Charisma: Micro-sociology of Power and Influence

by Randall Collins

What is charisma? And how does it generate influence and power? World-renowned sociologist Randall Collins explores these and many other questions in a highly readable exploration of the various forms of charisma and how charisma elevated Jesus, Cleopatra, Lawrence of Arabia, Queen Elizabeth, Hitler, Churchill, Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt, Madame Mao Zedong, and others. He explores four types of charisma: frontstage, backstage, success-magic, and reputational charisma. Not everyone has the same kind of charisma and Collin’s identifies important differences and their relations to power. The book exemplifies Collin’s sophisticated micro-sociology in accessible and compelling prose, quietly building subtle matrices of analysis that show how sociology unveils hidden discoveries.

Genres: Nonfiction

124 pages, Paperback

Published June 25, 2020

About the author

Dr. Randall Collins is an American sociologist who has been influential in both his teaching and writing. He has taught in many notable universities around the world and his academic works have been translated into various languages. Collins is currently Emeritus Professor of Sociology at the University of Pennsylvania. He is a leading contemporary social theorist whose areas of expertise include the macro-historical sociology of political and economic change; micro-sociology, including face-to-face interaction;and the sociology of intellectuals and social conflict. He has devoted much of his career and research to study society, how is it created and destroyed through emotional behaviors of human beings. He is considered to be one of the leading non-Marxist conflict theorists in the United States, and served as the president of the American Sociological Association from 2010 to 2011.

Dr. Collins' first position in academia was at UC Berkeley, followed by many other universities including the University of Wisconsin-Madison, followed by the UC San Diego, the University of Virginia, then UC Riverside, and finally the University of Pennsylvania. He took intermittent breaks from academia, as a novelist, and as a freelance scholar. He has also been a visiting professor at Chicago, Harvard, and Cambridge, as well as various schools in Europe, Japan, and China. Collins has published almost one hundred articles since finishing his undergraduate education. He has also written and contributed to several books with a range of topics such as the discovery of society to the sociology of marriage and family life.

Dr. Collins grew up in a slew of different cities and countries, his father being a diplomat (and possible spy) with the US State Department during the Cold War. They lived in Germany immediately following World War II, and later in Moscow, among other places such as Uruguay.

Reviews

[Khayra Bundakji · Rating 4 out of 5]

I’m thrilled that I’ve been exposed to micro-sociology in this way. The only reason I’m giving it four stars instead of five is because the flow stopped me from truly appreciating the stories that he chose to showcase. The flow of the book is as follows: a bunch of stories of charismatic leaders, spurts of explanation of the theory and the authors point of view, and then finally the full explanation of what was happening in the interactions and vision/strategy of the showcased leaders.
To be honest, I don’t know why I’m so salty. It’s a great introduction to emotional energy, emotional dominance, interaction, rituals, interesting, historical stories about leaders, you probably already know, and a clear definition of the different types of charisma. But it left me with one less star than it wanted to.