Rating: 
Summary: A good primer in modern sociology without the politics
Review: The Great Disruption is a wonderfully apolitical look at the rather disconcerting changes that have taken place in the social structure of western civilization during the last third of the twentieth century. Francis Fukuyama does this by examining the recent changes in social norms and values in western civilization as a whole, including the course they have taken in other countries, as well as in the United States. He lucidly examines the underlying causes for these changes, and compares them with those observed in other cultures as well as those that have taken place due to earlier social disruptions throughout the history of Western civilization. It is of special interest to those of us who grew up in the times prior to the disruption, when social norms tended to support individual happiness by stressing the more communitarian aspects of culture such as family, religion, and reciprocal employer/employee relations. For many of us, the world has become a cold, lonley place.Fukuyama does NOT take sides in the culture war except insofar as to acknowledge changes that have come about, or are in the process of taking place. He does make judgments about the adaptability of some of the changes and their likelihood of remaining in their present form over the long haul. It is of particular interest to note that he does not attribute the various disruptions in social norms to politics per se, but rather to natural reactions of individuals to the changes in their environment wrought by the new technologies that have come to dominate western culture. These include the wide dissemination of information, increases in longevity and the shift from a society based on manual labor to one based on intellect. The politics on either side, from the feminists and the sexual liberationists on the left to the religionists on the right were not seminal in either creating or delaying these changes, and in fact, Fukuyama seems to be arguing that human nature will be the final arbiter of the form that social norms will finally take. In short, neither side will ultimately win the culture war, but then, neither side will lose either. The left will be happy to learn that the liberation of women is a natural phenomena and cannot be reversed. The right will be happy to learn that Fukuyama sees no clear, realistic alternative to traditional families (nuclear or extended), and that over time the rather devastating changes in family structure wrought by the change in status of women will certainly be modified, (as indeed is slowly happening now) not because of political arguments, but because human nature, the key to all social interaction, will demand it. The first half of the book reads more easily than the second half because it deals with actual real life societal changes and their causes. The second half deals more heavily with socioeconomic theory and is a good deal more work, but rewarding if you have the will to stick it out. My major criticism with the book is that it does not deal at all with timeline other than to hint that the disruptions will be ironed out within a number of generations. It would have been cold comfort for Czarist loyalists to know that the Soviet experiment would eventually fail, but that it would take three generations and millions of political deaths for it to happen, and another several generations for Russian citizens to rebuild enough social capital to rejoin the rest of the world.
Rating: 
Summary: Good food for thought
Review: The one thing with Francis Fukuyama is that he can't be faulted for not speaking his mind. From his essential "End of History" he has drawn further conclusions on the demise of Western society. On the one hand, it is an interesting read, while, on the other hand it is a bit weak in many ways. Fukuyama uses broad statistics and generalisations to make stunning conculsions about society in general, and people in particular. While I don't personally agree with much of what he writes, it provides an excellent forum for discussion and a welcome point of view to some narrow assumptions in sociology. I wouldn't recommend it for an introduction, but rather for a good supplement if you're already interested.
Rating:
Summary: Good food for thought
Review: The one thing with Francis Fukuyama is that he can't be faulted for not speaking his mind. From his essential "End of History" he has drawn further conclusions on the demise of Western society. On the one hand, it is an interesting read, while, on the other hand it is a bit weak in many ways. Fukuyama uses broad statistics and generalisations to make stunning conculsions about society in general, and people in particular. While I don't personally agree with much of what he writes, it provides an excellent forum for discussion and a welcome point of view to some narrow assumptions in sociology. I wouldn't recommend it for an introduction, but rather for a good supplement if you're already interested.
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