Historical Leaps and Sociological Regularities

A review of Michael Mann's The Sources of Social Power, Vol. 1: A History of Power from the Beginning to A. D. 1760, (CUP, 1986 [see listing in IRPS No. 41]). Power relations are analyzed from the earliest human societies to the end of traditional agrarian ones, with focus on the times & places in which major ideological, economic, political, & military events determined the sources & flow of power. The widely accepted definition of societies as unitary social systems is rejected in favor of one of "multiple overlapping & intersecting power networks," & conventional assumptions underlying classical sociological & evolutionary theories are challenged. It is argued that civilization was an "abnormal phenomenon," since it involved the state & social stratification, both of which humans had traditionally avoided; its emergence was the result of a backward or cyclical movement rather than a progressive, evolutionary sequence, & its development was often uneven & discontinuous. The work's seeming incompleteness renders many of its arguments unconvincing; however, judgment is suspended until the publication of its two successive volumes, which will trace the developments of industrialized nation states & modern class societies & draw some theoretical conclusions. 1 Reference. K. Hyatt