A Propensity to Self-Subversion / Edition 1

by Albert O. Hirschman

Overview

Albert O. Hirschman is renowned worldwide for theories that have been at the forefront of political economics during the last half century. In these twenty essays he casts his sharp analytical eye on his own ideas, questioning and qualifying some of his major propositions on social change and economic development. Hirschman's self-subversion, as well as the self-affirmation that is also present here, reveal the workings of a distinguished mind. They also bring us fresh perspective on the material in his twelve previous books and countless essays.In the substantial essays that open this collection, Hirschman reappraises points he made in such books as Exit, Voice, and Loyalty, The Strategy of Economic Development, and The Rhetoric of Reaction. Subsequent essays fruitfully reexplore the themes of Latin American development and market society that have occupied him throughout his career. Hirschman also forays into new puzzles, such as the likely impact, negative or otherwise, of the Eastern European revolutions of 1989 on the Third World, the on-and-off connections between political and economic progress, and the role of conflict in enhancing community spirit in a liberal democracy.

In a rare and particularly welcome section of the book, Hirschman presents autobiographical fragments that reflect his deep involvement in some of the important events of this century. He recollects his flight from Hitler's Germany in 1933, his studies in Paris, his work with the antifascist underground in Italy in 1937-38, and his role in helping Varian Fry in Marseilles, in 1940, to rescue political and intellectual refugees from Vichy France. Such accounts deepen our understanding of how Hirschman's penetrating insights took shape.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780674715585
Publisher:	Harvard University Press
Publication date:	07/07/1998
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	264
Sales rank:	826,901
Product dimensions:	6.12(w) x 9.25(h) x 0.70(d)

About the Author

Albert O. Hirschman was Professor of Social Science, Emeritus, at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, following a career of prestigious appointments, honors, and awards. Perhaps the most widely known and admired of his many books are Exit, Voice, and Loyalty (Harvard) and The Passions and the Interests (Princeton).

Table of Contents

Introduction

On Self-Subversion

Exit, Voice, and the Fate of the German Democratic Republic

The Rhetoric of Reaction-Two Years Later

The Case against "One Thing at a Time"

Opinionated Opinions and Democracy

A Propensity to Self-Subversion

On Self

Four Reencounters

My Father and Weltanschauung, circa 1928

Studies in Paris, 1933-1935

Doubt and Antifascist Action in Italy, 1936-1938

With Varian Fry in Marseilles, 1940

Escaping over the Pyrenees, 1940-41

A Hidden Ambition

Convergences with Michel Crozier

New Forays

How the Keynesian Revolution Was Exported from the United States

On the Political Economy of Latin American Development

Is the End of the Cold War a Disaster for the Third World?

Industrialization and Its Manifold Discontents: West, East, and South

Does the Market Keep Us Out of Mischief or Out of Happiness?

The On-and-Off Connection between Political and Economic Progress

Social Conflicts as Pillars of Democratic Market Societies

Acknowledgments

Index

Editorial Reviews

In an age when economics (like many other disciplines) is becoming more specialised and inward-looking, Hirschman's work makes a refreshing change. His wide-ranging essays deal with big themes—the end of the Cold War and economic development, the connection between economics and politics, the role of the market, the benefits and costs of industrialization...All the essays [here] reveal both Hirschman's focus on deep conceptual issues, and his love of paradox...This book will serve as a reminder than, in addition to the very specialised concerns that increasingly dominate the discipline, there are also important big issues to be addressed, and that there are important things that can and need to be said about them.

The Economic Journal - Roger E. Backhouse

[Hirschman's is] a lucid mind whose original voice is of enduring importance in our age of narrow specialization.

Government and Opposition - Aurelian Craiutu

[Hirschman's is] a lucid mind whose original voice is of enduring importance in our age of narrow specialization.
— Aurelian Craiutu

Government and Opposition

In an age when economics (like many other disciplines) is becoming more specialised and inward-looking, Hirschman's work makes a refreshing change. His wide-ranging essays deal with big themes—the end of the Cold War and economic development, the connection between economics and politics, the role of the market, the benefits and costs of industrialization...All the essays [here] reveal both Hirschman's focus on deep conceptual issues, and his love of paradox...This book will serve as a reminder than, in addition to the very specialised concerns that increasingly dominate the discipline, there are also important big issues to be addressed, and that there are important things that can and need to be said about them.
— Roger E. Backhouse

The Economic Journal

Kapur (clinical psychology, National Institute of Mental Health and Neurosciences, Bangalore) seeks to sensitize people who work with children in India to various aspects of mental health. His focus is the internal or external distress that warp psychosocial development rather than mental disability. He describes and evaluates assessment and therapeutic techniques, discusses several specific disorders, and surveys the social environment in which Indian children grow up. No index. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

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