Rereading power and freedom in J. S. Mill / Bruce Baum.

Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:

Baum recovers lost dimensions of Mill's thought, and in so doing, contributes to a critical sociology of freedom for our our time like workers' co-operatives & women's rights.

Reviews provided by Syndetics

CHOICE Review

Baum draws on all of Mill's works to reappraise his contributions to contemporary liberal thought. Baum aims to uncover a critical sociology of freedom and to offer a new interpretation highlighting Mill's insights into the interplay between freedom and power. Although Baum gives Mill credit for the analysis of gender equality, he faults Mill's uncritical acceptance of prevailing ideas about class and his acceptance of "Victorian" views of heterosexual marital relations. Baum writes that the problems Mill addressed were more complicated than he imagined. Mill underestimated the struggle needed to achieve social change and offered few practical suggestions to realize these changes: he was an idle dreamer. Baum credits Mill with warning that the state is a dubious ally in the struggles to achieve freedom and equality but fails to recognize Mill's early and courageous contribution to analysis of the gender problem. This balanced reappraisal adds to the extensive literature already available on Mill. That Mill found a way to combine middle-class standards with a plea for social justice for women advanced the liberal cause in his era. Recommended for upper-division undergraduates and above. M. S. Power; formerly, Arkansas State University