| Line 1: |
Line 1: |
| − | '''Karl August Wittfogel''' (6 September 1896 - 25 May 1988). Wittfogel was a [[German]] [[historian]] and [[sinologist]]. In the 1920s and early 30s, he was an active member of the [[German Communist party]] and, between 1925 and 1933, a member of the [[Frankfurt School]]. | + | '''Karl August Wittfogel''' (6 September 1896 - 25 May 1988). Wittfogel was a [[German]] [[sociologist]], [[historian]] and [[sinologist]]. In the 1920s and early 30s, he was an active member of the [[German Communist party]] and, between 1925 and 1933, a member of the [[Frankfurt School]]. |
| | | | |
| | [[Deconstruction]]ism, [[critical thinking]], and the [[political correctness]] movement were birthed at the Frankfurt School. Leading figures of the Frankfurt School are [[Theodor Adorno]], [[Max Horkheimer]], Herbert Marcuse, and Wittfogel as well. [http://www.riseofthewest.net/thinkers/wittfogel01.htm] | | [[Deconstruction]]ism, [[critical thinking]], and the [[political correctness]] movement were birthed at the Frankfurt School. Leading figures of the Frankfurt School are [[Theodor Adorno]], [[Max Horkheimer]], Herbert Marcuse, and Wittfogel as well. [http://www.riseofthewest.net/thinkers/wittfogel01.htm] |
| | | | |
| − | After being interned in a [[concentration camp]] by the [[Nazi]]s (1931–33), he moved to the [[United States]], becoming a naturalized citizen in 1939. There he held academic positions at [[Columbia University]] and at the [[University of Washington]]. | + | After being interned in a [[concentration camp]] by the [[Nazi]]s (1931–33), he moved to [[England]] and then the [[United States]], where he was part of the Frankfurt Institute at [[Columbia University]]. With his second wife Olga Lang he visited China to conduct sociological fieldwork in the 1920s. Wittfogel became a naturalized US-citizen in 1939. He held academic positions at [[Columbia University]] and at the [[University of Washington]]. In 1940 he married anthropologist Esther Schiff Goldfrank. |
| − | | + | |
| | Wittfogel had a point in considering, in the 50s, the [[Soviet Union]] and the [[People's Republic of China]] as the greatest threats to mankind's further development. These two states were the examples he actually had in mind when writing about "Asian despotism", and how it could be vanquished. | | Wittfogel had a point in considering, in the 50s, the [[Soviet Union]] and the [[People's Republic of China]] as the greatest threats to mankind's further development. These two states were the examples he actually had in mind when writing about "Asian despotism", and how it could be vanquished. |
| | | | |