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

by Michael Mann (Author)

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ISBN-13: 978-0521313490

ISBN-10: 052131349X

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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 book is the first part of a three-volume work on the nature of power in human societies.

Publisher ‏ : ‎ Cambridge University Press (April 30, 1986)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Paperback ‏ : ‎ 560 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 052131349X
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0521313490
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 1.63 pounds
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 5.98 x 1.14 x 9.02 inches

Best Sellers Rank: #2,706,619 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #8,024 in Sociology (Books)
- #16,147 in Cultural Anthropology (Books)

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George A Sherman

New insights into the sociology of early christianity

Reviewed in the United States on September 12, 2001

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.

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Tom L. Forest

A superlative theoretical synthesis

Reviewed in the United States on June 16, 2000

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.

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Robert Evans

A Brilliant analysis of social change

Reviewed in the United States on March 6, 2011

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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