Synopses & Reviews
One of the important sources for the increase of human knowledge is the keeping of careful records of a system over time, the study of which may reveal patterns and relationships that otherwise would not be perceived. Despite the existence of more than 60 years of national income statistics and their various components and supplements, such as unemployment and labor force figures, price levels, relative prices, etc, there has been a dismaying lag in the use of this data to detect previously unrecognized relationships among economic variables.
One of the reasons for this disturbing lack of attention to such patterns is the 18th-century celestial-mechanics type of mathematics that is generally in use. Deterministic dynamic mathematical models are often inappropriate to the structural and topological complexities of the economic system, particularly to the instability of its fundamental parameters. This intriguing new book is a step towards an interpretation of the record in terms of topological patterns represented by a variety of graphs. The type of long-run topological analysis on which this book is based reveals some striking properties of the American economy which conventional economics and econometrics have tended to miss. One of these is the relative insignificance of the Federal government, even during the period of the New Deal. Also suggested by the data are the unexpected effects of governmental action.
Preeminent economist Kenneth Boulding offers this study not only as a means of coming to a better understanding of our past and present economic systems, but also as an aid to decision-making about the future. If the decisions made in the present are based on unrealistic inferences, he maintains, then they are likely to make the future worse than it might have been.
Review
"Morris L. Davis has made a major contribution to the literature in this examination of the denominational cultures that resulted in the racial segregation of the Central Jurisdiction of the Methodist Episcopal Church."-Choice,
Review
“Draws upon previously neglected primary sources to offer a ground-breaking analysis of the intertwined political, racial, and religious dynamics at work in the institutional merging of three American Methodist denominations in 1939. Davis boldly examines the conflicted ethics behind a dominant American religious cultures justification and preservation of racial segregation in the reformulation of its post-slavery institutional presence in American society. His work provides a much-needed, critical discussion of the racial issues that pervaded American religion and culture in the early twentieth century.”-Wendy J. Deichmann Edwards,Academic Dean and Associate Professor of History and Theology, United Theological Seminary, Dayton Ohio
Review
“A discerning, sober, and troubling probing of the preoccupation within the Methodist Church with Christian nationalism, civilization as defined by white Anglo-Saxon manhood, and race, race consciousness and ‘the problem of the Negro that was foundational to and constitutive of a reunited Methodism. A must read for students of early 20th century America.”-Russell E. Richey,Emory University
Review
“Davis . . . brings to his study a sophisticated understanding of the nature of race, using his examination of the Methodist tradition to draw larger conclusions about the creation of a white Christian nationalism in early twentieth-century America.
-The Journal of American History,
Review
“The Methodist Unification underscores the immense power that race has held in American, and Methodist, consciousness, and its ability to shape the politics of both church and state.”
-Church History,
Synopsis
In the early part of the twentieth century, Methodists were seen by many Americans as the most powerful Christian group in the country. Ulysses S. Grant is rumored to have said that during his presidency there were three major political parties in the U.S., if you counted the Methodists.
The Methodist Unification focuses on the efforts among the Southern and Northern Methodist churches to create a unified national Methodist church, and how their plan for unification came to institutionalize racism and segregation in unprecedented ways. How did these Methodists conceive of what they had just formed as "united" when members in the church body were racially divided?
Moving the history of racial segregation among Christians beyond a simplistic narrative of racism, Morris L. Davis shows that Methodists in the early twentieth century including high-profile African American clergy were very much against racial equality, believing that mixing the races would lead to interracial marriages and threaten the social order of American society.
The Methodist Unification illuminates the religious culture of Methodism, Methodists' self-identification as the primary carriers of "American Christian Civilization," and their influence on the crystallization of whiteness during the Jim Crow Era as a legal category and cultural symbol.
Description
Includes bibliographical references (p. 126-128) and index.
About the Author
Kenneth Boulding is one of the most prolific, provocative, and highly regarded economists of our time. Born in England in 1910, he received his M.A. at Oxford University and moved to the United States in 1937. Since then he has authored or coauthored over two dozen books and has taught at a number of leading universities. Currently he is affiliated with the Institute of Behavioral Science at the University of Colorado. In an early essay, "Is Economics Necessary?"Boulding argued that economics is important not merely as it relates to the marketplace but because it is a part of virtually all other human activities. Many of his works are extensions of this theme. As a result, his writings cover an astonishing variety of topics, including ecology and religion. His pioneering efforts to apply economic concepts to the areas of social conflict, peace, and disarmament have established him as one of the founders of the school of conflict resolution. Boulding's early work, Economic Analysis (1941), is regarded as a classic overview and survey of the field. Many of his other works, including A Reconstruction of Economics (1950) and Conflict and Defense (1962), were once required reading for graduate students in economics. Others, such as Beyond Economics (1968) and Economics as a Science (1970), are collections of shorter essays covering such diverse topics as politics, social justice, and ethical problems, and are intended for a broader audience. The Image (1956), a theory of human behavior based on perceptions of the world, has received critical praise from all quarters and is perhaps his best-known work among noneconomists. Boulding has received nearly every significant award or recognition in the field of economics, and he has been the recipient of 25 honorary degrees from universities around the world. In his spare moments, he enjoys poetry, sketching, and watercolor painting.