The Coming Fin de Siecle: An Application of Durkheim's Sociology to Modernity and Postmodernism

New York , NY, U.S.A.: Routledge, 1992. This book attempts to show the relevance of Durkheim's sociology to the debate on modernity and postmodernism by examining how Durikheim's ideas can be applied to current social issues; it argues that there are parallels between the social context of the 1890s and the 1990s, that both share a common rhetoric of rebellion against Enlightenment liberalism and a concern with ideals of justice and equality; but it concludes that despite the apparent similarity postmodernism is actually an extension of the modernity that the previous fin de siecle rebelled against in its search for the irrational bases of social order in the notion of human compassion; therefore the coming fin de siecle will be a contradictory effort to replicate the genuine rebellion of the previous century (pages slightly tanned, otherwise a bright, clean, tight copy). Trade Paperback. Near Fine.