#R. H. Tawney

[sistersatan]

Ask Prof Wolff: Is Capitalism a Religion?

#youtube #democracy at work #richard wolff #socialism #economy #capitalism #sister satan #ask prof wolff #religion #d@w #r h tawney

[itchy-9884]

“The certainties of one age are

the problems of next.”

-R. H. Tawney

[eelhound]

"Since even quite common men have souls, no increase in material wealth will compensate them for arrangements which will insult their self-respect and impair their freedom. A reasonable estimate of economic organisation must allow for the fact that, unless industry is to be paralysed by recurrent revolts on the part of outraged human nature, it must satisfy criteria which are not purely economic."

- R. H. Tawney, from Religion and the Rise of Capitalism, 1926.

#r.h. tawney #quote #quotations #human nature #human needs #labor #labor organizing #labor unions #dignity #self respect #democratic socialism #labor strikes #economics #capitalism

[howieabel]

Democracy is unstable as a political system as long as it remains a political system and nothing more, instead of being, as it should be, not only a form of government but a type of society, and a manner of life which is in harmony with that type. To make it a type of society requires an advance along two lines. It involves, in the first place, the resolute elimination of all forms of special privilege which favour some groups and depress other, whether their source be differences of environment, of education, or of pecuniary income. It involves, in the second place, the conversion of economic power, now often an irresponsible tyrant, into a servant of society, working within clearly defined limits and accountable for its actions to a public authority.

R. H. Tawney, Equality (1931)

#R. H. Tawney #Equality #Democracy

[indielinguist]

Men may use what mechanical instruments they please and be none the worse for their use. What kills their souls is when they allow their instruments to use them.

R. H. Tawney, The Acquisitive Society (1920)

#individual liberty #acquisitive society #human vice #r. h. tawney #richard henry tawney #materialism #pursuit of wealth #individualism #social function #industrialism

[probablyasocialecologist]

Compromise is as impossible between the Church of Christ and the idolatry of wealth, which is the practical religion of capitalist societies, as it was between the Church and the State idolatry of the Roman Empire.

R. H. Tawney, Religion and the Rise of Capitalism

#liberation theology

[mister-higgs]

Daily Self Portraits

29th July 2008 https://russellhiggs.shutterchance.com/image/2008/07/29/wednesday-29072008/

13th Sept 2008 https://russellhiggs.shutterchance.com/image/2008/09/13/thursday-13092008/

the four featured books are:

"Religion and the rise of Capitalism" by R. H. Tawney

"The age of the masses" by Michael D. Biddiss

"Techniques of Persuasion" by J. A. C. Brown

"Terrorism" by Charles Townshend

18th Sept 2008 https://russellhiggs.shutterchance.com/image/2008/09/18/thursday-18092008/

#daily self portrait #selfie #play #improvise #mister higgs #russell shaw higgs #leaf #page #books

[rhianna]

Lack of Coin Currency

During the first half of Henry VIII.’s reign there were complaints[367] of the scarcity of the metallic currency. On the very eve of the dissolution of the monasteries we find a religious house in Northumberland reversing the movement which had been going on for two centuries in most parts of the country, and actually commuting money rents into payments in kind,[368] on the ground that the tenants could not command the necessary coin. Such facts should warn us that England was far from being a single economic community, and that the effects of the cheap money penetrated into the more backward regions only very slowly indeed. Nevertheless, in the more advanced parts of the country, the tide turned soon after the beginning of the new century, though it was not till the fourth decade of it that it became a mill-race in which all old economic standards were submerged.  [198]

Source:    The Agrarian Problem in the Sixteenth Century by R. H. Tawneyhttps://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/40336

#project gutenberg #currency #coin #coins #king #king henry viii

[brasilcalvinista]

GRANDE TRADIÇÃO CONSERVADORA CRISTÃ REFORMADA CALVINISTA A contribuição do pensamento social de João Calvino para a formação do cidadão: "O Calvinismo foi uma força ativa e radical. Era uma fé́ que buscava não somente purificar o individuo, mas ainda reconstruir a Igreja e o Estado e renovar a sociedade, fazendo penetrar em cada setor da vida pública e privada a influência da religião." R. H. Tawney https://www.instagram.com/p/CRmbmNtD0dF/?utm_medium=tumblr

[itchy-9884]

“The certainties of one age are

the problems of next.”

