Defining the Age: Daniel Bell, His Time and Ours

The sociologist Daniel Bell was an uncommonly acute observer of the structural forces transforming the United States and other advanced societies in the twentieth century. The titles of Bell’s major books—The End of Ideology (1960), The Coming of Post-Industrial Society (1973), and The Cultural Contradictions of Capitalism (1976)—became hotly debated frameworks for understanding the era when they were published. In Defining the Age, Paul Starr and Julian E. Zelizer bring together a group of distinguished contributors to consider how well Bell’s ideas captured their historical moment and continue to provide profound insights into today’s world. Wide-ranging essays demonstrate how Bell’s writing has informed thinking about subjects such as the history of socialism, the roots of the radical right, the emerging postindustrial society, and the role of the university. The book also examines Bell’s intellectual trajectory and distinctive political stance. Calling himself “a socialist in economics, a liberal in politics, and a conservative in culture,” he resisted being pigeon-holed, especially as a neoconservative. Defining the Age features essays from historians Jenny Andersson, David A. Bell, Michael Kazin, and Margaret O’Mara; sociologist Steven Brint; media scholar Fred Turner; and political theorists Jan-Werner Müller and Stefan Eich. While differing in their judgments, they agree on one premise: Bell’s ideas deserve the kind of nuanced and serious attention that they finally receive in this book.

Table of Contents:
Preface and Acknowledgments Introduction, by Paul Starr and Julian E. Zelizer Part I. Overview 1. Remembering Daniel Bell: Two Perspectives, by David A. Bell 2. Daniel Bell’s Three-Dimensional Puzzle, by Paul Starr Part II. Politics and Ideology 3. Of But Not in the Left: Daniel Bell on Radical Politics, by Michael Kazin 4. Daniel Bell and the Radical Right, by Julian E. Zelizer 5. The End of Ideology, the Long Nineties, and the History of the Present, by Jan-Werner Müller Part III. The Post-Industrial Transformation 6. “Post-Industrial” versus “Neoliberal”: Rival Definitions of Our Age, by Paul Starr 7. Assessing Daniel Bell in the Age of Big Tech, by Margaret O’Mara 8. The Post-Industrial University as We Know It: Daniel Bell’s Vision, Today’s Realities, by Steven Brint 9. Daniel Bell, Social Forecaster, by Jenny Andersson Part IV. Capitalism, Culture, and the Public Household 10. The Cultural Contradictions of Capitalism, Then and Now, by Fred Turner 11. The Double Bind: Daniel Bell, the Public Household, and Financialization, by Stefan Eich List of Contributors Index

About the Author :
Paul Starr is professor of sociology and public affairs at Princeton University, founding coeditor of The American Prospect, and a winner of the Pulitzer Prize for nonfiction and the Bancroft Prize in American history. His most recent book is Entrenchment: Wealth, Power, and the Constitution of Democratic Societies (2019). Julian E. Zelizer is the Malcolm Stevenson Forbes Class of 1941 Professor of History and Public Affairs at Princeton University. His most recent book is Abraham Joshua Heschel: A Life of Radical Amazement (2021), and he is a political analyst for CNN.com and a contributor to NPR.

Review :
Defining the Age captures like no other book on Daniel Bell the range of his interests, the reach of his learning, and the drama of the historical moment in which he lived. Anyone interested in Bell and modern social theory will have to read this book. There is much of value in the essays, whose subject richly deserves such close attention. The contributions of the volume offer an enlightening exploration of [Bell's] ideas in their historical context and an original attempt to revisit his insights for our time. Excellent for graduate level courses on contemporary social theory....Highly recommended. Does an excellent job of introducing new audiences to Bell’s thinking and writing.