Gordon C. Chang

Gebundenes Buch

Revolution and Witchcraft

The Code of Ideology in Unsettled Times

Beschreibung

Ideas influence people. In particular, extremely well-developed sets of ideas shape individuals, groups, and societies in far-reaching ways. This book establishes these "idea systems" as an academic concept. Through three intense episodes of manipulation and mayhem connected to idea systems-Europe's witch hunts, the Mao Zedong-era "revolutions," and the early campaign of the U.S. War on Terror-this book charts the cognitive and informational matrices that seize control of people's mentalities and behaviors across societies. Through these, the author reaches two conclusions. The first, that we are all vulnerable to the dominating influence of our own matrices of ideas and to those woven by others in the social system. The second, that even the most masterful manipulators of idea programs may lose control of the outcomes of programmatic manipulation. Amongst this analysis, sixty-plus central conceptual terminologies are provided for readers to analyze multiform idea systems that exist across space, time, and cultural contexts.

This is an open access book.

Autor

Gordon C. Chang is Associate Professor at the Department of Sociology and Anthropology at Western Illinois University, USA. He has taught political and cultural sociology classes at both Western Illinois University and University of California, Davis. His works in discourse analysis have appeared in Pragmatics, Discourse and Society, and the Journal of Language and Politics.

Produktdetails

• Verlag: Gordon C. Chang / Palgrave Macmillan / Springer International Publishing / Springer, Berlin
• Artikelnr. des Verlages: 978-3-031-17681-4
• 1st edition 2023
• Seitenzahl: 444
• Erscheinungstermin: 21. Januar 2023
• Englisch
• Abmessung: 216mm x 153mm x 29mm
• Gewicht: 683g
• ISBN-13: 9783031176814
• ISBN-10: 3031176812
• Artikelnr.: 65435546

Rezensionen

"It is within this long and rich tradition that one must situate Gordon C. Chang's book Revolution and Witchcraft: The Code of Ideology in Unsettled Times. ... book's ambition ... identify a 'basic mechanism' of how language and idea systems 'shape the thought processes of entire societies' ... . Chang's empirical analyses offers those of us interested in identifying and acting on such im/possibilities an invaluable set of analytical resources, primed to the task of deconstructing the power of ideas." (Claes Tängh Wrangel, CADAAD Journal, January 30, 2024)

"Revolution and Witchcraft may present a start of a fresh academic idea system, with Chang himself a masterful manipulator. ... the book showcases a middle-path ( )toward

fair-mindedness ( )that utilizes academic idea systems to render ideological systems as observable, as mere human. Through idealization, the book has given readers a novel phenomenological-empiricist ... ." (Terry S. H. Au-Yeung, Symbolic Interaction, May 27, 2024)

"Revolution and Witchcraft is a timely, ambitious, and laudable book. Gordon Chang warrants praise for the thoughtful and rigorous work he did in crafting it. Revolution and Witchcraft offers social scientists dozens of useful concepts, strategies, and analyses to enhance their investigations of ideology. It also demonstrates how we can apply these conceptual tools ... to comprehend the troubling ideological dynamics currently emerging in the United States and across the globe." (Kent Sandstrom, Social Forces, August 11, 2023)