Sociology & Empire: The Imperial Entanglements of a Discipline (Paperback) (ISBN-13: 9780822352792)

The revelation that the U.S. Department of Defense had hired anthropologists for its Human Terrain System project-assisting its operations in Afghanistan and Iraq-caused an uproar that has obscured the participation of sociologists in similar Pentagon-funded projects. As the contributors to Sociology and Empire show, such affiliations are not new. Sociologists have been active as advisers, theorists, and analysts of Western imperialism for more than a century.

The collection has a threefold agenda: to trace an intellectual history of sociology as it pertains to empire; to offer empirical studies based around colonies and empires, both past and present; and to provide a theoretical basis for future sociological analyses that may take empire more fully into account. In the 1940s, the British Colonial Office began employing sociologists in its African colonies. In Nazi Germany, sociologists played a leading role in organizing the occupation of Eastern Europe. In the United States, sociology contributed to modernization theory, which served as an informal blueprint for the postwar American empire. This comprehensive anthology critiques sociology's disciplinary engagement with colonialism in varied settings while also highlighting the lasting contributions that sociologists have made to the theory and history of imperialism.

Contributors. Albert Bergesen, Ou-Byung Chae, Andy Clarno, Raewyn Connell, Ilya Gerasimov, Julian Go, Daniel Goh, Chandan Gowda, Krishan Kumar, Fuyuki Kurasawa, Michael Mann, Marina Mogilner, Besnik Pula, Anne Raffin, Emmanuelle Saada, Marco Santoro, Kim Scheppele, George Steinmetz, Alexander Semyonov, Andrew Zimmerman

Author: George Steinmetz
ISBN-10: 0822352796
ISBN-13: 9780822352792
Publisher: Duke University Press
Language: English
Published: 06/19/2013
Pages: 632
Format: Paperback
Weight: 1.86lbs
Size: 9.18h x 6.07w x 1.47d

Review Citation(s):
Choice 12/01/2013