Best of
Social-Science

1976

How Real Is Real?


Paul Watzlawick - 1976
    It is only in recent decades that the confusions, disorientations and very different world views that arise as a result of communication have become an independent field of research. One of the experts who has been working in this field is Dr. Paul Watzlawick, and he here presents, in a series of arresting and sometimes very funny examples, some of the findings.

The Survivor: An Anatomy of Life in the Death Camps


Terrence Des Pres - 1976
    Neither despairing nor conventionally hopeful, The Survivor describes the most terrible events in human memory. But what emerges finally is an image of man stubbornly equal to the worst that can happen.

Perception and Misperception in International Politics


Robert Jervis - 1976
    The New York Times called it, in an article published nearly ten years after the book's appearance, the seminal statement of principles underlying political psychology.The perspective established by Jervis remains an important counterpoint to structural explanations of international politics, and from it has developed a large literature on the psychology of leaders and the problems of decision making under conditions of incomplete information, stress, and cognitive bias.Jervis begins by describing the process of perception (for example, how decision makers learn from history) and then explores common forms of misperception (such as overestimating one's influence). Finally, he tests his ideas through a number of important events in international relations from nineteenth- and twentieth-century European history.In a contemporary application of Jervis's ideas, some argue that Saddam Hussein invaded Kuwait in 1990 in part because he misread the signals of American leaders with regard to the independence of Kuwait. Also, leaders of the United States and Iraq in the run-up to the most recent Gulf War might have been operating under cognitive biases that made them value certain kinds of information more than others, whether or not the information was true. Jervis proved that, once a leader believed something, that perception would influence the way the leader perceived all other relevant information.

Denationalisation of Money


Friedrich A. Hayek - 1976
    Abolition is also the cure for the more deep-seated disease of the recurring waves of depression and unemployment attributed to ‘capitalism’.

Ojibway Heritage


Basil Johnston - 1976
    In Ojibway Heritage Basil Johnston introduces his people's ceremonies, rituals, songs, dances, prayers, arid legends. Conveying the sense of wonder and mystery at the heart of the Ojibway experience, Johnston describes the creation of the universe, followed by that of plants and animals and human beings, and the paths taken by the latter. These stories are to be read, enjoyed, and freely interpreted. Their authorship is perhaps most properly attributed to the tribal storytellers who have carried on the oral tradition that Johnston records and preserves in this book.

Choose Life: A Dialogue


Arnold Joseph Toynbee - 1976
    This epic, multi-volume work offered a grand synthesis of world history from the global perspective of the rise and fall of civilizations, rather than concentrating on the history of nation-states or of ethnic groups. For Time magazine Toynbee was 'an international sage' and certainly in the same bracket as 'Einstein, Schweitzer or Bertrand Russell'. Daisaku Ikeda is a figure of global stature, the spiritual leader of a worldwide lay Buddhist organisation devoted to the promotion of education, culture and peace. Between 1971 and 1974 Toynbee and Ikeda discussed many of the vital issues which confronted their societies in the early 1970s, all of which remain current and significant. Indeed, topics such as the problems of pollution, dwindling natural resources, conflict and war, the role of religion, and population growth, are even more pressing than they were thirty years ago. In this volume - which still reads as freshly as it did when it was first published, and which is now reissued for a new generation of readers - the inspiring challenge issued by both men is framed as follows: will humankind choose to salvage its destiny by a revolution in thinking and morals? Or will disaster ensue if it pursues its present course towards self-destruction and the despoliation of the environment? While recognising that our survival is threatened by the imbalance between human immaturity and technological achievement, the optimistic message of this classic Dialogue is that man-made evils have a man-made cure.

Karl Marx's Theory of Revolution, Volume 1: State and Bureaucracy


Hal Draper - 1976
    Volume I of Hal Draper's definitive and masterful study of Marx's political thought, which focuses on Marx's attitude toward democracy, the state, intellectuals as revolutionaries, and much, much more.

Cognitive Development: Its Cultural and Social Foundations


Alexander R. Luria - 1976
    Virtually unnoticed has been his major contribution to the understanding of cultural differences in thinking.In the early 1930s young Luria set out with a group of Russian psychologists for the steppes of central Asia. Their mission: to study the impact of the socialist revolution on an ancient Islamic cotton-growing culture and, no less, to establish guidelines for a viable Marxist psychology. Lev Vygotsky, Luria's great teacher and friend, was convinced that variations in the mental development of children must be understood as a process including historically determined cultural factors. Guided by this conviction, Luria and his colleagues studied perception, abstraction, reasoning, and imagination among several remote groups of Uzbeks and Kirghiz--from cloistered illiterate women to slightly educated new friends of the central government.The original hypothesis was abundantly supported by the data: the very structure of the human cognitive process differs according to the ways in which social groups live out their various realities. People whose lives are dominated by concrete, practical activities have a different method of thinking from people whose lives require abstract, verbal, and theoretical approaches to reality.For Luria the legitimacy of treating human consciousness as a product of social history legitimized the Marxian dialectic of social development. For psychology in general, the research in Uzbekistan, its rich collection of data and the penetrating observations Luria drew from it, have cast new light on the workings of cognitive activity. The parallels between individual and social development are still being explored by researchers today. Beyond its historical and theoretical significance, this book represents a revolution in method. Much as Piaget introduced the clinical method into the study of children's mental activities, Luria pioneered his own version of the clinical technique for use in cross-cultural work. Had this text been available, the recent history of cognitive psychology and of anthropological study might well have been very different. As it is, we are only now catching up with Luria's procedures.

