The Metaphysics of Cooperation


Book Description

This book takes up the philosophical task described by Samuel Taylor Coleridge and F.D. Maurice as digging toward the common humanity that is the ground of value. The book is an essay in philosophy defined by time (its focal point is the nineteenth century), space (its focal point is Britain), and persons (it is concerned especially with Maurice's contribution to social theory). The first chapter explores the Victorian Age as historical context and background for Maurice's work. The second explores Coleridge's thought as philosophical context and background. The third explores a range of Maurice's theological works that spans his entire career. The fourth turns, finally, as Maurice did, to the practice of adult education as the place of social transformation and, more particularly, the contested terrain where human nature and human souls are turned to work in the world as persons, not hands.




Max Weber


Book Description

The most profound and enduring social theorist of sociology's classical period, Max Weber speaks as cogently to concerns of the new century as he did to those of the past. In Max Weber and the New Century, Alan Sica demonstrated Weber's preeminent position and lasting vitality within social theory by applying his ideas to a broad range of topics of contemporary concern. Max Weber: A Comprehensive Bibliography is a companion volume that offers some 4,600 bibliographic listings of work on Weber, making it the most complete guide to the literature in English and a testament to the continued vitality of Weber's thought. Sica's work supersedes all previous bibliographical efforts covering the Weber literature, both in the quantity and accuracy of its references, and the clarity and convenience of its format. In order to demonstrate the enormous variety of Weberiana in English, Sica has adopted a liberal criterion for inclusion, rather than a critical one, choosing to mix the best with what may be more routine work. Following a preface in which previous bibliographies and bibliographic problems are discussed, the volume opens with a series of five specialized bibliographies. The first lists Weber's works in English translation. The second lists reviews of Weber's major works including those translated into English, while the third covers reviews of recent books and other work on Weber. The fourth section contains a selection of dissertations and theses relating to Weber or his ideas. The fifth includes primary and secondary sources treating Weber on rationality and rationalization processes. The last and largest section offers a comprehensive Weber bibliography of works in English. This large-scale endeavor attempts to identify with accuracy and completeness the entire universe of Weber scholarship in English. It will be an essential scholarly tool for sociologists, historians, economists, and students of cultural and intellectual history.







The Rev. Charles Kingsley


Book Description

The Rev. Charles Kingsley, one of the Victorian age's most prolific authors, wrote poetry, novels, historical works, sermons, religious tracts, and scientific treatises, as well as political, social, and literary criticism. Among his most famous literary works are the condition-of-England novels Yeast and Alton Locke, and his historical romances Westward Ho! and Hereward the Wake. He also wrote books for children, including The Heroes, Madam How and Lady Why, and perhaps his most well known work, The Water-Babies. A parish priest for much of his life, Kingsley was a particularly prominent social reformer and worked hard to improve the frequently appalling physical, social, and economic conditions of his parishioners. He was also an active educationist and, in addition to promoting ardently a state educational system, conducted penny readings in his parish, campaigned for women's medical education, and held the chairs of English Literature and Composition at the women's Queen's College, London and of Modern History at Cambridge. Not surprisingly, the abundant writings of this multifaceted individual have been the subject of much commentary. Throughout the twentieth century and beyond, scholars of literature, religion, history, and other disciplines have found in Kingsley and his works copious topics for their research. The primary focus of Brendan Rapple's book is to present annotated bibliographies of selected secondary works on the life, activities, and abundant writings of Kingsley published since 1900. Another enhancement is the variety of subject headings assigned to each bibliographic entry, which define major themes in each of Kingsley's work. For scholars in a broad range of disciplines, The Rev. Charles Kingsley: An Annotated Bibliography of Secondary Criticism (1900-2006) will prove to be an invaluable resource.




Brownson's Defence


Book Description




Music, Power, and Politics


Book Description

Essays by scholars from around the world explore the means by which music's long-acknowledged potential to persuade, seduce, indoctrinate, rouse, incite, or even silence listeners has been used to advance agendas of power and protest.







The Publisher


Book Description




Victorian Labour History


Book Description

First Published in 2004. In Victorian Labour History: Experience, Identity and the Politics of Representation, John Host addresses liberal, Marxist and postmodernist historiography on Victorian working people to question the special status of historical knowledge. The central focus of this study is a debate about mid-Victorian social stability, a condition conventionally equated with popular acceptance of the social order. Host does not join the debate but takes it as his object of analysis, deconstructing the notion of stability and the analyses that purport to explain it. In particular, he takes issue with historical evidence, noting the different possibilities for meaning that it allows and the speculative character of the narratives to which it is adduced. Host examines an extensive range of archival material to illustrate the ambiguity of the historical field, the rhetorical strategies through which the illusion of its unity is created, and the ultimately fictive quality of historical narrative. He then explores the political contingency of the works he addresses and the political consequences of representing them as true.