Search Results: Elite Theory & Sociology from Respublica Books LLC

Firenze: La Nuova Italia Editrice, 1949. First edition (in Italian). Octavo. Stapled wraps, 6.5 x 9.5 inches, 82 pp. Minor toning to edge of wrappers with edgewear to spine; bending to wrappers, else near-fine.. Early bibliography in Italian of the works of foundational elite theorist Gaetano Mosca (1858-1941). Mosca is today considered a founding father of the Italian school of elite theory together with Vilfredo Pareto and Robert Michels, and is perhaps best remembered for his Elementi di Scienza Politica (1896) (later translated into English and published as The Ruling Class in 1939). In the tradition of Machiavelli, Mosca endeavored to understand political power as it actually exists rather than as it ought to exist (or as we may desire for it to exist). As such, Mosca focused much of his scholarship on advancing scientific principles in opposition to metaphysical abstractions. In Elementi di Scienza Politica he advanced the doctrine of the "ruling class," asserting that all societies are, in… Read More

Roma: Fratelli Bocca, 1896. First edition (in Italian). Octavo. Contemporary half-leather binding with purple percaline boards intricately embossed with a floral motif. Boards worn and scuffed, particularly along spine, with wear to joints; toning to leaves with spotting and minor staining throughout; one-centimeter closed tear to front free endpaper; pencil annotation to title verso page; neat colored pencil marks to several leaves, else a superb copy of this rare and foundational work of elite theory.. Scarce first edition of Gaetano Mosca's (1858-1941) definitive work of elite theory and the doctrine of the ruling class. Mosca earned his law degree from the University of Palermo in 1881 and thereafter taught law in a variety of Italian institutions, including at the University of Turin and the University of Rome. In 1909 Mosca was elected to the Chamber of Deputies of Italy, a parliamentary position that he held until 1919, the year he was nominated a life senator of the Kingdom of Italy. In 1925… Read More

Glencoe, Illinois: The Free Press, 1960. First edition. Octavo. Original cloth and dust jacket (not price-clipped). Edgewear to dust jacket, particularly to foot of the front wrapper and spine, including a few small closed tears to jacket; some smudging and sunning to spine and jacket; faint sticker mark to rear wrapper; leaves bright and unmarked. A well-preserved first edition of Bell's most influential work; difficult to find in this condition. Near-fine in a very good-plus dust jacket.. First edition of Daniel Bell's (1919-2011) most influential work evaluating the changing intellectual life in the mid-twentieth century. Bell was a prominent American sociologist, writer, editor, and professor who once described himself as a "socialist in economics, a liberal in politics, and a conservative in culture." Bell began his career as a journalist and served as managing editor of The New Leader (1941-1945), labor editor at Fortune (1948-1958), and co-editor with Irving Kristol of The Public Interest… Read More

New York: Basic Books, Inc, 1984. First edition. Octavo. Original blue cloth and dust jacket (not price-clipped). Minor wear and creasing to jacket, including two small, closed tears to head of front and rear jacket; small, neat pencil marks in the margins of a handful of pages. This first edition inscribed by Charles Murray to Robert Nisbet on front free endpaper: "To Robert Nisbet, / With admiration & best wishes, / Charles Murray." A bright first edition and association copy of Murray's classic work.. A bright first edition of Charles Murray's (b. 1943) groundbreaking evaluation of the efficacy of America's welfare state policies from 1950 to 1980, warmly inscribed to influential American sociologist, author, and public commentator Robert Nisbet. First published in 1984, Murray wrote Losing Ground while a fellow at the Manhattan Institute, arguing that America's social welfare policies, as they have been implemented in the US, have had the unintended and perverse effect of slowing and even… Read More

