The Condition Of Postmodernity – An Enquiry Into The Origins Of Cultural Change(ISBN=)

　　The Condition of Postmodernity is David Harvey’s seminal
history of our most equivocal of eras. What does postmodernism
mean? Where did it come from? Harvey, a professor of geography and
a key mover behind extending the scope and influence of the
discipline of geography itself, does a thorough job here
delineating the passage through to postmodernity and the economic,
social, and political changes that underscored and accompanied it.
As he clearly states, the rise in postmodernist cultural forms is
related to a new intensity in what Harvey terms “time-space
compression,” but this new intensity is a qualitative rather than
quantitative change in social organization, and it does not point
to an era beyond capitalism as “the basic rules of capitalistic
accumulation” remain unchanged. Unlike Fredric Jameson (whose
equally rewarding Postmodernism stands as the twin pillar to
Harvey’s critique), who explicitly relies on Ernest Mandel’s
periodization of late capitalism, Harvey eschews a narrowly
economic focus, the limits and contradictions of production that
have led to the rise in the service sector, and takes a more
multidisciplinary approach to his history. As comfortable
discussing Manet as he is labor markets, Harvey is an excellent
writer, and The Condition of Postmodernity is an exceptionally
informative and enjoyable read. –Mark Thwaite, Amazon.co.uk

　　David Harvey is Professor of Geography at the Johns Hopkins
University. From 1987 to 1993 he held the Halford Mackinder Chair
of Geography at Oxford University. His previous books include
Social Justice and the City, The Limits to Capital (available in
the USA from the University of Chicago Press, and elsewhere from
Blackwell Publishers, UK) and The Urban Experience (available in
the USA from the Johns University Press, and elsewhere from
Blackwell Publishers, UK).

The argument.
Preface.
Acknowledgements.
Part I: The Passage from Modernity to Postmodernity in Contemporary
Culture: .
1. Introduction.
2. Modernity and Modernism.
3. Postmodernism.
4. Postmodernism in the City: Architecture and Urban Design.
5. Modernization.
6. POSTmodernISM or postMODERNism?.
Part II: The Political-Economic Transformation of late
Twentieth-Century Capitalism: .
7. Introduction.
8. Fordism.
9. From Fordism to Flexible Accumulation.
10. Theorizing the Transition.
11. Flexible Accumulation – Solid Transformation or Temporary
Fix?.
Part III: The Experience of Space and Time: .
12. Introduction.
13. Individual Spaces and Times in Social Life.
14. Time and Space as Sources of Social Power.
15. The Time and Space of the Enlightenment Project.
16. Time-space Compression and the Rise of Modernism as a Cultural
Force.
17. Time-Space Compression and the Postmodern Condition.
18. Time and Space in the Postmodern Cinema.
Part IV: The Condition of Postmodernity:.
19. Postmodernity as a Historical Condition.
20. Economics with Mirrors.
21. Postmodernism as the Mirror of Mirrors.
22. Fordist Modernism versus Flexible Postmodernism, or the
Interpenetration of Opposed Tendencies in Capitalism as a
Whole.
23. The Transformative and Speculative Logic of Capital.
24. The Work of Art in an Age of Electronic Reproduction and Image
Banks.
25. Responses to Time-Space Compression.
26. The Crisis of Historical Materialism.
27. Cracks in the Mirrors, Fusions at the Edges.
References.
Index.