Barrington Moore, Jr.

Barrington Moore, Jr. ( May 12, 1913 - October 21, 2005 ) was an American sociologist , historian, and political scientist .

In his main work on the origins of democracy or dictatorship in the modern age, he tried to understand how this choice was made in selected societies as is typical of models. What did the developments towards democracy, fascist or communist forms of government depend on? He looked specifically at the way in which modern and premodern power relations determined the industrialization and modernization of the respective agricultural economies and led to the emergence of one of the aforementioned forms of government.

Moore had worked as a political analyst for the US government and the OSS during World War II . From 1945 he taught sociology in Chicago and Harvard, from 1951 until his retirement he worked at the Russian Research Center of Harvard University, his first publications were in the Soviet Union . In 1958 he published a book with essays that questioned the methodological approach of American sociology at the time.

Barrington Moore was a lifelong friend of an old manager at the OSS, Herbert Marcuse .

Works

• Soviet Politics - The Dilemma of Power: The Role of Ideas in Social Change , Harvard University Press, Cambridge, 1950.
• Terror and Progress, USSR: Some Sources of Change and Stability in the Soviet Dictatorship , Harvard University Press, Cambridge, 1954.
• Political Power and Social Theory: Six Studies , Harvard University Press, Cambridge, 1958. Expanded edition: Political Power and Social Theory: Seven Studies , Harper & Row, New York, 1965.
• BM, Robert Paul Wolff, Herbert Marcuse: A Critique of Pure Tolerance , Beacon Press, Boston, 1965.
• Social Origins of Dictatorship and Democracy: Lord and Peasant in the Making of the Modern World , Beacon Press, Boston, 1966. (Later editions: ISBN 0-8070-5073-3 )
• Reflection of the Causes of Human Misery and on Certain Proposals to Eliminate Them , Beacon Press, Boston, 1972.
• Injustice: The Social Bases of Obedience and Revolt , ME Sharpe, White Plains, NY, 1978. ISBN 0-333-24783-3 .
• Privacy: Studies in Social and Cultural History , ME Sharpe, Armonk, NY, 1983.
• Authority and Inequality under Capitalism and Socialism ( Tanner Lectures on Human Values ), Clarendon Press, Oxford, 1987.
• Moral Aspects of Economic Growth, and Other Essays ( The Wilder House Series in Politics, History, and Culture ), Cornell University Press, Ithaca, NY, 1993. ISBN 0-8014-3376-2
• Moral Purity and Persecution in History , Princeton University Press, Princeton, NJ, 2000. ISBN 0-691-04920-3 .

Translations

• On the history of political violence. Three studies. Translated by Hans H. Hildebrandt. Suhrkamp ( edition suhrkamp , No. 187), Frankfurt a. M., 1964.
• Together with Robert Paul Wolff , Herbert Marcuse : Critique of pure tolerance. Translated by Alfred Schmidt . Suhrkamp ( edition suhrkamp , No. 181), Frankfurt a. M., 1966.
• Social origins of dictatorship and democracy. Translated by Gert H. Müller. Suhrkamp, ​​Frankfurt a. M., 1969. ISBN 3-518-27654-9 .
• Injustice. Translated by Detlev Puls. Suhrkamp, ​​Frankfurt 1982. ISBN 3-518-28292-1 .

literature

• Dennis Smith, "Barrington Moore: Violence, Morality and Political Change," Palgrave Macmillan 1983, ISBN 0-333-30620-1 .

Web links

• Literature by and about Barrington Moore, Jr. in the catalog of the German National Library
• Death Report by Barrington Moore Jr.