Philip Selznick: Ideals in the World

Philip Selznick’s wide-ranging writings engaged with fundamental questions concerning society, politics, institutions, law, and morals. Never confined by a single discipline or approach, he proved himself a major figure across a range of fields including sociology, organizations and institutions, leadership, political science, sociology of law, political theory, and social philosophy. This volume, the first book-length treatment of Selznick’s ideas, discusses Selznick’s various intellectual contributions.

Reading across Selznick’s work, one appreciates the coherence of his fundamental preoccupations-with the social conditions for frustration and the vindication of values and ideas. Exploring Selznick’s insights into the nature and quality of institutional, legal, and social life, the book also examines his particular ways of thinking, concerns, values, and sensibility. Martin Krygier brings to light the coherence of Selznick’s fundamental preoccupations, allowing readers to fully engage with his unique insights and distinctive moral-intellectual sensibility.