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Revolution and Witchcraft

The Code of Ideology in Unsettled Times

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  • Open Access
  • © 2023

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Overview

Authors:
  1. Gordon C. Chang

    1. Department of Sociology and Anthropology, Western Illinois University, Macomb, USA

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  • Introduces the concept of idea systems to describe how ideas can codify social groups
  • Analyzes the discursive strategies through which these idea systems are maintained and made impervious to criticism
  • Uses diverse case studies: Europe’s witch hunts, the Mao Zedong-era “revolutions,” and the U.S. War on Terror
  • This book is open access, which means that you have free and unlimited access

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Table of contents (19 chapters)

  1. Front Matter

    Pages i-xxv
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  2. Introduction

    • Gordon C. Chang
    Pages 1-26Open Access
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  3. The European Witch Hunts

    1. Front Matter

      Pages 27-27
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    2. Making Compact Symbolic Structures

      • Gordon C. Chang
      Pages 29-63Open Access
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    3. Building Internal Coherence

      • Gordon C. Chang
      Pages 65-92Open Access
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    4. Building External Coherence

      • Gordon C. Chang
      Pages 93-107Open Access
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    5. Stepwise Inferences and Chain-Complexes of Ideas

      • Gordon C. Chang
      Pages 109-126Open Access
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    6. Ideas as Chemical and Biochemical Reactions

      • Gordon C. Chang
      Pages 127-142Open Access
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    7. A Five-Tier Model of Idea System and Ideological Creativity

      • Gordon C. Chang
      Pages 143-150Open Access
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  5. The War on Terror

    1. Front Matter

      Pages 295-295
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    2. Encoding the War on Terrorism

      • Gordon C. Chang
      Pages 297-310Open Access
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    3. Extending the Idea System to the War on Iraq

      • Gordon C. Chang
      Pages 311-332Open Access
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    4. Encoding the Prisoner’s Abuse Scandal

      • Gordon C. Chang
      Pages 333-354Open Access
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Keywords

About this book

Ideas influence people.  In particular, extremely well-developed sets of ideas shape individuals, groups, and societies in far-reaching ways.  This book establishes these “idea systems” as an academic concept.  Through three intense episodes of manipulation and mayhem connected to idea systems—Europe’s witch hunts, the Mao Zedong-era “revolutions,” and the early campaign of the U.S. War on Terror—this book charts the cognitive and informational matrices that seize control of people’s mentalities and behaviors across societies.  Through these, the author reaches two conclusions.  The first, that we are all vulnerable to the dominating influence of our own matrices of ideas and to those woven by others in the social system.  The second, that even the most masterful manipulators of idea programs may lose control of the outcomes of programmatic manipulation.  Amongst this analysis, sixty-plus central conceptual terminologies are provided for readers to analyze multiform idea systems that exist across space, time, and cultural contexts.

This is an open access book.

Reviews

“Revolution and Witchcraft is a timely, ambitious, and laudable book. Gordon Chang warrants praise for the thoughtful and rigorous work he did in crafting it. Revolution and Witchcraft offers social scientists dozens of useful concepts, strategies, and analyses to enhance their investigations of ideology. It also demonstrates how we can apply these conceptual tools … to comprehend the troubling ideological dynamics currently emerging in the United States and across the globe.” (Kent Sandstrom, Social Forces, August 11, 2023) "​Dr Chang expands the utility of micro-level discourse analysis techniques in his investigation of three macro-level idea systems: witch hunt social movements, Mao-era revolutionary campaigns, and the US War on Terror. The result is a fresh understanding of each system, original insight into their historical similarities, and an intriguing display of the strategies that systems leaders deploy to retain power." (Hugh B. Mehan, Professor Emeritus of Sociology, University of California, San Diego)

"Gordon Chang’s bold and stunning book excavates the ideological codes that sustain social and political movements across time, space, and cultures. Ranging from early modern European witchcraft to the Chinese cultural revolution and the US war on terrorism, this comparative study provides illuminating insights and reflections on how new ideas morph into social movements with rare and extreme political consequences. The book provides an essential roadmap for exploring the symbolic links of ideas to the institutional frameworks that perpetuate them. It is a stimulating and informative 'must read' for scholars of social and political philosophy and students of the sociology of knowledge." (Bennetta Jules-Rosette, Distinguished Professor of Sociology and Director of African and African-American Studies Research Center, University of California, San Diego)

Authors and Affiliations

  • Department of Sociology and Anthropology, Western Illinois University, Macomb, USA

    Gordon C. Chang

About the author

Gordon C. Chang is Associate Professor at the Department of Sociology and Anthropology at Western Illinois University, USA. He has taught political and cultural sociology classes at both Western Illinois University and University of California, Davis. His works in discourse analysis have appeared in Pragmatics, Discourse and Society, and the Journal of Language and Politics.

Bibliographic Information

  • Book Title: Revolution and Witchcraft

  • Book Subtitle: The Code of Ideology in Unsettled Times

  • Authors: Gordon C. Chang

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-17682-1

  • Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan Cham

  • eBook Packages: Social Sciences, Social Sciences (R0)

  • Copyright Information: The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s) 2023

  • Hardcover ISBN: 978-3-031-17681-4Published: 21 January 2023

  • Softcover ISBN: 978-3-031-17684-5Published: 24 December 2023

  • eBook ISBN: 978-3-031-17682-1Published: 20 January 2023

  • Edition Number: 1

  • Number of Pages: XXV, 415

  • Number of Illustrations: 11 b/w illustrations, 6 illustrations in colour

  • Topics: Social Sciences, general, Political Sociology, Sociology of Culture, Sociological Theory

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