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.
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"...a unique brand of historical sociology that is refreshingly iconoclastic, remarkably complex, and breathtakingly ambitious....a must-read for comparative and historical sociologists." Philip S. Gorski, Contemporary Sociology
Book Description
This study of the nature of power in human societies identifies the four principal "sources" of power as being control over economic, ideological, military and political resources. The author examines inter-relations between these elements from neolithic times, through ancient Near Eastern civilizations, the classical Mediterranean age, and medieval Europe, up to just before the Industrial Revolution in England.
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14 of 14 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A superlative theoretical synthesis,
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This review is from: The Sources of Social Power: Volume 1, A History of Power from the Beginning to AD 1760 (Paperback)
This is one of the three most stimulating books I've read in the last 20 years. Mann posits civilizations as overlapping networks of power -- ideological, military, economic, and political. He described the extensive and intensive capabilites of each type of network from place to place over time, and is pretty good about minimizing any Eurocentrism, though there is room for improvement.Although written in an intensely academic style -- not a book for the faint of heart or the short of attention span -- it will well reward the considered reader.
12 of 13 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
New insights into the sociology of early christianity,
This review is from: The Sources of Social Power: Volume 1, A History of Power from the Beginning to AD 1760 (Paperback)
As a student of religions, I came away from this volume with some paradigmatically key concepts: the contributing role of economics and sociology to the development of transcendent ideological power, early christianity as a response to a crisis in imperial social identity, the political and social threats christianity presented the Roman empire; and the importance of the normative role of the church in the early middle ages, and of the christian ecumenical identity that helped glue Europe together beginning with the Carolingians. There is much more in Mann's book than these lessons, such as his expositions of the four sources of social power and their application to human history. I enjoyed his exposition of the contributions of classical Greece to the dialectic of history. On the negative side, I found tedious the author's constant defense of his theory vis-a-vis other sociologists. This book requires serious study, but pays off handsomely in stimulating new insights into the sociology of history.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A Brilliant analysis of social change,
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This review is from: The Sources of Social Power: Volume 1, A History of Power from the Beginning to AD 1760 (Paperback)
Simply the best theoretical analysis of society I have ever read anywhere on this planet by anyone, even heavy hitters like Marx, Weber, or Durkheim. Absolutely anyone studing sociology should read this terrific exposition of social change, with the growth and inter-development of human societies over the last 5000 years.
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Inside This Book
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The three projected volumes of his book provide a history and theory of power relations in human societies. Read the first page Key Phrases - Statistically Improbable Phrases (SIPs): (learn more)
legionary economy, multistate civilization, normative pacification, compulsory cooperation, overlapping power networks, alluvial agriculture, rational restlessness, navigational revolution, acephalous federation, geopolitical diplomacy, general social evolution, concentrated coercion, extensive social organization, military power relations, conquered elites, four power sources, redistributive chiefdom, naval galley, marcher areas, territorial fixity, feudal dynamic, power standoff, reorganizing powers, multistate system, class morale Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
Cambridge University Press, Near East, New York, Asia Minor, Clarendon Press, Middle Ages, Iron Age, Middle East, University of Chicago Press, Penguin Books, New World, Oxford University Press, Great Britain, New Left Books, The Cambridge Ancient History, Academic Press, Indus Valley, Princeton University Press, Great King, Kegan Paul, University of California Press, Dark Ages, Free Press, Roman Republic, Akademisk Forlag New!
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Front Cover | Table of Contents | First Pages | Index | Back Cover | Surprise Me!
The three projected volumes of his book provide a history and theory of power relations in human societies. Read the first page Key Phrases - Statistically Improbable Phrases (SIPs): (learn more)
legionary economy, multistate civilization, normative pacification, compulsory cooperation, overlapping power networks, alluvial agriculture, rational restlessness, navigational revolution, acephalous federation, geopolitical diplomacy, general social evolution, concentrated coercion, extensive social organization, military power relations, conquered elites, four power sources, redistributive chiefdom, naval galley, marcher areas, territorial fixity, feudal dynamic, power standoff, reorganizing powers, multistate system, class morale Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
Cambridge University Press, Near East, New York, Asia Minor, Clarendon Press, Middle Ages, Iron Age, Middle East, University of Chicago Press, Penguin Books, New World, Oxford University Press, Great Britain, New Left Books, The Cambridge Ancient History, Academic Press, Indus Valley, Princeton University Press, Great King, Kegan Paul, University of California Press, Dark Ages, Free Press, Roman Republic, Akademisk Forlag New!
Books on Related Topics | Concordance | Text Stats Browse Sample Pages:
Front Cover | Table of Contents | First Pages | Index | Back Cover | Surprise Me!
Citations (learn more)
This book cites 100
books:
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100
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- Hellenistic World, Revised Edition by F. W. Walbank on page 230, and page 249
- Islam and the Integration of Society by William Montgomery Watt on page 344, and page 372
- The Religion of China by Max Weber on page 342, and page 372
- Literacy and Social Development in the West: A Reader (Cambridge Studies in Oral and Literate Culture) by Harvey J. Graff on page 447, and page 496
- Political Power and Social Theory (Political Power & Social Theory) by Maurice Zeitlin on page 448, and page 498
See all 100 books this book cites
- An Essay on the Modern State by Christopher W. Morris on 9 pages
- Blood and Debt: War and the Nation-State in Latin America by Miguel Angel Centeno on 7 pages
- The Eastern Origins of Western Civilisation by John M. Hobson on 5 pages
- At the Dawn of Modernity: Biology, Culture, and Material Life in Europe after the Year 1000 by David Levine on 5 pages
- Social Theory: A Historical Introduction (Historical & Critical Introduc) by Alex Callinicos on 4 pages
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