Crisis and Change Today

Peter Knapp is professor of sociology at Villanova University. Alan Spector is professor of sociology at Purdue University Calumet.

• List of Figures and TablesPreface to the Second EditionIntroductionChapter 1: Base and Superstructure: Marx's Theory of HistoryIntroduction: Sociology confronts History—Class as the Basis of Social Structure and the Backbone of HistorySection 1.1: Is There a Logic to History? If So, What Is It?Section 1.2: What Is the Basis of Social Structure?Section 1.3: Have States Always Existed?Section 1.4: Have Classes Always Existed?Section 1.5: What Is Feudalism? What Is Liberalism?Section 1.6: What Causes Social Movements and Social Change?Section 1.7: Are Events Inevitable? Was the French Revolution Inevitable?Section 1.8: What Are the Dynamics of the Modern World?Section 1.9: What Are the Fundamental Problems of the Modern World?Section 1.10: Are Classes in the United States Based on Exploitation?Summary and Conclusion: History, Historical Sociology, and Comparative HistoryChapter 2: Surplus Value: Marx's EconomicsIntroduction: Marxist Economics and the Science of Social ChangeSection 2. 1: What Is a Commodity? What Is the Labor Theory of Value?Section 2.2: What Is Surplus Value?Section 2.3: What Is Overproduction? How Can There Be Too Much Food, Housing, or Health Care?Section 2.4: What Are the Dynamics of Production for Profit?Section 2.5: Why Is There Unemployment?Section 2.6: Who Benefits from Racism and Sexism?Section 2.7: How Much Misery Is There in the United States?Section 2.8: Is the United States a Land of Exceptional Mobility? Does It Matter?Section 2.9: Why Are There Economic Depressions?Section 2. 10: Why Has the U.S. Been "Number 1?"Summary and Conclusions: Economics and Political EconomyChapter 3: Class Struggle: Class, Party, and Political TheoryIntroduction: Economic Determinism Versus Political Processes and Ideas—A False DebateSection 3.1: What Is the Basis of a Truly Free Society?Section 3.2: What Are Capitalists' Political Resources Under Capitalism?Section 3.3: What Are the Crucial Political Changes in the World Today?Section 3.4: How Does Capitalist Politics Change?Section 3.5 What Is Fascism?Section. 3.6: What Determines Different Degrees of Destructiveness of Fascism?Section 3.7: What Is a "Dictatorship of the Proletariat"?Section 3.8: What Are the Main Varieties of Marxism?Section 3.9: Why Did Socialism Collapse in the USSR and China?Section 3. 10: What Does the Collapse of Socialist World Powers Mean for Change?Summary and Conclusion: Marxist Political TheoryChapter 4: Applying Dialectics: Some Issues in the Philosophy of ScienceIntroduction: Dialectics—A Way of Looking at the World, or the Way the World Works?Section 4.1: Is a Science of Society Possible?Section 4.2: What Are the Main Sources of Error in Social Theory?Section 4.3: Are Attempts at Neutrality a Guarantee of Objectivity?Section 4.4: Crisis and ChangeSection 4.5: Can Social Science Be Value-Neutral? Should It Be?Section 4.6: Is Society Based on the Thoughts of Its Members?Section 4.7: What Are Ideologies?Section 4.8: What Contradictions Exist in Society?Section 4.9: Can One Find Laws of Change in History?Section 4.10: What Possibilities Are Open to Human Society?Summary and Conclusions: Contradictions, Dialects, and ScienceIndexAbout the Authors

Crisis and Change Today is a textbook. . . as a textbook it plays a potential role in introducing young readers to those concerns. The book covers Marx’s thought comprehensively, with some illustrations from more recent Marxist work. As such it is a good introductory text. . . . In sum, Crisis and Change Today is a good, comprehensive, introduction to Marx.