Social Forces In American History
Cód:
491_9781406770414
SOCIAL FORCES IN AMERICAN HISTORY TO MY WIFE MAY WOOD SIMONS WHOSE CONTINUOUS COOPERATION AND ADVICE AT ALL STAGES OB THIS WORK MIGHT WELL ENTITLE HER TO BE NAMED AS CO-AUTHOR PREFACE THAT political struggles are based upon economic interests is to-day disputed by few students of society. The attempt has been made in this work to trace the various interests that have arisen and struggled in each social stage and to determine the influence exercised by these contending interests in the creation of social insti tutions. Back of every political party there has always stood a group or class which expected to profit by the activity and the success of that party. When any party has at tained to power, it has been because it has tried to estab lish institutions or to modify existing ones in accord with its interests. Changes in the industrial basis of society inven tions, new processes, and combinations and methods of producing and distributing goods create new interests with new social classes to represent them. These im provements in the technique of production are the dy namic element that brings about what we call progress in society. In this work I have sought to begin at the origin of each line of social progress. I have first endeavored to de scribe the steps in mechanical progress, then the social classes brought into prominence by the mechanical changes, then the struggle by which these new classes sought to gain social power, and, finally, the institutions vii viii PREFACE which were created or the alterations made in existing institutions as a consequence of the struggle, or as a result of the victory of a new class. It has seemed to me that these underlying social forces are of more importance than the individuals that were forced to the front in the process of these struggles, or even than the laws that were established to record the results of the conflict. In short, I have tried to describe the dynamics of history rather than to record the ac complished fact
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