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Title: The Descent of Political Theory: The Genealogy of an American Vocation by John G. Gunnell ISBN: 0-226-31081-7 Publisher: University of Chicago Press Pub. Date: 01 October, 1993 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $20.00 |
Average Customer Rating: 4 (1 review)
Rating: 4
Summary: Puts things in perspective
Comment: Gunnell's work does a great service for American political theory, as well as US political science as a whole. In this book, Gunnell traces how the study of politics developed in the United States, and how the current separation between political science and political theory came about. Avoiding the self-made histories of these fields (for the poliscientists, that the "true" study of politics came about around the behavioralist revolution; for the politheorists, that they are merely the continuation of an unbroken line of thinkers), the author presents a fine history of how the field of political science became what it is.
Gunnell describes how political scientists early on tried to emulate the more German style of academia (and along with that, picked up notions about the State, rather than the more English style of institutions), and then began to head in a new direction. Things became more complex with the entry of European scholars escaping from the Third Reich around the second world war, most especially in the person of Leo Strauss. Gunnell shows how the various personalities and events of the century shaped the field and its current discontents.
This makes for a good read, both for information and for its well-written prose. For theorists, it is enjoyable to see how little the rhetoric of "number-crunchers" on the always-on-the-horizon "political science as science" vision has changed in a hundred years. For poliscientists, it will tickle their fancy to see how theorists were rather instrumental in their own marginalization.
But more importantly than score-settling, this book shows how the separation of theory and science did not have to be the way it is. Moreover, Gunnell shows well how tragic the situation has become for the subfields and the field as a whole, both in terms of intra-field civility as well as in terms of the ability for political science (in all its forms) to have an effect on the real world of politics.
There are only point that is slightly problematic in this work. Gunnell is obviously in support of political science being more active in politics, and shows the more activist bent to the field in its origins. This aim, however, is one that is not necessarily shared - many poliscientists are of the opinion that they are scientists, not policy-wonks (and should remain thus), and some politheorists tend to the same notion (except replace "scientist" with "philosopher"). Perhaps Gunnell could have explained more the importance of activism in political science, and pointed more to some solution. But, perhaps another book would better serve that purpose.
The is an excellent book. It should be required reading for every member of the American Political Science Association.
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Title: My Life by Bill Clinton ISBN: 0375414576 Publisher: Knopf Pub. Date: 22 June, 2004 List Price(USD): $35.00 |
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Title: The Orders of Discourse by John G. Gunnell ISBN: 0847692035 Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield (Non NBN) Pub. Date: August, 1998 List Price(USD): $28.95 |
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