Difference between revisions of "Karl August Wittfogel"
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[[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 (1933), 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 | + | After being interned in a [[concentration camp]] by the [[Nazi]]s (1933), he moved to [[England]] and then the [[United States]], where he again was part (from 1934) of the Frankfurt Institute at [[Columbia University]]. With his second wife Olga Lang he visited China to conduct sociological fieldwork in the late 1930s. 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. | ||
Revision as of 15:27, March 20, 2010
Karl August Wittfogel (6 September 1896 - 25 May 1988). Wittfogel was a German sociologist, historian and sinologist. In 1918 he joined the Independent Socialists (USPD) and from 1920 he was an active member of the German Communist party (KPD). From 1925 to 1933 he was a member of the marxist Institute for Social Research at Frankfurt am Main, the Frankfurt School. In the 1930s. he joined the Horkheimer group in New York.
Deconstructionism, 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. [1]
After being interned in a concentration camp by the Nazis (1933), he moved to England and then the United States, where he again was part (from 1934) of the Frankfurt Institute at Columbia University. With his second wife Olga Lang he visited China to conduct sociological fieldwork in the late 1930s. 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.
His research on the relationship between the managerial demands of irrigation agriculture and the development of bureaucratic totalitarianism, outlined in his book, Oriental Despotism: A Comparative Study of Total Power (1957), profoundly shaped anthropological theories of the origins of complex societies and the state.