Beyond Individualism

Michael J. Piore

  • A Los Angeles Times Book Award Finalist, Category of Current Interest

Piore's new book may be brief, its arguments compressed, but it provocatively combines two sizable ambitions: to serve as a theoretical orientation to identify identity-based movements and to address their weaknesses...He makes many valuable arguments along the way, raising considerably the level of discussion in a territory that, for several years now, has been marked by advocacy more than by critical reflection.
   --Stephen Cole, Contemporary Sociology

Beyond Individualism is a Tocquevillian meditation on profound developments in American politics and society. Piore has a fresh and informed view of the dilemmas that the emergence of a politics of identity poses for a system that has evolved to cope with contradictions of class and region. This book will play a significant role in shaping our thinking on fundamental issues of economic policy and social justice in this new era.
   --Duncan Foley, Barnard College of Columbia University

Most books are lucky if they have one important, original idea. Beyond Individualism has many. It explores the political and economic challenge which the new identity groups in the United States have generated. Its synthesis of cognitive psychology and economic theory to resolve the conflict between individualism and collective community is brilliant.
   --Alice H. Amsden, Massachusetts Institute of Technology

  • Cover: Beyond Individualism

Michael J. Piore is David W. Skinner Professor of Economics and Management at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He is the author of several books, including, with Charles F. Sabel, The Second Industrial Divide.