The Sources of Social Power: Volume 1, A History of Power from the Beginning to AD 1760 [Paperback]

Michael Mann (Author)

Editorial Reviews

Review

"...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

Product Description

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; of city-states, militaristic empires, and the persistent interaction between them; of the world salvation religions; and of the peculiar dynamism of medieval and early modern Europe. It ends by generalising about the nature of overall social development, the varying forms of social cohesion, and the role of classes and class struggle in history. Volume II will continue the history of power up to the present, centering on the interrelations of nation-states and social classes. Volume III will present the theoretical conclusions of the whole work. This ambitious and provocative attempt to provide a new theoretical frame for the interpretation of the theory of societies will be challenging and stimulating reading for a wide range of social scientists, historians, and other readers concerned with understanding large-scale social and historical processes.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 559 pages
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press (April 30, 1986)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 052131349X
• ISBN-13: 978-0521313490
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 5.9 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.7 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Bestsellers Rank: #279,321 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A superlative theoretical synthesis, June 16, 2000

By	Tom L. Forest (Forest Grove, OR USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

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.

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars New insights into the sociology of early christianity, September 12, 2001

By	George A Sherman - See all my reviews

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.