Macrohistory by Randall Collins

Macrohistory by Randall Collins

This book explores the accomplishments of the golden age of “macrohistory,” the sociologically informed analysis of long-term patterns of political, economic, and social change that has reached new heights of sophistication in the last decades of the twentieth century. It describes the scholarly revolution that has taken place in the Marxian-inspired theory of revolutions, the shift to a state-breakdown model in which revolutions, rather than bubbling up from discontent below, start at the top in the fiscal strains of the state. The author links revolutions to military-centered transformations of the state, and reviews how he used this theory in the early 1980s to predict the breakdown of the Soviet empire. He goes on to show the implications of viewing states and societies from the outside in, including the geopolitical patterns that affect the legitimacy of dominant ethnic groups and thus determine the direction of ethnic assimilation or fragmentation. Another application is the author’s new theory of democratization, which asserts that democracy depends not merely on a widening of the franchise but on a geopolitical pattern favoring federated structures of collegially shared power. Using this new theoretical tool, the author argues that Anglophone scholars have polemically misinterpreted German history, and that the roots of the Holocaust cannot be determined by German-bashing but must be attributed to processes that affect all of us. Other essays generalize about the historical dynamics and transformations of markets. Going beyond Weber’s Eurocentric model, the author proposes a more general theory that explains the origins of capitalism in Japan on an independent but parallel path.

"Given that a short review cannot do justice to the complexity and richness of this compelling book, it must suffice to say that its most innovative and exciting aspect is Collins' discussion of the still under-theorized dimension of democratic modernityThis is especially the case when his discussion is combined with his reflections on ethnic change." -- Journal of the History of Behavioral Sciences

Collins, Randall: - Randall Collins is Professor of Sociology, Emeritus, at the University of Pennsylvania.

SKU	Unavailable
ISBN 13	9780804736008
ISBN 10	0804736006
Title	Macrohistory
Author	Randall Collins
Condition	Unavailable
Binding Type	Paperback
Publisher	Stanford University Press
Year published	1999-12-01
Number of pages	328
Cover note	Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary.
Note	Unavailable