A01=Justin Rosenberg
ancient
Author_Justin Rosenberg
business
Category=JH
Category=JPA
Category=JPS
cold
communism
culture
Deutscher
Economics
empire
engels
eq_bestseller
eq_isMigrated=1
eq_isMigrated=2
eq_nobargain
eq_non-fiction
eq_society-politics
freud
Friedrich
geopolitics
Greece
historical
industry
Italy
Marxism
materialism
memorial
Portugal
power
prize
psychoanalysis
renaissance
socialism
sociology
Spanish
war
Product details
- ISBN 9780860916079
- Weight: 310g
- Dimensions: 137 x 218mm
- Publication Date: 17 May 1994
- Publisher: Verso Books
- Publication City/Country: GB
- Product Form: Paperback
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The Empire of Civil Society mounts a compelling critique of the orthodox "realist" theory of international relations and provides a historical-materialist approach to the international system.
Opening with an interrogation of a number of classic realist works, the book rejects outright the goal of theorizing geopolitical systems in isolation from wider social structures. In a series of case studies-including Classical Greece, Renaissance Italy and the Portuguese and Spanish empires-Justin Rosenberg shows how the historical-materialist analysis of societies is a surer guide to understanding geopolitical systems than the technical theories of realist international relations. In each case, he draws attention to the correspondence between the form of the geopolitical system and the character of the societies composing it.
In the final section of the book, the tools forged in these explorations are employed to analyze the contemporary international system, with striking results. Rosenberg demonstrates that the distinctive properties of the sovereign-states system are best understood as corresponding to the social structures of capitalist society. In this light, realism emerges as incapable of explaining what it has always insisted is the central feature of the international system-namely, the balance of power. On the other hand, it is argued that Marx's social theory of value, conventionally regarded as an account of hierarchical class domination, provides the deepest understanding of the core international relations theme of "anarchy."
Provocative and unconventional, The Empire of Civil Society brilliantly turns orthodox international relations on its head.
Opening with an interrogation of a number of classic realist works, the book rejects outright the goal of theorizing geopolitical systems in isolation from wider social structures. In a series of case studies-including Classical Greece, Renaissance Italy and the Portuguese and Spanish empires-Justin Rosenberg shows how the historical-materialist analysis of societies is a surer guide to understanding geopolitical systems than the technical theories of realist international relations. In each case, he draws attention to the correspondence between the form of the geopolitical system and the character of the societies composing it.
In the final section of the book, the tools forged in these explorations are employed to analyze the contemporary international system, with striking results. Rosenberg demonstrates that the distinctive properties of the sovereign-states system are best understood as corresponding to the social structures of capitalist society. In this light, realism emerges as incapable of explaining what it has always insisted is the central feature of the international system-namely, the balance of power. On the other hand, it is argued that Marx's social theory of value, conventionally regarded as an account of hierarchical class domination, provides the deepest understanding of the core international relations theme of "anarchy."
Provocative and unconventional, The Empire of Civil Society brilliantly turns orthodox international relations on its head.
Justin Rosenberg is Reader in International Relations at the University of Sussex.
