Charles Wright fut un innovateur qui rompit avec les modes de fiction traditionnels, se taillant une place pour les avant-gardistes afro-américains. Ses premières œuvres, publiées dans les années 1960 et au début des années 1970, étaient des romans courts passionnément idiosyncrasiques, généreux et tragicomiques. L'écriture de Wright s'est concentrée sur l'existence afro-américaine du milieu du XXe siècle, offrant une perspective unique sur l'époque. Sa capacité à mêler humour et tragédie confère à son travail profondeur et résonance.
Unlike some other reproductions of classic texts (1) We have not used OCR(Optical Character Recognition), as this leads to bad quality books with introduced typos. (2) In books where there are images such as portraits, maps, sketches etc We have endeavoured to keep the quality of these images, so they represent accurately the original artefact. Although occasionally there may be certain imperfections with these old texts, we feel they deserve to be made available for future generations to enjoy.
First published in 1956, The Power Elite stands as a contemporary classic of social science and social criticism. C. Wright Mills examines and critiques the organization of power in the United States, calling attention to three firmly interlocked prongs of the military, corporate, and political elite. The Power Elite can be read as a good account of what was taking place in America at the time it was written, but its underlying question of whether America is as democratic in practice as it is in theory continues to matter very much today.What The Power Elite informed readers of in 1956 was how much the organization of power in America had changed during their lifetimes, and Alan Wolfe's astute afterword to this new edition brings us up to date, illustrating how much more has changed since then. Wolfe sorts out what is helpful in Mills' book and which of his predictions have not come to bear, laying out the radical changes in American capitalism, from intense global competition and the collapse of communism to rapid technological transformations and ever changing consumer tastes. The Power Elite has stimulated generations of readers to think about the kind of society they have and the kind of society they might want, and deserves to be read by every new generation.
This highly acclaimed study of the social sciences critiques the ascendant "schools" of sociology in this country and reassesses the tradition of classic sociological analysis.
Významné dílo pokrokově orientovaného amerického sociologa (1916–1962) analyzuje všemocné postavení elity v USA. Život tu formují představitelé hospodářství, politiky a vojenství. Působí na masy tiskem, rozhlasem a televizí; těmito prostředky vytvářejí v nich stereotypy myšlení. Přímo nevládnou, ale „manipulacemi“. Ponechávají např. iluzi demokracie. Předmluva jednak objasňuje autorovu humanistickou a racionalistickou koncepci, jednak sleduje vývoj teorie elity.
