Reflections on America: Tocqueville, Weber and Adorno in the United States by Claus Offe

At a time when so many cracks have emerged within the imagined community of ‘the West', this important new book, by one of the leading social scientists in Europe, examines the intellectual history of comparing Europe and the United States. Claus Offe considers the perspectives adopted by three of Europe’s greatest social scientists – Alexis de Tocqueville, Max Weber and Theodor W. Adorno – in their comparative writings on Europe.
While traveling, studying and working in the US, all three constantly looked back to their European origins, trying to decipher from their American experience what the future may hold for Europe, be it for better or worse. Alexis de Tocqueville, the French aristocrat, observed the functioning of American democracy with a mix of admiration, envy and deep concerns about the fate of liberty in the ‘democratic age'. Max Weber, the German sociologist, reported enthusiastically about the youthful energy he found in the United States, which, however, he saw as gradually succumbing to the stifling tendencies of European bureaucratization. Theodor W. Adorno, the critical theorist and refugee from Nazi Germany, observed with a sense of despair the workings of the American ‘culture industry’ which he equated to the totalitarian experience of Europe, only to switch to a much more favorable picture upon his return to Germany.
Europe and the US are conventionally assumed to share the same trajectory and develop according to some common pattern of ‘occidental rationalism', with the observed differences resulting from mere lags and relative advances on one side or the other. In this insightful book, Offe questions the relevance of this paradigm to transatlantic relations today.

“Reflections on America is simultaneously an excellent contribution to sociological theory and to historical-comparative research.”
Sociological Review
“A concise, rich account of three salient European socio-theoretical perspectives on America and their implications for Europe.”
Matthias Benzer, British Journal of Sociology
“The author offers valuable insights on American exceptionalism and its consequences for domestic and international politics ... For readers more interested in current developments in American politics, the appeal of the book lies in Offe’s insights about the contribution of foreign policy to the effectiveness of the American melting pot and to social cohesion.”
Álvaro Morcillo, British Journal of Sociology
“In this elegant and inspiring book, Claus Offe shows how America time and again has served Europeans as a screen on which to project their own visions of society, revealing as much about the old continent as about the new world.”
Abram de Swaan, Amsterdam School of Social Research

 

Who is Claus Offe ?

Professor Claus Offe (born 1940 in Berlin) is a political sociologist of Marxist orientation. Once a student of Jürgen Habermas, the left-leaning German academic is counted among the second generation Frankfurt School. He currently teaches at a private university in Berlin, the Hertie School of Governance.
He has made substantive contributions to understanding the relationships between democracy and capitalism. His recent work has focused on economies and states in transition to democracy.
He has been married to Ulrike Poppe since 2001. He taught at The New School.

Fields of research

 

• Political sociology
• Social policy
• Democratic theory
• Transformation studies
• Dual Allocation Problem

 

Career movements

• 2006 - Joint Professor of Theories of the State, Hertie School of Governance, Berlin (with Ulrich K. Preuss).
• 2005 — Retired in April.
• 1995-2005 — Professor of Political Science at the Humboldt University of Berlin.
• 1989-1995 — Teacher at University of Bremen and served as visiting professor at various academic institutions in US, Netherlands, Canada, Austria, Sweden, Australia and Italy.
• 1973 — Habilitation from the University of Konstanz.
• 1968 — Received a doctorate from the University of Frankfurt.
• 1965 — Graduated from the Free University of Berlin.

 

Recent publications

• 2005 — ”Reflections on America: Tocqueville, Weber and Adorno in the United States”, Cambridge: University Press, ISBN 0-7456-3505-9.
• 1998 — ”Institutional Design in Post-Communist Societies. Rebuilding the Ship at Sea.” (with Jon Elster and Ulrich K. Preuss), Cambridge: University Press, ISBN 0-521-47386-1
• 1996 — ”The Varieties of Transition: the East European and East German experience” (with Jeremy Gaines), Cambridge: Polity Press, ISBN 0-7456-1608-9.
• 1996 — ”Modernity and The State: East and West.” (with Charles Turner and Jeremy Gaines), Cambridge: Polity Press, ISBN 0-7456-1674-7.
• 1982 — with Volker Gransow. "Political Culture and the Politics of the Social Democratic Government". TELOS 53 (Fall 1982). New York: Telos Press

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Claus_Offe