The State

by Randolph Bourne

Randolph Silliman Bourne (1886-1918) was a progressive writer and public intellectual born in Bloomfield, New Jersey, and a graduate of Columbia University. Bourne is best known for his essays, especially War is the Health of the State, which remained unfinished when found after his death. Bourne's articles appeared in the magazine, The Seven Arts and The New Republic, among other journals of the day. He was greatly influenced by Horace Kallen's 1915 essay Democracy Versus the Melting-Pot, and argued, like Kallen, that Americanism ought not to be associated with Anglo-Saxonism. In his 1916 article Trans- National America, Bourne argued that the US should accommodate immigrant cultures into a cosmopolitan America, instead of forcing immigrants to assimilate to Anglophilic culture. He was born with a deformed face and essentially a hunchback. He chronicled his experiences in his essay titled, The Handicapped.

Genres: Politics, Nonfiction, Philosophy, Cultural

48 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1916

About the author

Randolph Silliman Bourne was a progressive writer and "leftist intellectual", and a graduate of Columbia University. Bourne is best known for his essays, especially his unfinished work "The State," discovered after his death.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Randolp...

Reviews

[منوچهر محور]

افاضات کوبنده و جالبی دارد:

جنگ سلامت دولت است
War is the health of the State.

جنگ را می‌توان ورزش طبقات مرفه دانست
... war can be called almost an upper-class sport.

جنگ رابطه معمول بین دولت‌هاست
... the normal relations of States is war.

و البته بین دولت و حکومت و ملت فرق قائل است. به نظرش گروهی از افراد جامعه به افراط وطن‌پرست هستند و جنگ به دلیل قدرت اینها در دولت شکل می‌گیرد. (البته من فکر می‌کنم دلیل شروع جنگها این است که برای یک عده نفع اقتصادی دارند؛ اگر نه آشکار و مستقیم، حداقل به صورت منافعی که از تبعات آن به طبقه حاکم می‌رسد.) سرانجام بحث جالبی درباره شکل‌گیری حکومت جمهوری در امریکا دارد.
خیلی خوشم آمد!۰

[Daniel R · Rating 5 out of 5]

به شکل خیلی ترسناکی حرف های بورن توصیف کننده همین روز ها است. در پیشگفتار کتاب که دهه ۹۰ میلادی نوشته شده هم به این نکته اشاره کرده و گفته کاش تا صد سال آینده شبیه چیز های پیشاتمدنی باشه. غریب این که هنوز اینطوریه. توی جنگ ۱۲ روزه دقیق می‌شد حرف های بورن رو پیدا کرد.

[Benjamin Uke · Rating 4 out of 5]

A more modern look at the benefits of democracy than I'm used to. Very radical, but inspiring.

[Manuel Martínez · Rating 5 out of 5]

Lo que vió Bourne a principios del siglo XX es de especial actualidad, totalmente inspirador