This collection brings together Daniel Bell's best work in essay
form. It deals with a variety of topics: technology and culture,
religion and personal identity, intellectuals and their societies,
and the uses and abuses of doctrines of social class. The Winding
Passage demonstrates the author's continuing concern with the
salient issues of our times, while its inspiration draws upon an
older, humanistic sociological tradition.
In a central essay on intellectuals, Bell examines the term new
class and calls it a muddle. Though the idea of class has been
relevant to Western industrial society for the past two hundred
years, the concept is less useful for examining Communist states,
the Third World, and even the emerging postindustrial sectors of
the West. Bell seeks to establish the idea of situs, the
competitive conflict of functional groups for shares in the state
budgetary process.
A more personal note is struck in the final section of the book.
In reflecting on the nature of intellectual life, the special role
of the Jewish intellectual, and the tension between the claims of
the parochial and the universal, Bell uses as a general framework
antinomianism, the claims of individual conscience against
authority, law, and established institutions. And in a final
statement, "The Return of the Sacred," Bell explores the
enlightenment belief in the dissolution of religion and attempts to
show why it was wrong. This is a must book for those concerned with
the sociology of knowledge, intellectual history, and social
stratification.
Speaking of The Winding Passage, Seymour Martin Lipset called
the book "sociological analysis at its best" Irving Howe noted that
"Bell is always worth listening to. He is a true intellectual." And
Irving Louis Horowitz, in his review of the book, calls it "the
sifted excellence of a civilized and urbane intellectual.
General
Imprint: |
Transaction Publishers
|
Country of origin: |
United Kingdom |
Release date: |
July 2021 |
First published: |
1991 |
Authors: |
Daniel Bell
|
Dimensions: |
229 x 152 x 28mm (L x W x T) |
Format: |
Paperback
|
Pages: |
399 |
Edition: |
Revised Ed. |
ISBN-13: |
978-0-88738-899-6 |
Categories: |
Books >
Social sciences >
Sociology, social studies >
General
|
LSN: |
0-88738-899-X |
Barcode: |
9780887388996 |
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