-R. H. Tawney

[eelhound]

"Blending the romantic ideals of William Morris, Anglo-Catholic socialism, Marxism, and a host of other inspirations, [R.H.] Tawney made the case for a particular kind of politics. Socialism, he insisted, involves a moral transformation, not just an economic one. Ethics, of key importance to Tawney, wasn’t a substitute for political action, but a necessary foundation for it.

Socialism requires an alternative understanding of what it means to be human; the distinction between a socialist and a capitalist is in their anthropology as much as their economics. Against Fabian critics, Tawney insisted on the nonutilitarian case for socialism. Capitalism was morally evil, Tawney wrote in 1913, 'not because it hinders the production of wealth, but because it produces wickedness.' Real freedom — the freedom only a socialist society could offer — was the freedom to be good."

- Madoc Cairns, from "R. H. Tawney’s Christian Socialism Was a Moral Crusade Against Capitalism"

#madoc cairns #quote #quotations #democratic socialism #economics #ethics #morality #capitalism #liberation theology #philosophy #anthropology

[howieabel]

The certainties of one age are the problems of the next.

R. H. Tawney

#R. H. Tawney

[vcpide]

TN1 Pre-Capitalist Christian Society

TN1 Pre-Capitalist Christian Society

{bit.ly/tawney1} In a sequence of posts/video lectures, I will go through the book “Religion and the Rise of Capitalism” by R H Tawney. This post covers Chapter 1. What is the book about, and why study it? The book explains how Christianity shaped, and was shaped by, emergence of Capitalism. This is ONE important aspect of The European transition to secular modernity. “Religion” is the governing…

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[nosce-te-ipsum1]

R. H. Tawney e outros discutiram a análise weberiana. Naturalmente, a religião influenciou as opiniões das pessoas na sociedade, mas as mudanças econômicas e sociais também agiram poderosamente sobre a religião. Weber, como dissemos, enfatizou o primeiro ponto, mas somente mencionou o segundo. A ascensão da atividade comercial induziu a classe média a livrar-se do catolicismo, que condenava a usura, suspeitava dos motivos econômicos e tinha uma visão obscura de fortunas privadas. Além disso, como o maior dos senhores feudais, a Igreja Católica tentava perpetuar instituições feudais como o justo preço, a primogenitura, o vínculo de heranças etc. Como a Reforma consistiu em um forte golpe para a autoridade, diminuiu a força da tradição sobre as mentes das pessoas. Em virtude do fato de questionar ideias há muito tempo abaladas, conseguiu suscitar a têmpera do racionalismo. É valido, afirmava Tawney, que o calvinismo ofereceu nova santificação às atividades econômicas e ao acúmulo de riquezas, mas mudanças econômicas como as grandes descobertas geográficas e a expansão do comércio foram, em última instância, responsáveis pela transformação da ética cristã a partir do Século XVI. Tanto o calvinismo como o espírito do capitalismo, afirmava ele, foram produto de mudança profunda na organização econômica e na estrutura social. Diversos fatos históricos parecem apoiar a tese de Tawney. Inicialmente, contrariamente ao paradigma de Weber, as doutrinas protestantes de Lutero foram circundadas por uma aura feudal, ao mesmo tempo em que, no reverso da moeda, o catolicismo era adaptável ao novo mundo de atividade comercial. Manifestações capitalistas precoces eram encontradas nas últimas cidades medievais na Itália católica e na França católica antes da Revolução [Francesa]; a adaptação do catolicismo foi aparentemente apressada pela ameaça da Reforma. Em segundo lugar, um motivo notavelmente poderoso para a revolta contra Roma, especialmente entre pessoas que não possuíam interesse na atividade comercial, seria o prospecto de organizações religiosas ricas e predadores. Em terceiro lugar, os camponeses que se queixavam contra os senhores feudais foram arrebatados para o movimento protestante. E, finalmente, a ascensão do espírito nacionalista em muitos países entrou em conflito com o internacionalismo católico centralizado em Roma.

