Authority

A master of the interplay between politics and psychology Richard Sennett here analyzes the nature the role and the faces of authority--authority in personal life in the public realm authority as an idea. Why have we become so afraid of authority? What real needs for authority do we have--for guidance stability images of strength? What happens when our fear of and our need for authority come into conflict? In exploring these questions Sennett examines traditional forms of authority (The father''s in the family the lord''s in society) and the dominant contemporary styles of authority and he shows how our needs for no less than our resistance to authority have been shaped by history and culture as well as by psychological disposition.