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Loading... The Condition of Postmodernity: An Enquiry into the Origins of Cultural…by David Harvey
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will love Sign up for LibraryThing to find out whether you'll like this book.   yoursources | Jan 31, 2009 |  Marxist view of post-modernity. (  ) neomarxisme | Feb 23, 2007 | dissemination | Jun 19, 2006 | Reviewed by Steven Best here: http://www.drstevebest.org/papers/phi... More on the book's contents here: http://webpages.ursinus.edu/rrichter/... chrisbrooke | Dec 15, 2005 |  no reviews | add a review
Amazon.com (ISBN 0631162925, Paperback)The Condition of Postmodernity is David Harvey's seminal history of our most equivocal of eras. What does postmodernism mean? Where did it come from? Harvey, a professor of geography and a key mover behind extending the scope and influence of the discipline of geography itself, does a thorough job here delineating the passage through to postmodernity and the economic, social, and political changes that underscored and accompanied it. As he clearly states, the rise in postmodernist cultural forms is related to a new intensity in what Harvey terms "time-space compression," but this new intensity is a qualitative rather than quantitative change in social organization, and it does not point to an era beyond capitalism as "the basic rules of capitalistic accumulation" remain unchanged. Unlike Fredric Jameson (whose equally rewarding Postmodernism stands as the twin pillar to Harvey's critique), who explicitly relies on Ernest Mandel's periodization of late capitalism, Harvey eschews a narrowly economic focus, the limits and contradictions of production that have led to the rise in the service sector, and takes a more multidisciplinary approach to his history. As comfortable discussing Manet as he is labor markets, Harvey is an excellent writer, and The Condition of Postmodernity is an exceptionally informative and enjoyable read. --Mark Thwaite, Amazon.co.uk(retrieved from Amazon Fri, 24 Apr 2009 07:58:17 -0400) The first test round has been closed. Visit the Open Shelves Classification group for details. |
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Wikipedia in English (2)
But the book is much more than this: in the course of his investigation the author provides a social and semantic history – from the Enlightenment to the present – of modernism and its expression in political and social ideas and movements, as well as in art, literature and architecture. He considers in particular how the meaning and perception of time and space themselves vary over time and space, and shows that this variance affects individual values and social processes of the most fundamental kind.
This book will be widely welcomed, not only for its clear and critical account of the arguments surrounding the propositions of modernity and postmodernity, but as an incisive contribution to the history of ideas and their relation to social and political change.
'Devastating. The most brilliant study of postmodernity to date. [The author] cuts beneath the theoretical debates about postmodernist culture to reveal the social and economic basis of this apparently free-floating phenomenon. After reading this book, those who fashionably scorn the idea of a "total" critique had better think again.' – Terry Eagleton
'[The author]'s book is probably the best yet written on the link between…economic and cultural transformations.' – Financial Times
'[The author]'s engrossing book is probably the most readable, ambitious, and intelligent work on postmodernism yet published.' – Voice Literary Supplement
'In [the author]'s skillful hands various strands of contemporary life, normally held far apart by specialized scholarly interests, come together again and are shown to fit with each other...a marvelous, enjoyable and mind-opening book.' – Time Literary Supplement