New York: The John Day Company, 1941. First edition, first printing. Octavo. Original orange cloth in the scarce and well-preserved original dust jacket (not price-clipped). Chip to head and base of spine; one-inch closed tear to head of front panel; small scuff to rear panel. Exceptional first printing of Burnham's groundbreaking work in an uncommonly bright dust jacket. Fine in a very good-plus dust jacket.. James Burnham's (1905-1987) seminal work in which he argues that capitalism will be displaced by a form of global managerialism and, as a result, bureaucratic elites will supplant workers and capitalists at the apex of power. Prior to publishing The Managerial Revolution Burnham was a prominent Trotskyist, but he would resign from the Workers Party in 1940 and thereafter become an influential theorist in the post-war American conservative movement. Shortly after the outbreak of the European phase of World War II, Burnham wrote The Managerial Revolution to explain the major world powers'… Read More

Ann Arbor, Michigan: The University of Michigan, Center for Research on Conflict Resolution, 1964. Preprint, first edition. Preprint, 218 mimeographed pages in metal-clipped folder binding. Title page has pulled free from the metal clips; chipping to paper title block on front folder panel. Near-fine.. The preprint of Thomas Hayden's (1939-2016) intellectual biography of C. Wright Mills, Radical Nomad: Essays on C. Wright Mills and His Times, published by Routledge in 2006. Hayden was an American social and political activist, author, and politician, perhaps best-known for his role in the radical social movements of the 1960s. After co-authoring the charter manifesto of new Left radicalism, the "Port Huron Statement," in 1962, Hayden would complete his biography of influential sociologist and elite theorist C. Wright Mills at the University of Michigan in 1964, exploring Mills's scholarship and activism and the ideas and thinkers that influenced him. Mills (1916-1962) was a professor of sociology at… Read More

New York: W. W. Norton & Company, Inc, 1932. First American edition, review copy; 1932 book review article from "The Modern Quarterly" enclosed. Octavo. Original cloth with dust jacket (not price-clipped). Rare dust jacket in fair condition, internally and externally mended with tape, chipping (including one-inch chip to bottom spine), with splitting to spine and some staining. Publication date ("Aug 18 1932 / Publication Date") stamped to upper front cover. Very good in a fair and worn (though scarce) original dust jacket from an advance review copy.. A review copy of José Ortega y Gasset's (1883-1955) seminal analysis of the masses and the influence of "mass man" on modern society. Ortega was born in Madrid and was early influenced by his family's liberal leanings. His father was director of El Imparcial, an ideologically liberal newspaper owned by his mother, Dolores Gasset, which was one of the first newspapers in Spain to be published by a company rather than a political party. After earning… Read More

Florence: G. Barbéra, 1916. First edition, first impression (in Italian). Octavo, two volumes. Original paper wrappers printed in black, partially unopened. Front joint of volume one repaired; closed tear to front wrapper of volume two, and repaired vertical split to book block of volume two; small library labels at head of each volume; some chipping to spines; a little light spotting internally. From the private library of economist Enrico Barone, with his stamp on front free endpaper of each volume. Very good.. First issue of Vilfredo Pareto's (1848-1923) foundational work of elite theory from the library of influential Italian economist Enrico Barone (1859-1924). Pareto was an Italian civil engineer, sociologist, economist, political scientist, and philosopher who made numerous groundbreaking contributions to the developing fields of economics and sociology. Perhaps his best-known work, Trattato di Sociologia Generale was first published in Italy in 1916, and was later published in English by… Read More

Boston: Little, Brown & Co, 1970. Octavo. Original cloth and dust jacket (not price-clipped). Minor wear to dust jacket, including to head and spine, else near-fine. Fine in near-fine dust jacket.. A fine first printing of Edward C. Banfield's (1916-1999) controversial exploration of urban policy and the problems that plague the American city. Banfield was a political scientist who began his academic career at the University of Chicago where he taught alongside fellow scholars (and friends) Leo Strauss and Milton Friedman before moving to Harvard University in 1959. Banfield specialized in urban politics, city planning, and civic culture, and published a number of foundational works on urban policy and culture, including The Moral Basis of a Backward Society (1958) and, perhaps his best-known work, The Unheavenly City (1970). In addition to his scholarship, Banfield worked for several federal government agencies, including the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the Farm Security Administration,… Read More