The Condition of Postmodernity: An Enquiry into the Origins of Cultural Change - Softcover

Harvey, David

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0631162925 ISBN 13: 9780631162926

Publisher: Wiley–Blackwell, 1989

Synopsis

A great deal has been written on what has variously been described as the postmodern condition and postmodern experience, culture, architecture, art and society. In his new book, David Harvey attempts to determine what exactly is meant by the term. He asks whether our experience of shifting dimensions of time and space has resulted in or been the consequence of fundamental changes in capitalist society. Can signs be detected of the emergence of a distinctly new post-capitalist and post-industrial society?;This book will be useful to geographers and many others for its account of the arguments surrounding the proposition of modernity, and as a contribution to the debate on what exactly is the nature of current social change.shelf wear to dust cover, inscription to front empty page, otherwise good condition

About this title

Review

The Condition of Postmodernity is David Harvey's seminal history of this, our most equivocal of eras. What does postmodernism mean? Where did it come from? Harvey, a Professor of Geography, and a key mover behind extending the scope and influence of the discipline of geography itself, does a thorough job here delineating the passage through to postmodernity and the economic, social and political changes that underscored and accompanied it. As he clearly states, the rise in postmodernist cultural forms is related to a new intensity in what Harvey terms "time-space compression" but this new intensity is a qualitive and not a quantitive change in social organisation and does not point to a era beyond capitalism as "the basic rules of capitalistic accumulation" remain unchanged. Unlike Fredric Jameson (whose equally rewarding Postmodernism stands as the twin pillar to Harvey's critique), who explicitly relies on Ernest Mandel's periodisation of Late Capitalism, Harvey eschews a narrowly economic focus, the limits and contradictions of production that have led to the rise in the service sector, and takes a more multidisciplinary approach to his history: as comfortable discussing Manet as he is labour markets. Harvey is an excellent writer and The Condition of Postmodernity is an exceptionally informative and enjoyable read. Mark Thwaite

Review

"Devastating. The most brilliant study of post–modernity to date. David Harvey cuts beneath the theoretical debates about postmodernist culture to reveal the social and economic basis of this apparently free–floating phenomenon. After reading this book, those who fashionably scorn the idea of a ′total′ critique had better think again." Terry Eagleton

"Few people have penetrated the heartland of contemporary cultural theory and critique as explosively or insightfully as David Harvey." Edward Soja

"David Harvey′s book is probably the best yet written on the link between ... economic and cultural transformations." Financial Times

"David Harvey′s engrossing book is probably the most readable, ambitious, and intelligent work on postmodernism yet published." Voice Literary Supplement

"In Harvey′s skilful hands various strands of contemporary life, normally held far apart by specialized scholarly interests, come together again and are shown to fit with each other ... a marvellous, enjoyable and mind–opening book." Times Literary Supplement

Edition details

• Publisher: Wiley–Blackwell
• Publication date: 1989
• ISBN 10: 0631162925
• ISBN 13: 9780631162926
• Binding: Paperback
• Language: English
• Number of pages: 320