Download Free An Analysis Of David Riesmans The Lonely Crowd Book in PDF and EPUB Free Download. You can read online An Analysis Of David Riesmans The Lonely Crowd and write the review.

David Riesman’s The Lonely Crowd: A Study in the Changing American Character is one of the best-known books in the history of sociology – holding a mirror up to contemporary America and showing the nation its own character as it had never seen it before. Its success is a testament to Riesman’s mastery of one key critical thinking skill: interpretation. In critical thinking, interpretation focuses on understanding the meaning of evidence, and is frequently characterized by laying down clear definitions, and clarifying ideas and categories for the reader. All these processes are on full display in The Lonely Crowd – which, rather than seeking to challenge accepted wisdom or generate new ideas, provides incisive interpretations and definitions of ideas and data from a variety of sources. Above all, Riesman’s book is a work of categorization – a form of interpretation that can be vital to building and communicating systematic arguments. With the aid of his two co-authors (Nathan Glazer and Reuel Denney), he defined three cultural types that formed a perfect pattern for understanding mid-century American society and the changes it was undergoing. The clarity of the book’s definitions tapped directly into the zeitgeist of the 1950s, powering it to best-seller status and an audience that extended far beyond academia.
This classic collection of essays by David Riesman discusses the implications of affluence in America. Riesman maintains that the question that should be raised by wealth has shifted over time from how to obtain wealth to how to make use of it. Another key theme concerns issues relevant to higher education, such as academic freedom. Abundance for What? examines the notion that America is not as open a society as it may appear to be; it then shows how social science may be used to explain why this is so. And now in a brilliant, lengthy reevaluation Riesman both clarifies and revises that earlier assessment with unusual luster and candor., The volume begins with a group of essays that describe the impact of the Cold War. After warning against depending on a war economy, Riesman shifts the focus of discussion to a central characteristic of the Cold War epoch: the uses and abuses of abundance in expanding leisure time. Several essays deal with suburbs as the locale of abundance, while others study the place of the automobile in American life. Riesman describes the impact of American abundance on other nations. Among the many other subjects discussed in Abundance for What? are the education of women, generational shifts in attitudes, and a study of the national character., In his major new 100-page introduction, Riesman also relates the experiences that originally inspired him to write these essays. He then talks about the social and historical changes that have occurred since their publication. His synthesis of old Ideas with contemporary ones makes this a compelling volume. Abundance for What? continues to hold a significant place in the social and cultural critiques of contemporary America and will be of interest to historians, psychologists, educators, and urban policymakers alike.
In this provocative book, Wilfred McClay considers the long-standing tension between individualism and social cohesion in conceptions of American culture. Exploring ideas of unity and diversity as they have evolved since the Civil War, he illuminates the historical background to our ongoing search for social connectedness and sources of authority in a society increasingly dominated by the premises of individualism. McClay borrows D. H. Lawrence's term 'masterless men'--extending its meaning to women as well--and argues that it is expressive of both the promise and the peril inherent in the modern American social order. Drawing upon a wide range of disciplines--including literature, sociology, political science, philosophy, psychology, and feminist theory--McClay identifies a competition between visions of dispersion on the one hand and coalescence on the other as modes of social organization. In addition, he employs intellectual biography to illuminate the intersection of these ideas with the personal experiences of the thinkers articulating them and shows how these shifting visions are manifestations of a more general ambivalence about the process of national integration and centralization that has characterized modern American economic, political, and cultural life.
Loneliness affects quality of life, life satisfaction, and well-being, and it is associated with various health problems, both somatic and mental. This book takes an international and interdisciplinary approach to the study of loneliness, identifying and bridging the gaps in academic research on loneliness, and creating new research pathways. Focusing in particular on loneliness in the context of new and emergent communication technologies, it provides a wide range of theoretical and methodological perspectives and will contribute to the re-evaluation of the way we understand and research this contemporary global phenomenon.
The classic New York Times bestseller, with a new introduction by E.J. Dionne Jr. When The Culture of Narcissism was first published in 1979, Christopher Lasch was hailed as a “biblical prophet” (Time). Lasch’s identification of narcissism as not only an individual ailment but also a burgeoning social epidemic was groundbreaking. His diagnosis of American culture is even more relevant today, predicting the limitless expansion of the anxious and grasping narcissistic self into every part of American life. The Culture of Narcissism offers an astute and urgent analysis of what we need to know in these troubled times.
No one has failed to notice that the current generation of youth is deeply--some would say totally--involved with digital media. Professors Howard Gardner and Katie Davis name today's young people The App Generation, and in this spellbinding book they explore what it means to be "app-dependent" versus "app-enabled" and how life for this generation differs from life before the digital era. Gardner and Davis are concerned with three vital areas of adolescent life: identity, intimacy, and imagination. Through innovative research, including interviews of young people, focus groups of those who work with them, and a unique comparison of youthful artistic productions before and after the digital revolution, the authors uncover the drawbacks of apps: they may foreclose a sense of identity, encourage superficial relations with others, and stunt creative imagination. On the other hand, the benefits of apps are equally striking: they can promote a strong sense of identity, allow deep relationships, and stimulate creativity. The challenge is to venture beyond the ways that apps are designed to be used, Gardner and Davis conclude, and they suggest how the power of apps can be a springboard to greater creativity and higher aspirations.
Regarded as one of the most important sociological and business commentaries of modern times, The Organization Man developed the first thorough description of the impact of mass organization on American society. During the height of the Eisenhower administration, corporations appeared to provide a blissful answer to postwar life with the marketing of new technologies—television, affordable cars, space travel, fast food—and lifestyles, such as carefully planned suburban communities centered around the nuclear family. William H. Whyte found this phenomenon alarming. As an editor for Fortune magazine, Whyte was well placed to observe corporate America; it became clear to him that the American belief in the perfectibility of society was shifting from one of individual initiative to one that could be achieved at the expense of the individual. With its clear analysis of contemporary working and living arrangements, The Organization Man rapidly achieved bestseller status. Since the time of the book's original publication, the American workplace has undergone massive changes. In the 1990s, the rule of large corporations seemed less relevant as small entrepreneurs made fortunes from new technologies, in the process bucking old corporate trends. In fact this "new economy" appeared to have doomed Whyte's original analysis as an artifact from a bygone day. But the recent collapse of so many startup businesses, gigantic mergers of international conglomerates, and the reality of economic globalization make The Organization Man all the more essential as background for understanding today's global market. This edition contains a new foreword by noted journalist and author Joseph Nocera. In an afterword Jenny Bell Whyte describes how The Organization Man was written.
The Qualities of a Citizen traces the application of U.S. immigration and naturalization law to women from the 1870s to the late 1960s. Like no other book before, it explores how racialized, gendered, and historical anxieties shaped our current understandings of the histories of immigrant women. The book takes us from the first federal immigration restrictions against Asian prostitutes in the 1870s to the immigration "reform" measures of the late 1960s. Throughout this period, topics such as morality, family, marriage, poverty, and nationality structured historical debates over women's immigration and citizenship. At the border, women immigrants, immigration officials, social service providers, and federal judges argued the grounds on which women would be included within the nation. As interview transcripts and court documents reveal, when, where, and how women were welcomed into the country depended on their racial status, their roles in the family, and their work skills. Gender and race mattered. The book emphasizes the comparative nature of racial ideologies in which the inclusion of one group often came with the exclusion of another. It explores how U.S. officials insisted on the link between race and gender in understanding America's peculiar brand of nationalism. It also serves as a social history of the law, detailing women's experiences and strategies, successes and failures, to belong to the nation.