Burnham, James ~ The Managerial Revolution : Or What Is Happening In The World Now

Putnam, London : 1942

The First UK printing published by Putnam, London in 1942. The BOOK is in Very Good++ or better condition. Original publisher's cloth with red lettering. Some light pushing to the upper spine and upper corners. Light spotting to the text block and the cloth with a hint of toning to the edges. A neat previous owner's details to the upper blank front end-paper. The WRAPPER is complete and is in Very Good++ condition. A little loss at the spine ends and corners. Some toning to the spine and edges. The wrapper is protected in a removable Brodart archival cover. James Burnham's (1905-1987) seminal work in which he argues that capitalism will be displaced by a form of global managerialism and, as a result, bureaucratic elites will supplant workers and capitalists at the apex of power. Prior to publishing ‘The Managerial Revolution’ Burnham was a prominent Trotskyist, but he would resign from the Workers Party in 1940 and thereafter become an influential theorist in the post-war American conservative movement. Shortly after the outbreak of the European phase of World War II, Burnham wrote ‘The Managerial Revolution’ to explain the major world powers' movement toward a common destination-rule by an administrative elite. This work offers an important view into Burnham's early social and political thought during his 'Machiavellian years,' which was influenced by elite theorists such as Vilfredo Pareto, Gaetano Mosca, and Robert Michels. Two years later Burnham published 'The Machiavellians' wherein he articulated his 'science of power' to analyse exercises of political power. For Burnham, like Machiavelli, Pareto, Mosca, and Michels, the primary importance of political power is not its justification, but how political forces pursue, attain, use, and forfeit it. Burnham's tight prose and sobering analysis are on full display in this seminal work of modern elite theory by one of America's most influential conservative scholars. ‘The Managerial Revolution’ ‘would greatly influence modern conservative thought, and its publication inaugurated a Machiavellian revival on the Right. George Orwell wrote an article ‘James Burnham and the Managerial Revolution which was published by the Socialist Book Centre in 1946. Orwell's essay on James Burnham, tentatively rejects Burnham's prediction of a future dominated by undemocratic technocratic super-states. Very scarce with the wrapper.

BINDING: Hardcover
CONDITION: Very Good++
JACKET: Very Good++