Racism: A Short History Review

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Racism: A Short History ReviewGeorge Fredrickson is a Stanford history professor who has studied racism (particularly of the white supremacist variety) for many years. In this "Short History," he attempts a synthesis and comparison of much of what he has learned from his own work and that of others. An initial problem in tracing the history of "racism" is in deciding what exactly counts as "racism" -- for example, is the ancient prejudice against foreigners (barbarians) a kind of racism or simply xenophobia or ethnocentrism? Fredrickson excludes ancient examples on the ground that members of disfavored groups could (more or less) overcome these prejudices by adopting (assimilating) the dominant culture. One's status as Other was neither immutable nor (necessarily) heritable. An essential element of racism, in Fredrickson's view, is the belief that certain differences are tied to race, that those differences cannot be overcome by human action, *and* (most critically) that those differences have implications for how society ought to be structured (ranging from informal prejudice and discrimination against the disfavored group through legal segregation to exclusion/extermination).
Definition in hand, Fredrickson provides a fascinating overview of how religious prejudice (against Jews and heathens) gradually transformed (through different paths) into racial prejudice, and how racial prejudice became official policy in the American South of the Jim Crow era, Nazi Germany and apartheid South Africa. (European attitudes toward Native Americans are briefly explored, but then dropped without much development, and the eventual subjugation of Native Americans by the federal government is ignored completely, for reasons which are not apparent to me.) While pointing out significant differences between these three instances of racism, Fredrickson also draws some interesting parallels and contrasts. The role of international events and economic developments in first creating and then destroying these overtly racist regimes is explored in enough detail to make me want to read more.
Fredrickson provides the reader with a lot to think about, including the role of racism today, and whether "biological" racism is now being transformed into a kind of "culturism" that makes certain aspects of culture stand in for race. This is a book of "big thoughts" (as one might expect from a short history), and fulfills an important role in setting out a grand theory that others can respond to. The writing is clear, concise and readily intelligible to non-scholars. Fredrickson does not purport to provide any cures or even suggestions for eliminating current strains of this old disease, but like all good historians he identifies the symptoms and the conditions in which the disease flourishes. Highly recommended.Racism: A Short History Overview

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The Retreat of the State: The Diffusion of Power in the World Economy (Cambridge Studies in International Relations) Review

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The Retreat of the State: The Diffusion of Power in the World Economy (Cambridge Studies in International Relations) ReviewThe late Susan Strange was a renowned academic and political thinker who took the study of International Relations in a new direction. Her book, The Retreat of the State, takes a theoretical framework developed earlier by Strange and applies it to wide variety of situations in International Relations; situations that are rarely considered by mainstream IR writers, despite their almost daily effects on our lives.
Strange challenges the key assumption of IR and international political economics (`IPE') that it is the state that is the key player in IPE and puts forward a theory outlining how other players, from business to the Mafia, can effect IPE.
The first section of the book starts by outlining Stranges' theoretical assumptions, including that the State is not the key player in international political economics that it is sometimes made out to be. She also sets out the redefine what is traditionally thought of as power in IR relationships, arguing successfully that power should be thought of as more that simply political muscle, using a much broader definition. Power and politics is more than simply military strength.
The second half of the book uses six brief case studies, including the Mafia, Big Six accounting firms and Insurance, telecoms and cartels to test her theoretical assumptions. Using the theoretical base set up in the first half of the book, Strange looks at situations where there is, as she terms in, authority beyond that state. For example, in looking at organised crime, who often have sophisticated paramilitary organisations and governance structures, she suggests that the traditional way of looking at IPE (eg neo-liberal, realist and neo-realist) may be obsolete. The same with the Big Six accounting firms, whose power is derived from the States inability or refusal to create the rules for accounting and who have a disproportionate effect on the global economy. While Strange has not sought to explain in detail each of these cases, she has pointed out potential future research in these areas, using a theoretical framework that explains better than traditional IR theory.
Overall, this book represents an important step in the development of IPE theory and indeed in IR theory in general. By allowing for actors other than the state, Strange has opened up a whole new world of analysis and assisted in solving many of the issues that traditional IR theory has failed to explain.
The Retreat of the State: The Diffusion of Power in the World Economy (Cambridge Studies in International Relations) Overview

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Managing With Power: Politics and Influence in Organizations Review

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Managing With Power: Politics and Influence in Organizations ReviewPower is a rare coin: glittering, valuable, and hard to swallow. For many people power is unsavory, disgusting, an abrogation of all that our democratic ideals hold dear. Power corrupts, says the axiom, and our lives, our goals, our organizations prosper in joy and harmony only when it has not tainted the very air we breathe.
Stop kidding yourself. Power - politics, influence, authority wielded decisively - is what makes companies work, what allows organizations to function productively and effectively. And as Jeffrey Pfeffer argues in Managing with Power, power is not an evil miasma to be thwarted, but a tool to be seized and wielded. By recognizing the combination of techniques, strategies, tactics, and dynamics that underlie power, managers can use it successfully to accomplish and achieve.
Pfeffer's take on power therefore sidesteps classic moral quandaries regarding good and evil, means and ends. The world's problems are questions not of morals but of action - or rather, of inaction and passivity. Using Managing with Power, the reader can learn to diagnose the sources of power: how communication and allies create influence, why formal authority matters, and when location matters more. The reader can then study how power may be used effectively and how it may be lost in turn, by following Pfeffer as he analyzes the actions of corporate and political leaders (Lyndon Johnson, Henry Ford II, Roger Smith, et al.). His subjects are measured by their results and their actions; morality is rarely relevant.
Machiavelli would have loved this book, which may put it beyond the pale for many readers. Others attracted by the topic may be dissuaded by the scientific tone and language. Pfeffer is ever the calm observer, the dispassionate social psychologist, and his serenity at times traps the reader in sentences more intricate than articulate: "Needless to say, there were more and more such vacuums to be filled, as his reputation as someone who gets things done, in this case, by analysis, grew." And putting the style itself aside, readers expecting a handbook on how to become rich and powerful will be sorely disappointed. This is a meticulous and methodical analysis; it's not How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying.
Nonetheless, if you're interested in power, if you want to understand the real basis of management and leadership (and why that distinction is immaterial), read this book. Managing with Power is thoroughly researched, theoretically grounded, and remarkably persuasive. Readers glutted by the soul-numbing pablum of most modern business writing will find here a book to stretch the mind and question the most instinctive beliefs. Does power corrupt? Power gets things done.Managing With Power: Politics and Influence in Organizations Overview

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