Author: C. Wright Mills File Type: pdf From Publishers WeeklyThe U.S. intellectual and political world was jolted in 1962, when famed progressive political commentator and sociologist C. Wright Mills died of a heart attack at age 45. This collection of Millss selected letters and shorter unpublished or uncollected writings reminds us of the writers scrupulous and generous mind, presenting ideas that continue to resonate today. Edited by his daughters, the collection offers a glimpse into the writers personal life as well as into his intellectual relationships with such vital 20th-century thinkers as David Riesman, Saul Alinsky, Leo Lowenthal, Harvey Swados and Dan Wakefield (who wrote the introduction to the book). Most illuminating are Millss letters to Tovarich, an imaginary friend in the Soviet Union, to whom he muses on American politics and the state of the world. He occasionally demonstrates his na?vet?, as when he writes about race relations in the U.S., but his insights are keen when he writes about university life and McCarthyism. One of the great discoveries included in the book is Millss FBI file, which was started after he wrote the bestselling Listen, Yankee (1960), a defense of the Cuban revolution. This file, which documents a possible assassination attempt on Mills in response to the book, is a chilling reminder of the hostility faced by liberal intellectuals in the 1950s. (May) 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc. From Library JournalThis book marks an important contribution to our understanding of the provocative work of eminent sociologist Mills, author of White Collar, The Power Elite, and The Sociological Imagination. Mills, who left a lasting impression on his Columbia University students (including author Dan Wakefield, who provides an introduction to this volume), challenged the status quo and anticipated the societal struggles of the 1960s (and beyond) in his energetic but all-too-brief life (he died in 1962 at the age of 45). Here Millss daughters have selected some 150 letters Mills wrote to distinguished thinkers of his day. They create a fascinating picture of a passionate intellectual at work. Early letters to his family anticipate Millss future directions. So I am learning American history in order to quote it at the sons of bitches who run American Big Business, he wrote his parents in 1942. The editors descriptions of the contexts of many letters,a chronology of Millss life, and notes on correspondents enrich this volume. Highly recommended for both public and academic libraries.-Ellen Gilbert, Rutgers Univ., New Brunswick, NJ 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Author: Richard R. John File Type: pdf The telegraph and the telephone were the first electrical communications networks to become hallmarks of modernity. Yet they were not initially expected to achieve universal accessibility. In this pioneering history of their evolution, Richard R. John demonstrates how access to these networks was determined not only by technological imperatives and economic incentives but also by political decision making at the federal, state, and municipal levels. In the decades between the Civil War and the First World War, Western Union and the Bell System emerged as the dominant providers for the telegraph and telephone. Both operated networks that were products not only of technology and economics but also of a distinctive political economy. Western Union arose in an antimonopolistic political economy that glorified equal rights and vilified special privilege. The Bell System flourished in a progressive political economy that idealized public utility and disparaged unnecessary waste. The popularization of the telegraph and the telephone was opposed by business lobbies that were intent on perpetuating specialty services. In fact, it wasnt until 1900 that the civic ideal of mass access trumped the elitist ideal of exclusivity in shaping the commercialization of the telephone. The telegraph did not become widely accessible until 1910, sixty-five years after the first fee-for-service telegraph line opened in 1845. Network Nation places the history of telecommunications within the broader context of American politics, business, and discourse. This engrossing and provocative book persuades us of the critical role of political economy in the development of new technologies and their implementation. (20110609) **