Customer Reviews

The Sources of Social Power, Vol. 2: The Rise of Classes and Nation States, 1760-1914

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Michael Mann's "Sources of Social Power" (vol. I & II) is one of the most genuinely interesting books I have read during the last ten or fifteen years. The author's culture and documentation are extremely wide, the time and space spans covered are astonishingly vast. This reading is recommended to all scholars interested in history, sociology and anthropology.

The description framework used to interpret history of civilisations is constructed upon the interaction of four social networks, namely ideological (or religious), military, productive and political sets of relations between people. While the author does not discuss these categories on the abstract level, their pragmatic use produces luminous interpretations of history. Moreover, the systematic use of the said categories renders possible the comparison of civilisations separated by large sections of space and/or time.

We would like to read (or write down some day) a semantic analysis of the system made of the mentioned four categories, together with a discussion comparing them to the "three functions" of indo-european mythology (religious, military, productive) detected by Georges Dumézil in the iron age myths elaborated in latin, sanskritic or avestic languages. This does not seem to be an objective for the author, more interested in the social re-interpretation of large parts of known history.

Manar HAMMAD

A philosopher of history as much as a historian and a sociologist, Michael Mann focuses here on early Modernity among the Occidental Great Powers -- France, Britain, Austria, Prussia/Germany, and the USA. While an inclusion of non-Occidental powers would be enlightening, there is sufficient material here to get an appreciation for the shift from agrarian to industrial bases for power. Mann also well elaborates the asymmetrical nature of power distribution and the variety of strategies used by those in power to maintain and build their power during this shift.

The intensive power of states increased dramatically, as did the larger aggregations and awarenessess within and between them: the nation-state was being born. Small level policies had unintended and often catastrophic effects at larger levels -- which is the kernal of Mann's anaysis of the causes of World War I. An upper-division college level book, perhaps a bit denser than it needs to be, still Vol. 2 is a most stimulating book. I look forward to Vol. 3.