A Couple's Guide to Communication


John M. Gottman - 1976
    The skills and techniques introduced are based on the way distressed and nondistressed couples differ when solving problems. Each chapter includes practice exercises to help couples master the problem-solving techniques presented. Appendices contain problem inventories for husband and wife, a knowledge assessment self-test, and a trouble-shooting guide.

Considerations on Western Marxism


Perry Anderson - 1976
    It focuses particularly on the work of Lukács, Korsch and Gramsci; Adorno, Marcuse and Benjamin; Sartre and Althusser; and Della Volpe and Colletti, together with other figures within Western Marxism from 1920 to 1975. The theoretical production of each of these thinkers is related simultaneously to the practical fate of working-class struggles and to the cultural mutations of bourgeois thought in their time. The philosophical antecedents of the various school within this tradition—Lukácsian, Gramscian, Frankfurt, Sartrean, Althusserian and Della Volpean—are compared, and the specific innovations of their respective systems surveyed. The structural unity of 'Western Marxism', beyond the diversity of its individual thinkers, is then assessed, in a balance-sheet that contrasts its heritage with the tradition of 'classical' Marxism that preceded it, and with the commanding problems which will confront any historical materialism to succeed it.

Sociobiology and Behavior


David Philip Barash - 1976
    Barash (b. 1946) is a Professor of Psychology at the Univ. of Washington, & is notable for books on human aggression, Peace Studies, & the sexual behavior of animals & people. He has written approximately 30 books in total. He received his bachelor's degree in biology from Harpur College, SUNY at Binghamton & a PhD in zoology from Univ. of Wisconsin–Madison in 1970. He taught at the SUNY at Oneonta, then accepted a permanent position at the Univ. of Washington.

The Passions: Emotions and the Meaning of Life


Robert C. Solomon - 1976
    . . . The main lines of argument—that the emotions are ways we constitute our lives with meaning; that they are in some important sense things we do rather than things that merely happen to us; that emotions have their own sort of rationality and logic and are subject to evaluation and criticism as such; that emotions are, in some important sense, evaluative judgments—remain an important, credible contemporary view. . . . Solomon is clear, clever, and deep (also often funny).” —Owen Flanagan, Duke University

The Early Mesoamerican Village: Archaeological Research Strategy for an Endangered Species


Kent V. Flannery - 1976
    Starting from the activity area, and moving through the house, barrio, village, and region to the interregional level, this book questions and probes archeological methods, presuppositions, and attitudes.

The Tribal Eye


David Attenborough - 1976
    But while the look of a mask or figure has an immediate impact the intentions of the maker and the meaning it had in its original context are often obscure. In this book - as in the television films which it is based on - David Attenborough enriches our understanding by describing the making and use of tribal art in some of the few places where traditions are, more or less, intact.There are chapters on the Dogon - master mask makers, smiths and builders, on the tribes of the American North-west, who still carve poles and dance masks, on cult houses in Melanesia, bronze-casting in West Africa, and rug-making among the nomads of Iran. Sometimes the evidence is lost - in South America there are only tiny remnants of the pre-Columbian cultures: the chapter on their gold work must look backward to get some notion of the societies which produced it. The last chapter looks at what happens to tribal art when the culture that supported it breaks down under the pressures of trade, other cultures and colonisation.The illustrations - from the field and of museum objects - work together to make the book a splendid celebration of the richness of tribal culture.

How the Other Half Dies


Susan George - 1976
    To find more information about Rowman and Littlefield titles, please visit www.rowmanlittlefield.com.

The Role of the Father in Child Development


Michael E. Lamb - 1976
    Under the auspices of editor Michael Lamb, this guide offers a single-source reference for the most recent findings and beliefs related to fathers and fatherhood.This new and thoroughly updated edition provides the latest material on such topics as:The development of father-child relationships Gay fathers The effects of divorce on fathers and children Fathers in violent and neglectful families Cross-cultural issues of fatherhood Fathers in nonindustrialized cultures The Role of the Father in Child Development, Fourth Edition helps mental health professionals bridge scientific theories to application and practice that teach fathers how to positively influence their children's development.

Garvey and Garveyism


Amy Jacques Garvey - 1976
    Here she gives an insider detailed account of Garvey, Garveyism and this nascent period of Black Nationalism. Like all great dreamers and planners, Marcus Garvey dreamed and planned ahead of his time and his peoples' ability to understand the significance of his life's work. A set of circumstances, mostly created by the world colonial powers, crushed this dreamer, but not his dreams. Due to the persistence and years of sacrifice of Mrs. Amy Jacques Garvey, widow of Marcus Garvey, a large body of work by and about this great nationalist leader has been preserved and can be made available to a new generation of black people who have the power to turn his dreams into realities. From the introduction by John Henrik Clarke

Parties and Party Systems: Volume 1: A Framework for Analysis


Giovanni Sartori - 1976
    He also offers an extensive review of the concept and rationale of the political party, and develops a sharp critique of various spatial models of party competition. This is political science at its best -- combining the intelligent use of theory with sophisticated analytic arguments, and grounding all of this on a substantial cross-national empirical base. Parties and Party Systems is one of the classics of postwar political science, and is now established as the foremost work in its field. This edition includes a new preface by the author, and a new introduction by Peter Mair.

Housing By People: Towards Autonomy in Building Environments


John F.C. Turner - 1976
    "...John Turner is something much rarer than a housing expert; he is a philosopher of housing, seeking answers to questions which are so fundamental that they seldom get asked."--from the Introduction by Colin Ward

Christians and Marxists: The Mutual Challenge to Revolution


José Miguez Bonino - 1976
    

The German Nation and Martin Luther


A.G. Dickens - 1976