection of essays in this book is a republication of Alker's previously published articles.

The book makes plain things confusing, which is, I guess, how you become an illustrious academic in the dark forest of irrelevance and obfuscation that some social sciences have become. For example, the Milean dialogue from a well-known book by Thucydides is converted from its plain meaning that "might makes right" into a pretentious quasi-logical puzzle full of some portentous "humanistic" meaning.

Much of the book is unreadable. And all of it is irrelevant for understanding what is going on in world politics. In reality, the author moved from MIT to Santa Monica; and intellectually he moved from abstract econometrics (which has little to do with the way the real economy works) to abstract analysis of "humanistic" doctrines (which are completely irrelevant in the real world of politics). This book gives you a sanitized world of concepts that cannot be applied to reality. In fact, there is no reality here. The author worries about things that do not exist in the real world.

He is (pathetically) trying to get some mileage out of attacking Ronald Reagan for calling nuclear-tipped missiles "peace keepers." Am I the only Danish storyteller who sees that the emperor's new clothes still leave him naked? How can one fail to recognize a typical, stereotypical, hackneyed liberal attack under a highfalutin veil of "narrative" analysis, or some other such ruse?

This book shows just how much out of touch the upper echelon of power within the profession has become.