Bücher von Richard F. Hamilton

Bourgeois Epoch: Marx and Engels on Britain, France, and Germany

The basic concern of the author is to find the reason for the persistent leftist character of French working-class politics in a period of rapid industrialization and improving living standards. Reanalyzing material from surveys made by two French organizations, he finds that increased affluence is correlated with changes in social structure that increase radicalism. As rural and small-town workers come into big cities and large plants, they are influenced by political activists who provide them with a Communist frame of reference for interpreting the meaning of new affluence.Originally published in 1967.The Princeton Legacy Library uses the latest print-on-demand technology to again make available previously out-of-print books from the distinguished backlist of Princeton University Press. These editions preserve the original texts of these important books while presenting them in durable paperback and hardcover editions. The goal of the Princeton Legacy Library is to vastly increase access to the rich scholarly heritage found in the thousands of books published by Princeton University Press since its founding in 1905.

Decisions for War focuses on the choices made by small coteries in Austria-Hungary, Germany, Russia, France, Britain and elsewhere to address a common yet perplexing question: why did World War I happen? Several of the usual causes for the war are reviewed and discussed. Rather than accepting arguments of mass demands, nationalism, militarism, and social Darwinism, the book shows how in each country, the decision to enter the war was made by only a handful of individuals - monarchs, ministers, military people, party leaders, ambassadors, and others. In each case, we also see separate and distinct agendas, the considerations differing from one nation to the next. The leadership of Japan, the Ottoman Empire, Italy, the Balkans, and the United States are explored, as well as that of the major European countries involved.

Three major social theories - mass society, pluralism and bureaucracy - are often employed to interpret and explain modern societies. This text seeks to clarify the background, context and major arguments of the theories, and assess the claims and validity of each.

Hamilton provides an interdisciplinary explication and assessment of Marxism, of Marxist revisionism, and of Leninism, and delineates the major propositions of the three theories.