A New Science: The Breakdown of Connections and the Birth of Sociology

by Bruce Mazlish

Book Overview

"What makes this book stand out is the way in which Mazlish situates sociology in the broader context of late eighteenth- and early nineteenth-century social thought. This is the most interesting treatment I have read of how there came to be a felt need for sociology, of how a place was created in the intellectual firmament for this new science."

--Craig Calhoun, University of North Carolina

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0271025875
• ISBN13: 9780271025872
• Release Date: October 1993
• Publisher: Penn State University Press
• Length: 348 Pages
• Weight: 1.12 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.8" x 6.0" x 9.0"

Customer Reviews

Healthy optic on public intellectuals, amid an illuminating historiography

This book by Bruce Mazlish is, to my mind, an unrecognized classic in the genre of social science. Every scholar can benefit from becoming familiar with this book. Mazlish is one of the clearest writers on the history of social ideas, and this book makes a particular point about the moral message in social commentary that applies to anyone's writing. This particular book has been the most important lesson I have had in why one should strive to be concrete in defining research themes, and practical in explaining the implications of research findings. Every scholar working in the social sciences has to assimilate "the greats," and so to some extent aspires to shoe-horn their own novel, totalizing critique of contemporary society into a peer-reviewed publication. What Mazlish has done is to help scholars sense the deeper historical reference points to the moral concerns that have underpinned social science, as well as the veiled urge to communicate those moral concerns to wider public audiences. Hence he has given scholars a sense of the risk of wasted verbiage in our own work, to the extent we have not fully examined our own urges along those lines. A New Science: The Breakdown of Connections and the Birth of Sociology follows a single, very consistent thread: the long-running modern anxiety among intellectuals over "broken moral bonds" as the indelible consequences of both the enlightenment and industrialization. In this vein, some thinkers have looked back wistfully on the past (including archaic Medieval hierarchies) while others have fretted about anonymity and degradation in mass society. This is a fascinating, absolutely crucial theme in its own right, and Mazlish has a keen sense of the intellectual terrain. But the impact of this book goes beyond that. We hear these particular complaints repeated again and again by virtually every great early industrial commentator -- Adam Smith, Carlyle, Ruskin, Marx, Toennies, Simmel, Comte, Durkheim and Weber. In unifying such a rich century and such a varied company of writers, Mazlish attunes the reader better to their own intellectual positions: Are we really reflecting adequately on what our own moral agenda is when we stake out some turf in social analysis? Nearly all of these 19th century critiques are of seemingly timeless importance (they hold equally true today) but Mazlish asks us, modestly, to observe an the impolitic implication of this common intellectual heritage. At the end of the grand tour, today's purportedly unique critiques no longer sound particularly novel in their intellectual or moral messages. Contemporary social critiques may tell us something interesting about what's missing in postmodern lives, but they frequently fall squarely in line with past anxieties. Those moral anxieties (past and present) turn out to be very private and idiosyncratic after all in the ways that they suggest remaking the world, even while they claim to be systematic in their understanding of soci

Healthy optic on public intellectuals, amid an illuminating historiography

This book by Bruce Mazlish is, to my mind, an unrecognized classic in the genre of social science. Every scholar can benefit from becoming familiar with this book. Mazlish is one of the clearest writers on the history of social ideas, and this book makes a particular point about the moral message in social commentary that applies to anyone's writing. This particular book has been the most important lesson I have had in why one should strive to be concrete in defining research themes, and practical in explaining the implications of research findings. Every scholar working in the social sciences has to assimilate "the greats," and so to some extent aspires to shoe-horn their own novel, totalizing critique of contemporary society into a peer-reviewed publication. What Mazlish has done is to help scholars sense the deeper historical reference points to the moral concerns that have underpinned social science, as well as the veiled urge to communicate those moral concerns to wider public audiences. Hence he has given scholars a sense of the risk of wasted verbiage in our own work, to the extent we have not fully examined our own urges along those lines. In A New Science, Mazlish tackles the rise of social theory, and follows a single, very consistent thread -- the long-running modern anxiety among intellectuals over "broken moral bonds" as the indelible consequences of both the enlightenment and industrialization. In this vein, some thinkers have looked back wistfully on the past (including archaic Medieval hierarchies) while others have fretted about anonymity and degradation in mass society. This is a fascinating, absolutely crucial theme in its own right, and Mazlish has a keen sense of the intellectual terrain. But the impact of this book goes beyond that. When we hear these particular complaints repeated again and again by so many of the great early industrial commentators -- Adam Smith, Carlyle, Ruskin, Marx, Toennies, Simmel, Comte, Durkheim and Weber -- the value is to help us reflect on and attune ourselves to whether we're doing an adequate job of elucidating moral standards buried in our work. Nearly all of these 19th century critiques are of seemingly timeless importance (they hold equally true today) but Mazlish asks us, modestly, to observe an unspoken and impolitic implication of that intellectual heritage. At the end of this grand historical tour, even the latest, seemingly novel critiques no longer sound particularly novel in their intellectual or moral messages. Contemporary social critiques may argue something interesting about what's missing in postmodern lives, but they fall squarely in line with past anxieties that turn out to have been very private and idiosyncratic in the ways that they suggested remaking the world, even as they claimed to be systematic in their understanding of society. The complaint, rather than the remedy, is what proved most alluring. Mazlish does not downplay the intellectual richness of any of these c