OSER, Jacob, BLANCHFIELD, William C. História do pensamento econômico; tradução de Carmem Terezinha Santoro dos Santos; revisão técnica de José Paschoal Rossetti. São Paulo: Atlas, 1983, p. 201-202

[berniesrevolution]

JACOBIN MAGAZINE

In this interview Ervand Abrahamian, one of the preeminent Iranian historians of his generation, speaks to Eskandar Sadeghi-Boroujerdi about his fifty-year career and the ideas that have shaped both popular and scholarly understandings of the events, political organizations, and movements that defined Iran and its politics in the twentieth century.

Whether it be his work on the communist Tudeh Party, the Iranian labor movement, the CIA-MI6 orchestrated coup of 1953, or Ayatollah Khomeini and the question of populism, Abrahamian’s writings continue to set the tone for debates in both Iran and the West.

Of equal importance is Abrahamian’s contribution to the historiography of modern Iran, in which he reinterpreted the methods of Marxist historians such as Christopher Hill, Eric Hobsbawm, and E. P. Thompson, among others. Abrahamian’s work unpacks the meaning of class, contestation, and social change in a country whose history has all too often been interpreted with either Orientalist fantasy or nativist nostalgia. His books are bestsellers in Iran, where they are read and discussed widely. He is currently in the process of writing a monograph on the history of the Iranian Revolution of 1979.

For readers unfamiliar with your work, would you mind speaking briefly about where you grew up and what led you to pursue the study of modern Iranian history?

I was born in Tehran, attended the first three grades of the nearby Mehr School, and then was sent off to boarding school in Britain. These were the tumultuous years of oil nationalization, so my family, like most, was highly engrossed in politics and listened to radio news every evening — as I did during summer holidays in Iran. In my last year at boarding school, our teacher introduced me to the writings of R. H. Tawney and Christopher Hill. I have no idea what the teacher’s politics were, but he obviously had impeccable taste.

At university, I mainly studied European history with Keith Thomas — a former student of Christopher Hill. Through him, I was introduced to historians associated with the journal Past and Present, such as George Rude, Eric Hobsbawm, Lawrence Stone, E. P. Thompson, Victor Kiernan, Brian Manning, and Rodney Hilton.

By the time I graduated, I knew I wanted to study modern Iran, but British universities at the time did not recognize contemporary history as a legitimate discipline. So I applied to a political science department in North America, not realizing that such departments were exclusively interested in how societies could be “modernized” and how the world could be made safe for US interests. Since neither of these two questions interested me, I pursued my interest in exploring modern Iran on my own, through the lens of Past and Present.

While Iranian Marxists such as Ehsan Tabari and Bijan Jazani used historical materialism to explain the nature and dynamics of Iran’s economic and political development, perhaps your best-known book, Iran Between Two Revolutions (1982), is framed, at least in part, by the historiographical method of E. P. Thompson and the contention that “class is not a thing, it is a happening.” What do you think Thompson brought to the study of Iranian history that more conventional Marxist approaches did not?

E. P. Thompson was a towering figure for a number of reasons — not just for historians of Iran, but also for Marxist historians throughout the world. First, he shunned applying broad, sweeping theory to long periods of history, and was more interested in empirical history. Second, he recognized the importance of culture and consciousness in the making of class, while still giving due credit to other factors such as economics.

In recognizing this, he was also aware that culture, including religion, is itself not static but constantly evolving due to social changes. Third, unlike many social historians, he refused to leave politics out of history. Fourth, he wrote for the ordinary intelligent reader, avoiding political jargon, academic mumbo-jumbo, and intellectual obscurantism.

In short, he was a historian’s historian, steeping himself in a specific time and place, reading everything relevant from the period, and then coming up with a resounding work rich with empirical information. Intellectuals such as Ehsan Tabari and Bijan Jazani were primarily political activists, not historians who had immersed themselves in a specific period of history. They had neither the time nor the opportunity — nor, probably, the inclination — to delve into the mundane depths of history.

