War And Modernity

Drawing on a wide range of material, from World War I and Vietnam to the Gulf War and the conflicts in the Balkans, Joas engages with current debates in the sociology and politics of war and develops his own distinctive line of argument concerning the role of warfare in modern societies. He aligns himself with figures such as Giddens and Mann in the attempt to establish a new and non-functionalist theory of social change.

This compelling and timely study confronts one of the great paradoxes of our era, and Joas's book is a substantial contribution towards a new historico-sociological perspectiveon the twentieth century. It will be of particular interest to students and scholars of sociology and politics, and will appeal to anyone who has puzzled over the persistence of modern war, and the limits of enlightenment as an historical force.

Introduction: War and Values.

Part I The Modernity of War.

1. The Dream of a Modernity without Violence.

2. The Modernity of War: Modernization Theory and the Problem of Violence.

3. Ideologies of War: The First World War as Reflected in the Contemporary Social Sciences.

Part II After War.

4. After the War: Democracy and Anti-Communism in Berlin after 1945.

5. After the Cold War: The Collapse of the German Democratic Republic (with Martin Kohli).

6. Sprayed and Betrayed: the Experience of Violence on the Vietnam War and Its Consequences.

Part III: War and Violence in Social Theory.

7. Between Power Politics and Pacifist Utopia: Peace and War in Sociological Theory.

8. Is there a Militarist Tradition in Sociology?.

9. Sociology after Auschwitz: Zygmunt Bauman's Work and the Problems of German Self-Understanding.

10. War and the Risk Society.

11. War the Teacher?.

12. Action Theory and the Dynamics of Violence.

Notes.

Bibliography.

Name Index.

Subject Index