Ferdinand Tonnies (Toennies)

Tönnies' Community and Civil Society (first published in 1887 as Gemeinschaft und Gesellschaft) is a classic of social and political theory, exploring the tension between close-knit "communities" and an emerging global market "society". It is a response to modernity, an exercise in social, political and moral science, and an unusual commentary on the inner character of "democratic socialism". This new translation and introduction make this important work much more readily accessible to student readers, and those interested in social and political theory and the history of European ideas.

No Heavenly Delusion? analyzes three movements of communal living, the Kibbutz, the Bruderhof and the Integrierte Gemeinde, all of which can trace their origins to the German Youth Movement of the first part of the twentieth century. The book looks at the alternative societies and economies the movements have created, their interactions with the wider world, and their redrawing of the boundaries of the public and private spheres of their members. The comparative approach taken allows a picture of dissimilarities and similarities to emerge that goes beyond merely obvious points of difference. Tyldesley places these movements in the context of intellectual trends in late nineteenth- and twentieth-century Europe and especially Germany, and enables the reader to evaluate their wider significance.