(Continue Reading)

#politics #the left #iran #jacobin #jacobin magazine

[anamedblog]

ANAMED Bülten - Küresel salgın, ANAMED bursiyerlik yaşantınızı ve ilgili araştırma sürecinizi nasıl etkiledi?

Ellen Nye, ANAMED Doktora Adayı Bursiyeri (2019-2020)

Anlatılanlara göre, yirminci yüzyıl başı tarihçilerinden R. H. Tawney, meslektaşlarına “sağlam bir çift bot” giymelerini öneriyordu. Tawney, tarihçilerin belgelere bakmakla yetinmemeleri ve aynı zamanda geçmişi daha iyi anlayabilmek için seyahat etmeleri gerektiği kanısındaydı. 2020 yılının neler getireceğini bilseydi, Tawney belki de bize rahat bir çift terlik almamızı önerecekti.

Bu yılın Mart ayı başında, ANAMED’den ayrılıp önce Londra’daki arşivlerde çalışmak sonra da Atlantik Okyanusu’nu aşıp Charlotte, North Carolina’da akademik bir konferansa katılmak üzere iki hafta sürecek bir seyahate çıktım. Dikkatle planladığım yolculuğumun her aşamasında Covid-19 ile ilgili durum gittikçe daha açıklık kazandı. Londra’ya henüz ayak basmışken Koç Üniversitesi seyahat kısıtlamaları ve karantina prosedürlerini duyurdu. Londra’dan uçağa binmem ile Charlotte’a ayak basmam arasında bir zamanda, Amerikan üniversitelerinin çoğu, akademik yılın geriye kalanında kampüslerin kapalı olacağını duyurdu. Charlotte’taki konferans, olağan katılımın sadece yüzde onu ile gerçekleşti. Katılanların çoğu da benim gibi planlarını değiştiremeyecek kadar uzaktan gelmiş insanlardı. Bunun hemen birkaç gün sonrasında ise bir konferansın düzenlenmesi söz konusu bile olmayacaktı. Daha sonra, valizimi toplayıp eve döndüm: ANAMED’e değil de ABD’ye, New Haven’deki üniversiteye. ANAMED’deki kahraman arkadaş ve meslektaşlarım sayesinde de belgelerime, kitaplarıma ve kişisel eşyalarıma kavuştum.

İstanbul Boğazı’ndan çok uzakta, New Haven’deki çalışma masamda dönemlerinin gezginleri olan on yedinci yüzyıl Levant Şirketi tüccarlarının tarihsel belgeleri aracılığıyla seyahat ettim. Bu tüccarlar, Londra ve Akdeniz’in doğu kıyıları arasında kumaş, ipek ve fikir ticareti yapıyor, vebanın gölgesinde işlerini sürdürmeye çabalıyor ve erken dönem modern yaşamın kırılganlığı ile karşı karşıya kalıyorlardı. Halkı salgın hastalıktan korumak için katı karantina politikalarını savunanları, taşımacılıkta ve ticarette oluşan gecikmeleri engellemeye yönelik ekonomik çıkarlar ile karşı karşıya getiren hararetli tartışmalar onların döneminde de olmuştu.

Covid-19, son birkaç ay içinde okuma listelerimizi de belirleyip bizleri Daniel Defoe’nin Veba Yılı Günlüğü ya da Albert Camus’un Veba gibi eserlerine yönlendirdi. Bunun yanı sıra rastlantı eseri yine geçen mart ayında yayımlanan Sarı Bayrak: Karantina ve Britanya’nın Akdeniz Dünyası, 1780–1860 başlıklı eseri de öneririm. Alex Chase-Levenson’un eserinde yer verdiği, kamu sağlığı görevlileri ile serbest ticareti destekleyenler arasında on dokuzuncu yüzyılda gerçekleşen tartışmaların analizleri garip bir şekilde tanıdık gelebilir.

Hepinizin sağlıklı ve iyi olduğunu umuyorum. Belki çok yakında, yine seyahat etmek için o sağlam botlara ihtiyacımız olacak!

—Ellen Nye, ANAMED Doktora Adayı Bursiyeri, 25 Mayıs 2020