Our Modern Times

How information technology has replaced the work culture of paternalism and standardization with one of isolation and insecurity.

The New Modern Times assesses historical, contemporary, and projected trends in the American world of work. The contributors represent a range of disciplines — sociology, history, education, economics, women's studies, and planning— yet all share the perspective that an understanding of the workplace is basic to an understanding of where our society has been, where it is now, and where it is going. The book focuses on many of the broad causes and consequences of trends in the institutional, demographic, and technological spheres of American society that are continuing to transform both our working and non-working lives. The authors balance careful empirical accounts with a willingness to look ahead to future transformations of the workplace and to draw out the current policy implications of their analyses. A strong interdisciplinary approach addresses issues such as changing skill levels, the social consequences of new technologies, the emerging economic role of women, and fundamental changes in the terms of employment. In doing so, the book offers new directions for research and new ways to think about some of the most basic processes that continue to transform the American landscape.

The West suffers from intense work pressure, longer and less well paid hours. This text is a sociological analysis of the relationship between overwork and unemployment. The only possible response, the author claims, is a renewal of the working class struggle.

Originally published in 1983 and named one of the Best Books of the Year by The New York Times, this bestselling history is now revised and updated and includes a new final chapter. A far-reaching and masterful work, it explores the events, ideas, and personalities of the seven decades since the First World War.

This book looks at Charlie Chaplin’s masterpiece, Modern Times (1936), through the lens of film aesthetics, structure, and post-modern perspective. The naïve Tramp character of Modern Times is often seen as the embodiment of a revolutionary reaction to his age. However, this study of the film shows that it is not only difficult but also impossible to accept the long-established critical reception of Chaplin’s film and its characters in our own "Post-modern Times." Drawing from extensive research and bringing post-modern context to the film through a comparative analysis of Todd Phillips’s Joker (2019), the book introduces how exhilarating a comprehensive study of film can be for engaged viewers. Illustrating that a detailed filmic reading of Modern Times can be a guide, or an extended case study, for analysing culture, this book will be of interest to students and teachers in film studies, literary studies, and the visual arts.

Modern Times was Charlie Chaplin's last full-length silent film. The author situates 'Modern Times' within the context of Chaplin's life work, exploring its history and influences. She explores how the film's themes of oppression, industrialization and dehumanization are embodied in the little tramp's struggle to survive in the modern world.

From the national bestselling author of The Naked Communist, The Naked Capitalist, and The 5000 Year Leap comes Prophecy and Modern Times, the decisive guide to understanding God’s messages and finding hope in the modern era. “Prophecy is not poetry. It is history in reverse.”—W. Cleon Skousen Have you ever wondered what the ancient prophets had to say about the modern world? How to apply the messages of the scriptures to your own life? What the true purpose of prophecy is? Find these answers and more in Prophecy and Modern Times: Finding Hope and Encouragement in the Last Days, a brief but powerful exploration of six millennia worth of prophecies about society today. The prophets of Biblical times foresaw many of the complexities of the modern era with remarkable accuracy—conflicts in the Middle East and America, the rise of enormous economic and military powers, and the stealthy corruption of nations and personal lives. Throughout history, prophecies have been “fulfilled literally,” as Skousen writes, shedding important light on how God communicates and how to interpret His messages in today’s world. Through years of careful research and with a reporter’s dedication to the truth, Skousen beautifully distills these many ancient warnings and promises into one clear, fascinating volume, providing a deeper understanding of the scriptures for a new generation. Ezra Taft Benson, thirteenth President of the LDS Church, wrote in the foreword, “Every person interested in present and future events in this war-torn world will profit from a careful perusal of these pages.” Indeed, hundreds of thousands of readers over the past seventy years, including some of the country’s greatest religious and political minds, have turned to this book for insight and encouragement in these troubled times. Praise for Prophecy and Modern Times: “Valuable and worthwhile contribution to religious literature!”—Ezra Taft Benson, thirteenth President of the LDS Church “This release of Prophecy and Modern Times is timely, not only in its relevant content but also in the message it brings to the table. Skousen reveals his brilliance in his organization of such a monumentally complicated task. He suggests how to interpret prophecy, tells us its purpose and our responsibility to understand it. Skousen is masterful!”—Gary D. Goodwin, Association for Mormon Letters

The critique of modernist ideology from France's leading radical theorist In this book Jacques Rancière radicalises his critique of modernism and its postmodern appendix. He contrasts their unilinear and exclusive time with the interweaving of temporalities at play in modern processes of emancipation and artistic revolutions, showing how this plurality itself refers to the double dimension of time. Time is more than a line drawn from the past to the future. It is a form of life, marked by the ancient hierarchy between those who have time and those who do not. This hierarchy, continued in the Marxist notion of the vanguard and nakedly exhibited in Clement Greenberg’s modernism, still governs a present which clings to the fable of historical necessity and its experts. In opposition to this, Rancière shows how the break with the hierarchical conception of time, formulated by Emerson in his vision of the new poet, implies a completely different idea of the modern. He sees the fulfilment of this in the two arts of movement, cinema and dance, which at the beginning of the twentieth century abolished the opposition between free and mechanical people, at the price of exposing the rift between the revolution of artists and that of strategists.