El final de la ideología

by Daniel Bell

En su obra “El final de la ideología: Sobre el agotamiento de las ideas políticas en los años cincuenta” (1960), Daniel Bell (1919-2011) se hizo eco del consenso de una generación de políticos e intelectuales occidentales que pensaban que la democracia y el Estado del bienestar habían derrotado al credo del totalitarismo. El presente volumen reúne “El final de la ideología en Occidente”, ensayo seminal en el que se explicaba el significado de este concepto -la muerte del fascismo y el comunismo en la batalla de las ideas-, pero también se discutía si la distinción entre derecha e izquierda seguía teniendo sentido en las democracias, y “Retorno al final de la ideología”, texto en el que Bell respondió en 1988 a las críticas que tuvo el libro desde la izquierda radical y dio razón del surgimiento del extremismo en Occidente en los años 1960 y 1970. Pese al tiempo transcurrido, el lector encontrará que lo que se trata en estas páginas es de una enorme actualidad: los fundamentos del Estado del bienestar, la validez o no de la distinción entre izquierda y derecha, y el futuro del radicalismo y del populismo en política. Edición de Ángel Rivero

Genres: Politics, Philosophy, Sociology, History, Nonfiction, Political Science, Theory

178 pages, Paperback

First published March 1, 1988

About the author

American sociologist, writer, editor, and professor at Harvard University, best known for his contributions to the study of post-industrialism. He has been described as "one of the leading American intellectuals of the postwar era". Bell once described himself as a "socialist in economics, a liberal in politics, and a conservative in culture."
Bell began his professional life as a journalist, being managing editor of The New Leader magazine (1941–1945), labor editor of Fortune (1948–1958), and later, co-editor (with his college friend Irving Kristol) of The Public Interest magazine (1965–1973). In the late 1940s, Bell was an Instructor in the Social Sciences in the College of the University of Chicago. During the 1950s, it was close to the Congress for Cultural Freedom. Subsequently, he taught sociology, first at Columbia (1959–1969) and then at Harvard until his retirement in 1990. Bell also was the visiting Pitt Professor of American History and Institutions at Cambridge University in 1987. He served as a member of the President's Commission on Technology in 1964–1965 and as a member of the President's Commission on a National Agenda for the 1980s in 1979.
His most influential books are, The End of Ideology (1960), The Cultural Contradictions of Capitalism (1976),[19] and The Coming of Post-Industrial Society (1973). Two of his books, the End of Ideology and the Cultural Contradictions of Capitalism, were listed by the Times Literary Supplement as among the 100 most important books in the second half of the twentieth century.

Reviews

[Sean Chick]

Anyone declaring the "end of" usually gets to eat humble pie after such declarations. Bell is no different. Although he is right in so far as capitalism was emerging as the ultimate ideology (short shall it reign), he still comes off as narrow minded.

[Andrew]

It's kind of hard for me to read these old American left guys sometimes. Veblen's cool, but on the whole I find most of their arguments to be predicated on some sort of transcendental notion that supersedes all logical argument. Bell seems so lulled in by this millenarian notion that he can't realize how unimportant his moment in time is. Please note, he's a good essayist, and in many of these essays he makes good, thought-provoking, socialist arguments. But don't expect a masterpiece.

[Steven Peterson]

In its time, a classic. Time can undermine analyses of the social and political realm as forces move society in different directions. Bell argued that old time ideological frameworks had lost their power and that, thus, we had arrived at the "end of ideology." Perhaps not, as we see a renewal of ideological dispute in the United States and elsewhere. Nonetheles, a book worth reading to get a sense of intellectuals' analyses in the 1960s.

[sologdin]

standard philistine thesis that certain currents of thought in the US are 'non-ideological,' to wit: pragmatic technocratic corporatism in the post-WWII era. something of a precursor to fukuyama, and an epilogue to marx, maybe.

[Stan]

Daniel Bell is not a great or concise writer but these essays are loaded with interesting facts and analyses.

[Poung]

It is an old book but it seems still relevance to our time.

[Marc Sabatier]

A terrible book, which is not does not live up to its title and the way it is typically shared; namely, being a book on the end of ideology.

This is just a series of essays, which Bell has written over the 50s, and then he just happens to have the view (at the very end) that ideology doesn't matter anymore. The last part of the book partly touches on this, but many parts of the book have nothing to do with it.

It would've been much better to restrict the book to the final third, or the conclusion really, and have a book which deals with its *title*, which is so intriguing.

This is a reaffirmation of the importance of reading books which are lauded to be classics or centerpieces; this is just a big nothing-burger. It is very scholastic, constantly referring to the situation of various scholars, and uses a big amount of social science clichées.

I give this two stars because the final chapter was somewhat interesting. But mostly terrible, not recommended. I will add that this was quickly read and that patience was tried throughout due to my disappointment.

[Anusha Datar]

In this series of essays, Bell uses examples from politics, history, and current (at the time) events to insinuate that existing ideological frameworks were starting to lose their power, bringing forth the outright "end of ideology." From his fiscally liberal and socially conservative perspective, he highlights the decline of the ideas and beliefs dominant during World War II and before and the movements that could follow.

I can see why this book was monumental when it was released. I found that, unsurprisingly, many of the principles and examples in the book remain relevant today. That being said, I found this to not be so different from work from this era that I've read before - it felt like his essays reiterated a lot of existing talking points, and his work was fairly verbose and repetitive.

[Ana Nistal Miguélez]

Ensayo para reflexionar sobre la ideología, su origen y en la actualidad desde otra perspectiva.

[clara]

Dnf

[Ángel]

Este importante estudio puede considerarse un clásico de la ciencia política, ya que explora importantes temas como la democracia occidental después de la Segunda Guerra Mundial, el estado de bienestar y la diferenciación entre la izquierda y la derecha.

[Matthew Matheson]

Argueing the World: (documentary)
Daniel Bell-2
Nathan Glazer
Irving Howe
Irving Kristol

[Tania]

nothing

[Jemera Rone]

too tedious to finish