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For Immediate Release Contact: Stephanie Lehrer Tel: 212.632.4993 Fax: 212.632.4989 America is poised for a revival in THE GREAT DISRUPTION Human Nature and the Reconstitution of Social Order by Francis Fukuyama Francis Fukuyama, the best-selling author of TRUST and THE END OF HISTORY AND THE LAST MAN, draws on the latest research in sociology, economics, and evolutionary biology to show that the Great Disruption of the 1960s and 1970s is giving way to a new and optimistic "Great Reconstruction," of the basic social and moral values of modern society. In THE GREAT DISRUPTION: Human Nature and the Reconstitution of Social Order (Free Press, June 1999), Fukuyama disputes the idea that the social upheavals of the 1960s and the 1970s represent the beginning of an endless negative slide downward. To the contrary, he argues that social change is an ongoing process and is the natural outcome of the human biological drive to establish moral values and that the cycle of disruption and reconstruction is a familiar one in human history. According to Fukuyama, over the past fifty years, the United States and other developed countries have made the transformation from industrial to information societies; knowledge has replaced mass production as the basis of wealth, power, and social interaction. At the same time, Western societies have endured increasing levels of crime, massive changes in fertility and family structure, decreasing levels of trust, and the triumph of individualism over community. Just as the Industrial Revolution brought about momentous changes in society’s moral values, a similar "Great Disruption" during the last half of the twentieth century has caused these profound negative changes in our social and moral life. However, there is a bright side, according to Fukuyama. He argues that social order, once disrupted, tends to get remade again, and that there are many indications that this is happening today: a declining crime rate, a lower divorce rate, and fewer children being born out of wedlock. In the end, he believes family, and hence society, will always right themselves because humans are social animals and it is in our nature to reconstitute society into viable forms. Fukuyama has collected in THE GREAT DISRUPTION a unique data set of social indicators to support his argument with special emphasis given to the topics of trust and ethical values, crime, family and self-organization. Some of the issues he discusses in the book include:
THE GREAT DISRUPTION challenges the old assumptions about society and culture and reveals how America is adopting values appropriate to the changed realities of the post-industrial world. # # # Advance Praise: "Part of what makes reading Fukuyama fun and interesting is his willingness to take on big questions, as he did in THE END OF HISTORY AND THE LAST MAN. Here he tackles what he finds to be the epochal transformation of developed societies into a "postindustrial era" where information and knowledge form the basis of economic life. He finds this transformation to be as monumental as the Industrial Revolution, and as disruptive." —Kirkus Reviews About the Author: Francis Fukuyama is the Omer L. and Nancy Hirst Professor of Public Policy at George Mason University. He has served as a senior social scientist at the RAND Corporation and as deputy director of the U.S. State Department’s Policy Planning Staff, and is the author of THE END OF HISTORY AND THE LAST MAN and TRUST: THE SOCIAL VIRTUES AND THE CREATION OF PROSPERITY. He lives with his wife and three children in McLean, Virginia. About the Book: Title: THE GREAT DISRUPTION Subtitle: Human Nature and the Reconstitution of Social Order Author: Francis Fukuyama ISBN: 0-684-84530-X Pub Date: June 14, 1999 Price: $26.00 Pages: 354 **First Serial: Atlantic Monthly, Cover Be sure to visit the Simon & Schuster website at www.simonsays.com |