Cover for LYMAN: Selected Works of Herbert Blumer: A Public Philosophy for Mass Society

Selected Works of Herbert Blumer

A Public Philosophy for Mass Society

The editors provide a realistic appraisal and consideration of Blumer’s work as it addresses America’s racial, political, and labor problems--his ‘Public Philosophy”--refuting the characterization of Blumer as primarily a social psychologist of the self.

The civic sociology of Herbert Blumer speaks to the fundamental problem of modernity: how freedom and equity can be ensured when institutional and personal relations are threatened by disparate groups and factions--in short, by difference.

Balancing essays on Herbert Blumer with Blumer's own writings on race relations, labor and management conflict, urbanization, and popular culture, this volume--originally published as Social Order and the Public Philosophy--establishes Blumer's thought as a basis for a public policy that remains faithful to the essential character of human life in a permanently pluralized and segmented society.

Stanford M. Lyman and Arthur J. Vidich situate Blumer's ideas in the context of earlier public philosophers, such as William Graham Sumner, Herbert Croly, and Walter Lippmann. They consider the implications of Blumer's works for America's most pressing social issues and propose a sophisticated civic sociology of their own based on his studies and methods. Their new afterword affirms the rich harvest Blumer's philosophy continues to yield for postmodern society. \

To order online:
http://www.press.uillinois.edu/books/catalog/88zzk7at9780252068843.html

To order by phone:
(800) 621-2736 (USA/Canada)
(773) 702-7000 (International)

Related Titles

previous book next book
Organized Crime in Chicago

Beyond the Mafia

Robert M. Lombardo

Rooting for the Home Team

Sport, Community, and Identity

Edited by Daniel A. Nathan

Immigrant Women Workers in the Neoliberal Age

Edited by Nilda Flores-González, Anna Romina Guevarra, Maura Toro-Morn, and Grace Chang

Feminist Technology

Edited by Linda L. Layne, Sharra L. Vostral, and Kate Boyer

Eating Together

Food, Friendship, and Inequality

Alice P. Julier

Citizens in the Present

Youth Civic Engagement in the Americas

Maria de los Angeles Torres, Irene Rizzini, and Norma Del Río

Challenging the Prison-Industrial Complex

Activism, Arts, and Educational Alternatives

Edited by Stephen John Hartnett

Making Feminist Politics

Transnational Alliances between Women and Labor

Suzanne Franzway and Mary Margaret Fonow

The Gospel of Sustainability

Media, Market, and LOHAS

Monica M. Emerich

The Deepest Sense

A Cultural History of Touch

Constance Classen