CiNii Books - The prospects of industrial civilization

Author(s)

Bibliographic Information

The prospects of industrial civilization

Bertrand Russell with Dora Russell ; with an introduction by Louis Greenspan

Routledge, 1996

2nd ed

: case
: pbk

Available at / 2 libraries

京都女子大学図書館図

: case331.2/R89/2994030519

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Ritsumeikan University Main Library

: pbk9310119159

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Note

First published in 1923. 2nd ed. originally published: London : George Allen & Unwin, 1959

Reprint of 2nd ed. with new introduction by Louis Greenspan

Includes bibliographical references and index

Description and Table of Contents

Description

The Prospects of Industrial Civilization provides a rare glimpse into areas of Russell's political thought which are often ignored. Written with Dora Black (who became Russell's second wife) on a trip to China in 1920, it is revealing both as a period piece and as a book for our times. Russell criticises his own age, and demonstrates how humanity perpetually struggles against the centralising forces of industrialism and nationalism. He views industrialism as a threat to human freedom, as it creates large populations which have to be subject to controls and he likens Bolshevik Russia to Cromwell's England, asserting that both were dictatorships designed to force an essentially feudal society to adopt industrialism. He sees industrialism and nationalism as fundamentally linked and proposes one government for the whole world as a solution. Russell is not blind to the positive side of industrialism; without machines an economy of subsistence would be the best for which society could hope, but argues that the global village and prevailing political democracy should be its eventual results.

Table of Contents

Introduction
Part I Part I
Chapter I Causes of the Present Chaos
Chapter II Inherent Tendencies of Industrialism
Chapter III Industrialism and Private Property
Chapter IV Interactions of Industrialism and Nationalism
Chapter V The Transition to Internationalism
Chapter VI Socialism in Undeveloped Countries
Chapter VII Socialism in Advanced Countries
Part II Part II
Chapter VIII What Makes A Social System Good or Bad?
Chapter IX Moral Standards and Social Well-Being
Chapter X The Sources of Power
Chapter XI The Distribution of Power
Chapter XII Education
Chapter XIII Economic Organization and Mental Freedom

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