Industrial Society - 3 Essays on Ideology and Development

Description

In this book we get 3 lectures of Professor Raymond-Claude-Ferdinand Aron. These were written late in his career after he himself had tasted the Opium of Intellectuals and written major,seminal,works on Marxs. In this work rather then pitting Marxism versus Capitalism, Professor Aron asks if the Soviet System and the American System were not two sides of the same developmental coin. If there can be such a coin. He seeks the importance of Ideology as an economic and developmental determinant. What is the nature of modern industrial society? Are the Soviet and American systems two variants of a single type, destined to become more and more alike? How important is ideology in determining our notions of economic development, the rationality of the social order, and national growth? What options do developing countries have in charting their course toward modernization and the technological society? In this new study, Raymond Aron, distinguished Professor of Sociology at the Sorbonne and Director of Studies at the Ecole Pratique des Hautes Etudes, explores the varying aspects of ideology and development in our time and points to what he believes are valuable insights, and regrettable failings, in the work of such writers as Walt W. Rostow, Colin Clark, George Lichtheim, Morris Ginsberg, and H. D. Aiken. In outlining a theory of development, a definition of industrial society, and a new analysis of "the end of ideology," Professor Aron provides us with a thoughtful and provocative view of both our past and our future.