The Last Half Century

The Last Half-Century represents the culmination of a lifetime of scholarship by Morris Janowitz. In this comprehensive and systematic analysis of the major trends in American society during the past fifty years, he probes the weakening of popular party affiliations and the increased inability of elected representatives to rule. Centering his work on the crucial concept of social control, Janowitz orders and assesses a vast amount of empirical research to clarify the failure of basic social institutions to resolve our chronic conflicts. For Janowitz, social control denotes a society's capacity to regulate itself within a moral framework that transcends simple self-interest. He poses urgent questions: Why has social control been so drastically weakened in our advanced industrial society? And what strategies can we use to strengthen it again? The expanation rests in part on the changes in social structure which make it more and more complicated for citizens to calculate their political self-interest. At the same time, complex economic and defense problems also strain an already overburdened legislative system, making effective, responsive political rule increasingly difficult. Janowitz concludes by assessing the response of the social sciences to the pressing problem of social control and asserts that new forms of citizen participation in the government must be found.

Reprint of the original, first published in 1872.

Reprint of the original, first published in 1857.

The papers collected in this anthology look at Chinese overseas, residing in five continents in the half century after the Second World War, from many new perspectives. Some papers raise questions about the Chinese diaspora in broad conceptual terms, and inquire into the meaning of being Chinese outside China. Other papers examine life in local communities, analysing how historical and contemporary circumstances affect their lives and the ways they negotiate their identity in the host country. In-depth case studies further bring out the complexity of the subject by identifying the range of variables, including the social, economic, political and cultural characteristics of the places of origin and destinations, as well as emigration and immigration policies, which affect the patterns of migration and the nature of settlement in any place at any time. This is especially highlighted in chapters using a comparative approach. With scholars from different disciplines, using different types of data, methodologies and theoretical tools, the richness of the subject matter becomes apparent. This volume will no doubt go a long way both to broaden and deepen our understanding of the Chinese overseas, and, by showing the many possibilities for further investigation, to strengthen Chinese overseas as a field of study.

In 'The Advance of Science in the Last Half-Century', written in 1887, Thomas Henry Huxley explores the scientific and technological advancements of the previous fifty years, comparing them to the progress of earlier eras. Despite being written over a century ago, Huxley's philosophy of science still holds relevance and offers valuable insights. Huxley delves into the advancements in science that led to improvements in industrial production, technical processes, and the emergence of new processes. He also provides a fascinating discussion of the contributions of Descartes, Newton, Leibnitz, Tyndall, Darwin, and Bain, among others. This book provides a comprehensive and insightful look at the history of scientific progress and its impact on humankind, paving the way for even greater discoveries in the centuries to come.

Reprint of the original, first published in 1883.